WAIMEA, Hawai'i — Pat Rice, chief education and executive officer for Waimea Middle Public Conversion Charter School, sent off a team of middle school girls to a Kaua'i basketball tournament last week with hugs and a reminder.

"You guys be good, be good, be good," she told the grinning girls, one after another, as they prepared to board the bus. "You have to be good and represent us well."

It was the first time Waimea Middle had sent a team to the Kaua'i Youth Basketball Association Girls Invitational, but Waimea Middle always seems to be doing something new or trying a new approach.

In addition to Waimea Middle's regular funding as a charter school and special grants, the school has a partnership with Kamehameha Schools, which contributes $1 for every $4 provided by the state.

This year, the Kamehameha money amounted to about $790,000 — money that Waimea Middle uses to reduce class sizes, boost teacher training and to finance the Bridges Learning Lab, the first program of its kind in Hawai'i.

Bridges uses game-like exercises to strengthen memory and hand-eye coordination to nurture brain development, improve school performance and reduce discipline problems.

Through Waimea Middle's 'Ike Hawai'i program, the school offers professional development to teachers and community members with "cultural learning days" on Saturdays and in the summer. The program has provided instruction and demonstrations in Hawaiian medicine, crafts such as feather lei making and traditional storytelling.

"The intent is to become joined, connected, to become one as much as we can, and to celebrate our culture and to practice our culture," Rice said.

There is more. For example, all Waimea Middle students have access to free tutoring, and also to after-school busing to help them take advantage of the extra help.

Waimea Middle was also the first NASA Explorer School in the state, which gave students new opportunities for science education that included a downlink with the International Space Station so the students could question the orbiting astronauts about scientific concepts.

Next year, a new program financed with a grant through Waimea's Kahilu Theatre will offer up to 90 students a special program in drama and performing arts.

Rice said she is not satisfied with her students' scores on the Hawai'i State Assessment test. She suspects her students are stumbling under the pressure on test day, and said in-school evaluations of her students suggest they should be doing considerably better.

Her strategy for improvement: Switch to a new assessment test that can be used to test students four times a year to track their progress. The new test more closely resembles the state assessment test, so students will have a better idea of what to expect on test day.

"This really allows us to target kids that need help," she said.

What we're most proud of: In 2003, members of the Waimea Middle School community voted to become Hawai'i's first Public Conversion Charter School under a new law passed by the 2002 State Legislature. The dedicated faculty and staff as well as our committed parents and community members have played an integral role in the school change process, first by voting to convert to charter status, and then by continuing to work together to help WMS emerge as a stellar model for middle school education.

Best-kept secret: How we collaborate to ensure that all decisions are made with a focus on student achievement. All "stakeholders" in the school — teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, students, and community members — are involved in planning and implementing school improvement efforts through our Leadership Team, our Management Team, and our Local Advisory Panel.

Everybody at our school knows: Pua Case, our 'Ike Hawai'i Resource Teacher. She was born in Waimea and her relationship with the school began as a kindergartener here. She guides a wide array of programs and supports, including extensive professional development and learning opportunities for teachers, staff, students, families and community.

Our biggest challenge: To diagnose individual student needs, and then design a personalized program for each child. With our additional resources, we have been able to provide a wide array of student supports — free before-and-after school tutoring with busing and healthy snacks, free at-home online tutoring, the Bridges Learning Lab, remedial reading classes, our Mala'ai Garden, athletics, individual and family learning plans, visual and performing arts, both during and after school, to name a few.

What we need: While we have dramatically improved our family and community engagement, we know there are some families who are not yet fully engaged in the school.

Special events: Because we believe that our staff, our students and their families and the wider community will benefit from place-based cultural learning experiences, our 'Ike Hawai'i Work Group, under the guidance of our 'Ike Hawai'i Resource Teacher, provides many learning opportunities throughout the year.

These include weekend cultural learning sessions where instructors share their knowledge and expertise, Hawaiian language classes, professional development for teachers and staff, and place-based and project-based learning opportunities for our students.

It is our belief that incorporating cultural traditions, language, history and values nurtures the emotional, physical, intellectual, social and spiritual well-being of our students, families and community.

We encourage each family to perpetuate their own cultural traditions so that these traditions will be here for the next generations to experience.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.