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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, July 14, 2005 our schools | Island School

Kaua'i private school has come a long way

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

Teachers at Island School strive to make learning something that "kids really deep down ... enjoy."

Jan TenBrugGencate | The Honolulu Advertiser

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AT A GLANCE

Where: Puhi, Kaua'i, adjacent to Kaua'i Community College Address: 3-1875 Kaumuali'i Highway, Lihu'e, HI 96766 Phone: (808) 246-0233; (808) 245-6053 (fax) Head of school: Robert Springer School nickname: Voyagers School colors: Blue and gold Web address: www.ischool.org/ Enrollment: 300 Computers: Roughly 100. A 26-unit computer lab, plus computers in every classroom.
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AT A GLANCE

Where: Puhi, Kaua'i, adjacent to Kaua'i Community College Address: 3-1875 Kaumuali'i Highway, Lihu'e, HI 96766 Phone: (808) 246-0233; (808) 245-6053 (fax) Head of school: Robert Springer School nickname: Voyagers School colors: Blue and gold Web address: www.ischool.org/ Enrollment: 300 Computers: Roughly 100. A 26-unit computer lab, plus computers in every classroom.
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PUHI, Kaua'i — Island School started in 1977 in ramshackle, termite-eaten plantation buildings in Ke'alia, but 28 years later, it finds itself on a sprawling 38-acre campus with aggressive expansion plans.

The private, independent school prides itself on the individual attention given its 300 students from pre-kindergarten though high school. It has a student-teacher ratio of roughly 10 to 1. Administrators also are part-time teachers.

"There's some real value in being in the classroom," said head of school Robert Springer, who came to Island School in 1997 after more than two decades at Kamehameha Schools. "You get to feel the same pressures teachers feel, and you get to know the students better."

Springer said the school has an informal, low-rise, easy feel about it. There are hanging-out areas and outdoor reading spaces for students. All the trees and shrubs on campus are native plants or Polynesian introductions. Kids get off campus to do community service projects as well as their school work. And the school has a specific goal of keeping education relevant and interesting.

"School should be something kids really deep down genuinely enjoy," Springer said.

He said teachers meet weekly to discuss individual students, problems they may be having, and possible solutions.

"We work on a productivity model. In a given period of time, we want to know how much students learn, how fast they learn, how much they retain and how they value what they've learned," Springer said.

Island School's sporting success mainly has been in events that don't require much infrastructure — like soccer and cross country — because the school lacks facilities. But a major capital campaign seeks to raise $6 million for lockers and a full-size gym, as well as a Hawaiian cultural pavilion.

"The importance of physical activity and competitive sports to students hardly can be overstated," says the school's fundraising brochure.

  • What are you most proud of? "A very high percentage of our students go on and succeed in college. All of our seniors this year were admitted to four-year colleges across the country, with one in England," Springer said.

  • Best-kept secret: Every middle and high school classroom has a computer projector, which allows teachers to display on a screen information linked from the Web.

  • Everybody at our school knows: Assistant head of school Joan Shaw and dean of students Adie Siebring, "but everybody knows everybody at this school."

  • Our biggest challenge: Raising money for the $6 million capital campaign for the construction of the school's first full-size gymnasium and a Hawaiian cultural center.

  • What we need: The school's enrollment is limited to 300 by its access from a congested intersection through the grounds of Kaua'i Community College. It is working with the college and landowners for a separate access road that meets Kaumuali'i Highway across from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. That will allow expansion over time to a goal of 500 students.

  • Projects: The entire middle school science curriculum has been changed, and Island School has adopted the University of Hawai'i's Foundational Approaches to Science Teaching curriculum. The grades 6 to 12 English program also has been revamped.

  • Special events: An Art Day during the first trimester, a public-service-oriented school birthday during the second trimester and a special May Day program during the third. The most recent May Day program celebrated the Islands' ethnic diversity, and each class presented a musical program representing one of the state's ethnic groups. Every child participates.