Solomon Elementary School, surrounded by the squared-away environment of Schofield Barracks, has made itself into an oasis where students can be themselves, play and learn.

There they can climb on a jungle gym and read fantasy stories to escape the hard realities of deployments and dangerous assignments.

Over the past three years the school has grown from more than 600 students to more than 800 and more students are anticipated next year. Ninety-nine percent have at least one member of their family in the military, said Linda Yoshikami, school principal.

Because of the multiple rounds of deployment since 2003, the school has increased its focus on the Solomon Wellness and Education Program, a partnership with Tripler Army Medical Center, Yoshikami said. This partnership has helped students and teachers deal with the strain of deployments by giving teachers new tools and the students a ready ear with counseling, she said.

"Every school faces some kind of challenge," Yoshikami said. "The deployments give us a unique set of challenges. My teachers take a lot and I give them a lot of credit for coming to school every day with a smile on their face."

In the future, Yoshikami hopes to extend the arrangement with Tripler to include basic medical services so parents can enroll a child in the school and the child can get the necessary medical clearances, including eye tests and vaccinations.

"My dream is a mobile lab for this kind of stuff," she said.

The military provides solid support for the students, she said. The school has received grant money from the Joint Venture Education Forum for computers and other pieces of equipment. Through this arrangement every classroom has a computer.