OUR SCHOOLS • OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
Church 'ohana keeps kids up to speed

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

PEARL CITY — The challenge went out in November to the students at Our Lady of Good Counsel School: Read 5,000 books by Christmas, and the principal will face the dunk tank on Spirit Day.

Preschool students smile for the camera at Our Lady of Good Counsel School, which operates a phonics-based curriculum that builds through eighth grade. Most of the students attend the nearby church. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The small Catholic school — painted electric-blue and white — sits to the back of Our Lady of Good Counsel church off Waimano Home Road. More than three-quarters of the students attend the church, so with its veteran staff, the school has the feel of an extended family.

Our Lady offers preschool through eighth grades. It has a phonics-based curriculum aligned to both Catholic school and national standards that builds from grade to grade for continuity.

Students attend Mass together on Tuesdays. "We focus on the whole child — the physical, the emotion and the spiritual," Olaso said. "Continuity is also big here. I think routine is important to children.

"We have outcomes that students have to meet every quarter."

Olaso described the school as academically challenging, and new students have to demonstrate they can work at least to grade level. The school has a waiting list for spots in kindergarten through third grade.

• What are you most proud of? "The relationship between my students' families and our faculty," Olaso said. "One of our eighth-graders said today, 'It's like an extended family.' "

• Best-kept secret: "That we're here," the principal said. "Nobody can see us from Waimano Home Road."

• Everybody at our school knows: Tony Tagle and Teddy Amano — Mr. Tony and Mr. Ted — who handle maintenance, security and a bit of everything else on campus.

• Our biggest challenge: Keeping tuition costs down. Olaso said her teachers are frugal and creative. Class sizes are about 30 students, with a teacher's aide in the lower grades.

A smaller ratio would mean tuition might have to increase, Olaso said. "We do keep it affordable for private education."

• What we need: The school has computers in the classroom and in a computer lab, but Olaso wants to connect them on the same network, and is looking for parents to help find sources of expertise or donation.

Parents — and one parishioner in particular — helped raise about $45,000 for new playground equipment a few years back.

• Special events: Spirit Day, during Catholic Schools Week in January.

Reach Derrick DePledge at depledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.