Military teaming up with DOE to put schools in order

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

It all started with a Radford High School bathroom brouhaha in 1999.

Teacher Ron Snow looks over the shoulder of Tiana Nanuma at Aliamanu Middle School in a new computer laboratory. Money for the $450,000 lab came from the Joint Venture Education Forum, a partnership between the U.S. Pacific Command and the state Department of Education. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

They decided to get additional federal money, get some problems taken care of and get organized.

The result: $15 million in federal grants over three years to address a range of needs in dozens of Hawai'i's schools, from the bathrooms to computer labs and playground equipment.

The Joint Venture Education Forum, a partnership between U.S. Pacific Command and the Department of Education, plans to release $5 million more this year to help Hawai'i public schools. To stretch the money, the forum will corral volunteers from military groups who can offer "sweat equity" in the form of painting and other labor.

"It's a public service and that's who we are," said Col. Thomas Gibbons, director of manpower, personnel and administration at Pacific Command. "You wouldn't believe how many people want to be involved in the schools."

As much as $900,000 will go to help with school repair and maintenance, $1 million will go to technology and $1 million will go to buy textbooks. The Hawai'i 3Rs program, an effort by U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye to use community volunteers and donations to help improve Hawai'i's school facilities, will receive $1 million.

A total of $500,000 in playground money will go to Hickam, Hale Kula, Mokulele, Nimitz, Pearl Harbor Kai, Solomon, Wheeler, Mokapu and Kekaha elementary schools.

Such money provides flexibility and ready cash rarely available through the state education budget.

Aliamanu Middle School has new computer labs thanks to one of the forum's 2002 projects. Principal Pat Park said the school could not have afforded the $450,000 project on its own.

Previously, the school had one computer lab that students could use only at recess or after school. Now, they've got two new computer labs — one with PCs and one with Macs — 10 computers in the library and roving carts of wireless laptops that can roll into different classrooms when needed.

"We never, never, never could have afforded this," Park said. "It's wonderful."

Ken Lake, president of the school's Parent Teacher Student Organization, said the computers help give the students the greatest advantages for success. "It's a long time coming," Lake said. "If you had seen what we had before ... "

Aliamanu Middle is 75 percent military, but the program has given money to projects at schools across the state. Twenty-seven schools in Hawai'i have military student populations of 77 percent or higher.

In its first four years, the forum has helped dozens of schools through repair and maintenance projects on 27 campuses, textbook purchases at 94 schools and playgrounds at seven schools. It has also placed a military liaison on the state Board of Education and worked with the University of Hawai'i to develop a military culture course that is offered to teachers in military-heavy schools as part of professional development and relicensing.

The forum also is trying to address the problem of military families turning down assignments in Hawai'i to keep their children in Mainland schools.

Later this spring, the forum will update its military satisfaction survey that gauges what military families think of the Hawai'i school system. The first survey, done last year, was unscientific. But it got thousands of responses, so officials see it as a good snapshot of military family opinion. Forum officials would like their next survey to be more scientific to see if the results are the same.

The survey indicated that military families saw strengths in Hawai'i schools, including caring and well-trained teachers, an environment where their students were learning and receiving help, reasonable homework assignments and an emphasis on problem-solving skills.

But the study also indicated military families had five main areas of concern: textbook quality and quantity, access to technology, facility maintenance, mutual respect among students and challenging curriculum.

"It's a big quality-of-life concern," Gibbons said. "The first thing people ask is, 'What are the schools like?' "

The forum hopes the survey and work in the schools will eliminate the question of whether military officials might open Department of Defense schools similar to those on military bases in other countries.

"I don't think we'll do that," Gibbons said.

Most such schools in the United States are in the South and were opened to make sure military families could attend desegregated schools. Gibbons said defense officials are looking at whether to turn those schools back over to local governments. Gibbons also noted that not all military students would be able to attend the Defense Department's schools.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8084.