OUR SCHOOLS • KAPOLEI MIDDLE SCHOOL
The 96707 campus is proving to be too popular

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer

KAPOLEI — Kapolei Middle School has the sort of problem other schools might dream about:

Kapolei Middle School seventh-grader Sean Murphy concentrates on his computer research. The fast-growing school in O'ahu's "second city" has about 550 computers on the campus. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We service the families who live in the 96707 zip code, although many from other areas submit geographic exception requests," principal Annette Nishikawa said. "I simply cannot take everyone who wants to be here."

Karen Ueyama, one of the school's three vice principals, said, "We're a brand-new school, and already we're bringing in portable classrooms. We didn't anticipate the numbers increasing so quickly."

Kapolei Middle School started four years ago for up to 1,200 students in grades six, seven and eight. But with enrollment expected to top 1,600 by next year, the school has switched to a year-round, multitrack calendar that makes fuller use of school facilities.

"This is the first school year we've done this," Ueyama said. "We have four tracks: Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. At any one time there are about 400 kids who are not in school. So, for example, right now our Yellow Track kids went out, and our Blue Track kids came back."

Much of the enrollment increase is because Kapolei — O'ahu's "second city" — is having a population growth spurt.

Another drawing card is principal Nishikawa, who has been at the school since the starting bell rang July 30, 1999.

With more than three decades of experience in the state education system, Nishikawa, who started as a teacher, was named in 2002 as the state's Middle School Principal of the Year.

While her school is practically too young to have a history, Nishikawa believes Kapolei Middle School is long on expectations.

"The school was built to focus on science and technology balanced with the cultural studies," she said. "Character development is infused into the curriculum in all subject areas, and specifically taught in our advisory classes."

• What are you the most proud of? How the whole Kapolei Middle School staff collaborates to make things work efficiently. "Whether a happy event such as the Principal's List Celebration for students with grade-point averages of 3.6 and higher, or must-do events, such as shelter-in-place, fire drill or evacuation practice," Nishikawa said, "the entire staff pitches in."

• Best-kept secret: The number of events held every year involving the community. They include the Fall Fest mini-carnival for students and family, Ohana Nights picnic dinner and student entertainment programs, Movie on the Mound, free outdoor community film extravaganzas and the Kahiko Festival, hosted by the school for all secondary schools in the state.

• Everybody at our school knows: Food services manager Curtis Haida, head custodian Guy Figueroa and safety manager Louis Marrero. Nishikawa calls them "the unsung heroes of our school. ... We would not be as successful without them."

• Our biggest challenge: The size of the school. "We were overcrowded in our second year of operation and had to take a year to study, plan and implement multi-track this year," Nishikawa said.

Three new portable classrooms will ease the crowding, although she said, "this will still leave us using a few spaces that were not designed to be classrooms."

• Projects and special events: The school has intra- and interschool athletic activities, hosts the Kapolei Complex Drama Club and the Leeward District Spelling Bee and participates in the Leeward District Parade of Intermediate/Middle School Bands and the annual Kapolei Complex Craft Fair.