OUR SCHOOLS • QUEEN KA'AHUMANU ELEMENTARY
Campus sits apart from surrounding traffic

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

To make sure she can be heard over the traffic noise that envelopes Queen Ka'ahumanu Elementary School, principal Amy Kwock carries a bullhorn under her arm as she walks the campus.

Ka'ahumanu Elementary School fourth-grader Douglas Hwang sweeps and fifth-grader Bobby Kim follows up with a dustpan during the lunch period in the cafeteria. Specialties of the house are Hawaiian food for May Day and green eggs and ham for Dr. Seuss' birthday. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I like the way you line up with your hands behind your backs," Kwock tells a group of kindergartners from across the small playground. Seeing a boy running along the side of the library, she belts out "Walk!" and stops the youngster in his tracks.

Surrounded by four of the busiest streets in urban Honolulu — Kina'u, South Beretania, Pensacola and Pi'ikoi — Ka'ahumanu is an island of education in a sea of charging steel. The 4-acre campus takes up an entire city block.

Ka'ahumanu is a rarity — an older school but fully air-conditioned. That allows windows and doors to be closed, shutting out the urban sounds.

Kwock is constantly concerned with student safety, and she tightly regulates everything from student drop-offs and pickups to campus security.

"New students say they don't like the school because we have a lot of rules," Kwock said. "The rules are there to manage so many kids in such a tight space.

"Safety is an issue here because we can't lock up our school. Every day, people cut through the campus."

Used syringes are often found on campus from illegal activities at night, and a few homeless people sleep under the portable buildings and are moved out by staff every morning.

With such urban problems pressing in on every side, all students wear identification cards and travel on campus in pairs. They are told to stay away from the chain-link fence that surrounds the campus and not talk to strangers walking by.

The school started a limited Junior Police Officer program this year to help students in and out of cars quickly rather than providing the usual help for students crossing streets. "Some neighbors who used to complain about traffic now tell us the JPOs have made a tremendous difference," she said.

Thanks to the Hawai'i 3R's program, which brings outside financial and human resources together to repair and maintain public schools, all of the classrooms in Building G were recarpeted this summer. The state estimated the project's cost at $84,000, but through the use of parents and community volunteers for work not done by professional carpet layers, the price tag was reduced to $41,500.

• What are you most proud of? How giving the faculty and students are, principal Kwock said.

• Best-kept secret: That so many students attend school every day in such a busy location.

• Everybody at our school knows: Shawn Fonseca, the cafeteria manager, who makes special meals for the students, including Hawaiian food for the May Day celebrations and green eggs and ham for Dr. Seuss' birthday. "He makes it fun," said Kwock.

• Our biggest challenge: The influx of students from Micronesia and the Pacific Islands. "They are very family-oriented but go into culture shock when they move here," Kwock said. "Back home they know there are family to help take care of them. It's different here. We have to bring them up to speed."

• What we need: Playground equipment. "The old equipment was made by parents years ago, but didn't meet safety standards and had to be removed."

• Projects: The positive dollar behavior program. Play dollars are awarded to students for doing things such as picking up rubbish or cleaning spills. The class that has the most positive dollars at the end of the year gets a certificate and Popsicles. All students with dollars are entered into a lucky drawing for prizes. "It reinforces class and individual positive behavior," said Kwock.

• Special events: Reading Is for Life. On one day in spring, the entire school reads for an hour.