OUR SCHOOLS | LANIKAI ELEMENTARY
Quality education puts campus in high demand

By Loren Moreno
Advertiser Staff Writer

Five years after becoming a charter school, Lanikai Elementary could be on the verge of change again. Principal Fred Birkett said the school is considering expanding to include preschool and middle school.

Principal Fred Birkett says the school's wait list is growing. Photos By Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The school has been so successful at providing quality education that there are 60 students on its waiting list, Birkett said. "They're busting down the doors to get in here," said Birkett, who has been at Lanikai for a year.

"People judge schools based on test results," he said, adding that the school's achievement in this area has more than helped put it in demand. "We're the little school that could."

Lanikai lacks the facilities to accommodate three new grade levels. One large academic building and a number of portables make up the bulk of Lanikai's classroom space.

Birkett said that adding new facilities is the only obstacle to expanding Lanikai's academic reach, but he is optimistic it will all come together in time.

It is tradition for Lanikai's graduating sixth-grade class to leave an artistic memento in the school's Randy Erskine Courtyard. The class of 2004 contributed this project.

What are you most proud of? "I am most proud of the participation of parents and the support I receive from faculty and staff. We have parents who come here and paint, they mow the lawn, they'll even go and be substitute teachers in the classrooms," Birkett said. "We also have really good, really well-qualified teachers here who want to make a difference."

Best-kept secret: "Again, I would say the parent support. How hard the parents work makes the school work," Birkett said.

Everybody at our school knows: Tonya Taylor, PTA president until her term ended recently. "Up until just last week she was the PTA president for the past couple years here. She's the mover and shaker. She's the thread that runs through this place and she's an alum of the school. She galvanizes the parents to get involved," Birkett said.

Our biggest challenge: "The biggest challenge is to bring all the different groups together that make this school work and come under my style of leadership," Birkett said. "I'm very collaborative and I'm very leadership-oriented. The challenge has been to balance the authoritarian and to still be collaborative."

What we need: "We need an auditorium. Whenever we have assemblies we go back here and gather around the banyan tree. But the problem is with the elements — if it rains, it kills us."

Projects: "We've been having conversations about starting a preschool and middle school here," Birkett said. "We want to help parents save that money. We give them two more extra years of school here and all parents have to worry about is sending them to high school. It's been put before the board and we're all for doing it by the 2006 to 2007 school year."

Special events: "We have a parent who does drama classes here and she's putting together an anti-bullying skit for the beginning of next year. Bullying has a big mental effect on kids and we want them to understand and talk about the issue in their classes."

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2455.