UH regents to review ties with Lab School

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

University of Hawai'i-Manoa chancellor Peter Englert is expected to ask the Board of Regents today to continue the research agreement with the Education Laboratory (Lab School) for only one more year and then separate it from UH management.

In a memo dated April 28, but only received yesterday by Lab School personnel, according to Jim Shon, a Lab School parent, Englert is asking the board to sever the university's connection with the Lab School, which has grades K-12, by the close of the 2003-2004 academic year.

"The first time that anybody saw the actual memo was yesterday, after repeated requests to receive a written communication," said Shon, a former state legislator who was speaking as a parent of a child at the school.

Englert's memo also suggests that the Lab School "must either find a new location" or negotiate a separate agreement with the university if it wishes to maintain its current location on university property.

Englert's memo said the university can no longer continue subsidizing the Lab School.

The Lab School's future has been precarious for a number of years, with the university seeking to move it off UH property, which is at a premium. But in 2001 it signed a charter school agreement with the state which opened it up for per-pupil state financing. Under its charter school status, the school has contracted with the UH College of Education for its management, Shon said.

There are about 360 students at the Lab School which has been a test site for new curriculum for the Department of Education.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.