But Hamamoto persisted. She knew that one of the main themes of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004 was to transform her principals into the equivalent of chief executive officers, with greater authority over budgeting. Who better to guide her staff than a respected business leader who has experienced the school system from the inside?

Moore finally relented. He said he couldn't resist the call to duty or the challenge to reshape Hawai'i's education system.

"I miss my students," said Moore, 65, who was teaching math at Central Middle School in Honolulu. "But I'm also excited about this vision and this opportunity. I believe in it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

Moore, on the job for less than two weeks, said the goal of the Reinventing Education Act for the Children of Hawai'i, or REACH, as the Department of Education calls it, is to improve student achievement. But to do that, he said, the department must first be turned upside-down to allow greater decision-making at the school level.

Not only will principals be given greater authority and flexibility over budgeting and operations, which, in theory, will allow better tailoring to the needs of students, but the way in which each school is financed will be changed — based on student needs, not just size of enrollment.

Also under the plan, the community will be given more input into the budgeting and academic planning process, and the school system will undergo streamlining to give educators more time to devote to student learning, Moore said.

Most of the new standards, formulas and operations required for the initiative are in the works and on target, he said, with a goal of full implementation in every public school by the 2006-07 school year. Twenty-two pilot schools are gearing up to start next year.

Moore, a Punahou graduate who also headed up Moloka'i Ranch and Oceanic Properties Inc. during his business career, said his job is to act as overall project manager, working with district superintendents, school principals and others to move the effort along on a day-to-day basis.

"I'll be the cheerleader, the encourager and, if necessary, the prodder to make sure all the moving parts are moving together to reach the desired result," he said.

Moore said the biggest obstacle is changing the culture of the DOE, a mammoth institution that has operated under a top-down system from the beginning. Principals, for example, have authority over only about 15 percent of their school budget. Under the new plan, they be in charge of 70 percent and also will be held accountable.

"They didn't sign up for that skill set," he said.

So they're going to have to be trained. A Hawai'i Principals Academy has been created to sharpen their skills in how to manage a budget, improve student achievement, work with school community councils, develop curriculum and establish private-sector partnerships.

Benchmarks will be used to review a principal's performance.

A working group within the DOE is designing performance-based contracts for principals that will include rewards, assistance and sanctions.

Another obstacle, Moore said, is that Gov. Linda Lingle has not released all the money the Legislature earmarked for the plan. The money includes $1.7 million to pay for a part-time parent facilitator at each school, $460,000 for a 12-month student activities coordinator in each high school, and $100,000 for programs that support parents in working with students who need additional help to succeed in school.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the $2 million held back for technological upgrades, said Rodney Moriyama, assistant superintendent of technology. Moriyama said the current DOE database system isn't capable of tracking the kind of student progress and other benchmarks the REACH program proposes.

The whole initiative could be handicapped if the computer upgrades aren't forthcoming and administrators aren't able to adequately monitor progress, Moriyama said.

"If you don't have the data, you can't make it happen," he said.

Lingle, who wants to create local school boards to oversee any changes in the education system, vetoed the reform bill. But lawmakers overrode the veto while calling it one of their top achievements for the year.

Lingle eventually released about $7 million for the plan, including $2.5 million to buy new math textbooks and supplies, and $2.14 million to hire 75 elementary school teachers to reduce class size in grades K-2.

The money being withheld is of "lower priority" and has "no direct relationship to education reform," the governor said.

Under REACH, the schools will transition from the current school community-based management councils to new, elected school community councils. The councils, required at every school, will comprise the principal, teachers, school staff, students, parents and community representatives.

Principals will draft a budget and curriculum, and the councils, without any veto power, will review the plans and offer suggestions before the plans are sent to complex-area superintendents for approval.

The state Board of Education also will be called on to hold yearly meetings within each community, and the DOE will post "user-friendly" report cards to grade each school and the department as a whole. The report card will show how money is being spent and how student performance measures up.

The reform act also directs systemwide streamlining to create greater efficiency. This includes transferring authority to the DOE over key functions now provided by other agencies, including construction, repair and maintenance, civil service recruitment, background checks, school health aides and control of federal money and grants.

An interagency working group, with representatives from the state departments of Accounting and General Services, Attorney General, Human Services, Health, and Budget and Finance, is meeting to talk through the issues.

It's important that the DOE have purview over these functions, said Moore, adding that "from the superintendent's point of view, 'If I'm responsible for learning, then I need the authority to fix the schools when they need to be fixed.' "

Streamlining, he said, also means establishing one school calendar for all schools. Only 107 out of 285 public schools are using a traditional school-year calendar. The other 178 schools operate using one of 13 different versions of a nontraditional schedule.

Robert Campbell, a REACH project manager, explained that it's difficult to roll out staff training when there are so many different schedules, and the multiple start and stop times make bus contracts expensive. A single schedule also will help families that have children at different schools with conflicting calendars, he said.

A committee is considering five different calendars — ranging from a traditional calendar with a nearly three-month summer break to a modified year-round schedule — and they will be sent out for ranking by school employees and parents in the coming weeks. The department is expected to make a recommendation to the Board of Education by Jan. 31.

On the new financing method, a Committee on Weights is meeting to figure out a new "fair and equitable" formula based on student needs. However, with the same amount of money being divided up in a different way, there could be "concern and anxiety" in the community, Campbell said. So the BOE will have until the end of 2005 to adopt a final funding formula.

A recommendation to the BOE and a report to the Legislature is expected by the end of November, he said.

Moore said REACH lays out an ambitious plan, and undoubtedly there will be challenges to overcome in the next two years.

"The end target is well-identified and understood," he said. "The road to get there is not clearly defined. That means I'll have to identify the roadblocks and detours and do some fine-tuning along the way."

It's not going to be easy, but Moore figures it can't be as difficult as his last assignment.

"Teaching is the hardest job I ever had. And nothing was in second place."