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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, February 13, 2003

OUR SHOOLS • NIU VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL
East Honolulu school gets new look, leadership

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

NIU VALLEY — Giant monkeypod trees shade the roomy campus tucked into the back of Niu Valley, a residential community sandwiched between 'Aina Haina and Hawai'i Kai.

Amy Kaawaloa teaches a social studies lesson to eighth-graders at Niu Valley Middle School. Home to only two grades, the campus has enough space to accommodate all classes. Remodeling this year opened up even more space and improved facilities.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The ageless trees stand in contrast to the change that has taken over the campus. From fresh paint inside and outside the 49-year-old school in a $1.5 million state spruce-up to the new principal who has been on the job just two weeks, Niu Valley Middle School is experiencing a changing of the guard.

"We can concentrate on curriculum and on being in the classroom," said principal Ann Paulino. "We don't have to spend the bulk of our time on discipline issues. By the end of the year, I hope to know all the students' names, not just those in leadership and those in trouble."

The school's previous principal, Eric Heu, retired Dec. 20 after 18 years at the school, where he began his teaching career in 1971. His legacy includes a strict dress code that now includes uniform shirts. The School Community Based Management team is deciding the final color and style and will phase in the shirts this month. Full use of the uniform shirts will begin next school year.

Paulino anticipates more new faces on campus in the next couple of years as teachers with long tenure retire.

Unlike many other campuses in the state, Niu Valley has more than enough room for classes and students. Core classes average 25 students, and elective courses such as art and music average about 30 students, Paulino said.

Remodeling has allowed space for individual counselors' offices, with a separate waiting room and special-education area. It also opened up new classrooms and improved the condition of the science labs. School staff was able to obtain grants to equip the physical education rooms with weights and Stairmasters that rival any health club. And the school has a music building where students can take band or orchestra.

"We're not your typical middle school, because we don't have sixth-graders here," Paulino said. "In the 1990s, parents objected to including sixth grade in the middle school, so we just have seventh and eighth grade."

What are you most proud of? "We have a community outside and inside the school that has high expectations," said Jean Hartmann, assistant principal. "There is a positive parental support here," Paulino said. "With that comes accountability. It's good. It's very honest."

Best-kept secret? "We have the best location," Paulino said. "We have a beautiful campus, plenty of space, but it's tucked away. And even though we lose a lot of students to the private schools, we do retain a lot of good students on this campus. We have as much to offer as a private school."

Everybody at our school knows: "Mrs. Hartmann. She is the go-to person. She knows about the facilities, who the teachers are and who the students are."

Our biggest challenge: Providing up-to-date technology for students in the practical arts programs and in the classrooms. "We need updated equipment so our students will learn a skill they can take to the real world."

What we need: "We need equipment that will still be useful five to 10 years from now," Paulino said. "The challenge is to teach kids the process of learning so they can adapt to the evolving technology."

• • •

At a glance

Ann Paulino
• Where: Niu Valley

• Phone: 377-2440

• Principal: Ann Paulino

• School nickname: Lancers

• School colors: Red and yellow

• Enrollment: 560 students

• History: The school was built in 1954 and designed to hold 1,000 students. At that time, portables crowded the 15-acre campus.

• Test scores: Here's how Niu Valley Middle students fared on the most recent standardized tests.

  • Stanford Achievement Test: Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average and above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Eighth-grade reading 92.2 percent; math 94.5 percent.
  • Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards tests: Listed is the combined percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards, and a comparison with the eighth-grade state average. Eighth-grade reading 68.6 percent; statewide average 41.8 percent; math 40.2 percent; statewide average 19.7 percent.

Computers: About 60 in two computer labs and one in each of the 38 classrooms.