OUR SCHOOLS • WAILUKU ELEMENTARY
Historic school faces explosive growth in its next century

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

WAILUKU, Maui — Wailuku Elementary School will hold a community celebration Saturday to honor its 100-year past, but the future is what Principal Bev Stanich has on her mind.

Head Start teacher Cheryl Hatch rehearses the "Chicken Dance" with preschoolers for tomorrow's annual May Day performance at Wailuku Elementary School. The school celebrates its centennial Saturday. Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser

The five-acre Wailuku Elementary campus is landlocked and has no room to expand or add buildings, and Stanich said the school is expected to exceed its capacity in 2006. Although the master-planned Kehalani community includes room for a new elementary school, allocation of design money is years away, she said.

The only solution to avert further crowding is redistricting, when the new Maui Lani Elementary School opens in Kahului in two or three years, Stanich said.

Other challenges the school faces include a diverse student body that draws from some of Maui's wealthiest neighborhoods and some of its poorest. The No Child Left Behind Act has put pressure on schools to devote more resources to boosting low achievers, creating a tough balancing act for educators, Stanich said.

"Although we have a large number of at-risk students, you want to find a balance and not just focus on these children's needs, but also provide for the gifted and talented," she said.

To even the scales a bit, the school has two teachers who provide academic enrichment to higher-achieving students, plus a part-time performing arts teacher.

With its long and storied history, Wailuku Elementary has close ties to the community and benefits from a strong parent organization. Stanich said the group sponsors parent workshops, family events and fund-raisers that have provided money for playground equipment, field trip subsidies and classroom supplies to offset what teachers spend from their own pockets.

"Ninety-five percent of the PTSA budget goes directly to the classroom," she said.

Anchoring the campus is a century-old stone building designed by noted Hawai'i architects Charles W. Dickey and Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb. The building, which houses the main office, library, health room and other offices, is listed on the state and national registers of historic places.

Wailuku Elementary's centennial celebration will begin with a parade at 9 a.m. Saturday, with food, entertainment, games and other festivities continuing until 3 p.m. Historical displays will be set up in the cafeteria and main office building, and there will be a presentation of the time capsule placed in the building at its dedication 100 years ago. Its contents include U.S. and Hawaiian stamps and coins, newspapers and other documents.

Distinguished Wailuku Elementary alumni to be honored include nationally recognized educators Herman Aizawa and Ralph Murakami, Maui real estate executive and arts supporter Masaru "Pundy" Yokouchi, sumo great Jesse "Takamiyama" Kuhaulua, and former judge and county supervisor Wendell Crockett.

T-shirts and souvenir books will be on sale.

• What are you most proud of? "Students, staff, parent and community involvement. Most notable this year, a legacy of excellence over the past 100 years as we celebrate the school's centennial," said principal Stanich.

• Best-kept secret: "The dungeon," a large storage area beneath the main building. "It was used as a communications center during World War II when the military took over the school, and there are still cryptic messages and notes written on the walls downstairs."

• Everybody at our school knows: Librarian Sue Nomura, who has been at the school for 15 years. Stanich credits her with "developing a love for reading through visits to the library, and expanding into the use of technology and the world of information."

• Our biggest challenge: Space, as enrollment continues to grow. "There's no additional room for new buildings, and housing developments in the community will challenge us to meet the needs of children as they join our school," Stanich said.

• Special events: Halloween pumpkin carving and Christmas craft nights for school families; school and community appearances by performing arts students; May Day, a year-end aloha assembly for fifth-graders and staff members who are leaving, followed by a Family Night/Graduation for fifth-graders on the last day of school.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.