By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

A year-and-a-half ago, award-winning longtime public-school teachers Victoria Newberry and Dara Lukonen left their jobs at the state Department of Education to start their own school. After a year of planning, classes began in July.

Aka'ula School in Kaunakakai, Moloka'i, is a different kind of private school.

Newberry and Lukonen, who were team-teachers at Kualapu'u Elementary, opened the one-room schoolhouse in an office space that used to house the Moloka'i Dispatch. There is no academic testing or interview required for admission. Students are enrolled on a first-come, first-served basis.

"They're so overlooked," Newberry says. "It's such an important developmental stage. It's critical to success."

There are 45 students, three full-time teachers and one part-time educational assistant. The teachers handle all administrative tasks at the school.

"I've never been kid-tired," Newberry says. "I've been tired in other ways."

The teachers have been working at half-pay for a year-and-a-half now.

"We knew any startup business would require a lot of sacrifice, and we were willing to do that," Newberry says.

The annual cost of educating a child at Aka'ula School is $7,000, but because the founders wanted to make the school affordable, each student's tuition is actually $1,000. Still, some families have trouble paying $100 a month.

"We have not sent anyone away because they haven't paid," Newberry says. "We just keep working with them to set up a payment plan."

Aka'ula's nine-member board of trustees has organized fund-raisers for the school, but they really outdid themselves on an event planned for this week.

On Thursday night, there is a sold-out dinner and auction at the Paddler's Inn in Kaunakakai. Items on the auction list include luxury stays in Italy, England, Australia and Fiji, and a seven-day cruise for two anywhere Norwegian Cruise Lines serves.

Other items up for sale include a spot on an escort boat during the 2005 Moloka'i Hoe, a truckload of horse manure and something called "stud service for a day."

"It's a man and his tractor," Newberry explains. "That's how he wanted it advertised. But his service is his tractor, not anything else."

Long-term plans are to establish a campus for Aka'ula. Perhaps in years to come, there may be a high-school program added.

But not yet.

"We want (to) do what we're doing first and make sure we're doing it well," Newberry says.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.