Charter schools provide example of local control
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
WAI'ANAE — Parents curious about what local control in education might look like should consider Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao on the Leeward Coast.
Every morning before class, students perform a Hawaiian chant that, symbolically, asks the teachers if they can come inside and learn. The students also recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing "Hawai'i Pono'i," but they love the chant, just like the 'ukulele classes and the Friday mornings spent on Hawaiian history, language and arts.
Nothing inside the storefront elementary school, in a shopping plaza across from the beach near Makaha, looks much like a public school. A surfboard with the school's name hangs over the entrance, the nice, floral carpet inside is from the Ihilani Resort and Spa, and much of the furniture and supplies are donations from Kamehameha Schools or from trips to Office Max.
Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao is a public school, though, one of 26 charter schools in Hawai'i created as alternatives to traditional public education. As the state struggles with whether to break up the state Department of Education into seven local school districts with elected boards and considers giving principals more power over finance and curriculum, the schools may show what can be done with local control.
Donna Estomago, the principal at Lanikai Elementary School and president of the Hawai'i Charter Schools Network, said charter schools can give teachers, parents and the community "true ownership" over education. "The great hope is that this can be put to size," she said of expanding the concept to more schools. "It personalizes the process. It's the difference between renting your house and owning it."
Charter schools are governed by local boards and exempt from most state regulations. The schools get less money per student than traditional schools, but principals have much more flexibility over spending and are free to craft a curriculum that best fits their students.
Academically, charter schools are not much different than other public schools and are expected to meet the same state performance standards. According to DOE data, 10 charter schools made adequate yearly progress last school year under the federal No Child Left Behind law, about the same rate as traditional schools. The law requires that all students be proficient in core subjects by 2014.
Concept praised
Nationally, the question of whether charter schools improve student performance is still in doubt, but many educators praise the schools for creativity and for offering choices for parents who either can't afford or are not interested in sending their children to private school.
A study last year paid for by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs found that Native Hawaiian students attending Hawaiian-themed charter schools did better on standardized tests than Hawaiians attending traditional schools, although there was still a substantial gap in test scores between Hawaiians and Asian and white students. About half of the state's charter schools have Hawaiian cultural themes.
"We really have to look at all models of education," said Alvin Parker, the principal at Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao. "It really is about taking different approaches. You can get really mired in doing things a certain way."
Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, Gov. Linda Lingle's advisory committee, has recommended that the state allow 25 new start-up charter schools and authorize any of the proposed seven school districts to award charters. The committee also wants charter schools to get the same amount of money per student as other schools, as well as some money for facility costs.
Support from Lingle
State law permits 22 more charter schools, but they must be converted from traditional schools, since the allocation for start-up schools has already been used.
Lingle is a strong advocate for charter schools, and charter school principals and board members served on the CARE committee, but some in the charter school community were disappointed that CARE did not seem very aggressive about touting the schools as models of reform.
"I said at one point, 'How are we going to get publicity unless Lingle starts speaking up?' " Estomago said.
Randy Roth, the governor's education adviser, said CARE's recommendations would move regular public schools in the direction of charter schools. "The level of parental involvement and support in the charter schools is dramatically higher than in the regular schools," he said. "From what I can tell, the level of teacher and staff morale is also much greater."
Friction between charter schools and the state Board of Education has escalated in recent months over the hiring of a charter school executive director, and the board has yet to approve the charter schools' preferred candidate for the job.
There has long been suspicion between charter schools and the DOE, with charter school advocates doubting the DOE's commitment and some at the DOE believing that the schools want both full support and total independence.
Many hope a new executive director will smooth relations by serving as the charter school voice with the DOE and the Legislature and a clearinghouse for financial and academic information about the schools, which is not always readily available from the DOE.
Carol Gabbard, a BOE member who is on the board's charter school committee, believes charter schools are good examples of reform. "They are actually paving the way for this new type of thinking," she said. "They're going through all the hard work."
Flexibility a plus
Charter school administrators enjoy telling stories of how they can bypass the state's often lengthy procurement process and simply go to the store and buy supplies or, as several have done, contract out for payroll instead of dealing with the bureaucracy of the state Department of Accounting and General Services.
Yet even the most optimistic reformers doubt that such flexibility could work at every school across the sprawling DOE, at least not anytime soon. Charter schools are typically much smaller than traditional schools, so they are more nimble to experiment without widespread implications, sort of like the difference between a corner boutique and Wal-Mart.
Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao, the charter school on the Leeward Coast, may also be a cautionary example of the pitfalls of local school boards.
Warring board members fighting over control of the school fired Parker in 2002 but, after a protracted battle that involved the BOE and the state, Parker was able to return to the school at the new storefront location this year.
Parker wants to one day move the school to a more conventional setting, but, for now, he is working with what he has available. Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao does have an advantage over other charter schools because its Hawaiian theme makes it eligible for money from Kamehameha Schools, which will provide an estimated $180,000 this year.
Parker, who attended Kamehameha, said he is eager to involve parents and the community in school decisions, which he often makes collaboratively with teachers. Just recently, he said, teachers persuaded him to spend $10,000 destined for new computers on much-needed reading materials instead.
"I built this school to remind me of Kamehameha," Parker said. "It's like a private public school. One of the things I stress to students is social behavior, along with academics, because they have asked to come to this school."
Eye on the target
Most of the school's 128 students are Hawaiian, and 87 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch, the state's measure for low-income students. Like at other public schools, Ka Waihona O Ka Na'auao is preoccupied with meeting annual performance guidelines under No Child Left Behind.
Realistically, Parker said, he doubts his students will make it this year, but he has his eye on the target.
"I expect them to do well," he said. "I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't dedicating much of my time to passing. It's important for the school's credibility and it's important for our parents.
"We want to be the only school on the Leeward Coast to pass it."
Reach Derrick DePledge at 525-8084 or ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.
