Hookakoo Corporation
November 7, 2010
Aloha mai kakou,
We have been through a pivotal week at Kamaile Academy. Our sincere mahalo to all of you who took the time to meet with us and share your concerns about our decision to utilize the transformation model of change needed in order to take our students to a new and exciting level of achievement.
We appreciate all the feedback received. Enclosed is a document that answers questions posed at the meetings – and the questions were very good and very fair. We’d like to explain in detail the process that led up to the decision we communicated last week. We know it caught many of you by surprise, because we have not had a good process of communicating regularly with you, and we regret that. This is something we would like to change immediately, and at the end of this letter we provide a website, email address and phone contact number as a first step.
The Ho’okako’o Board has been discussing the Race to the Top (RTTT) opportunities with our school leadership for more than a year. These discussions started when RTTT was but a promise on the horizon—a potential source of support for increased student achievement through additional federal funding for our entire state. This summer Hawai’i was awarded up to $75 million in RTTT funds, with Kamaile one of the six schools eligible to benefit from these resources. At the point, our interest in applying for part of that funding took on increased urgency.
To our dismay, we were unable to get Kamaile’s leadership information critical for preparing the grant application. This created a serious roadblock to our kuleana to seek and find additional resources needed to fulfill the vision for Kamaile that we all embrace. The application window is narrow, and the difficulty in obtaining the needed information put this opportunity at risk. We have been asked: Why not wait until the end of the school year? Frankly, we could not afford to. How could we face you if we’d squandered an opportunity that would so clearly benefit our Keiki?
At our meetings last week, we heard some erroneous statements that we need to correct immediately. The astonishing of these was the assertion that Ho’okako’o was withholding funds from Kamaile’s administration. The truth is that Kamaile has a substantial operating reserve that we have pressed the Kamaile administration to utilize. These funds are from our primary private funder, Kamehameha Schools. These funds are restricted by the funder for operational use, which means they must be used for teacher training, personnel, and curriculum that benefits the students. They cannot be used for facilities or other capital expenses. We have encouraged the leadership at Kamaile to use the funds for their intended purposes, but that has not happened. We believe we can work with the transitional leadership team immediately to develop plans for the use of these funds—plans that will build and sustain the innovative programs that will transform the classroom experience for our keiki.
We also heard that we had shelved the plan for expansion into high school grades. The HC Board is on record as endorsing the concept of a P-20 model, with educational programs from pre-school through high school at the Academy campus. There is nothing we would like more than to see the campus become the piko of our learning community, a place of safety and engagement for our keiki throughout their formal schooling. But this vision needs a plan behind it, a plan that has not been forthcoming. We must know what the curriculum will be, how we will pay for the additional staffing, and where we will teach the additional students. We must have a plan for teacher training, and we must understand the various needs of all of our students and be prepared to meet them as best we can. And, foremost, we must make sure that expansion is not so rapid that we sacrifice the gains being made in the grade levels we currently provide. To move forward without careful thought, without a clear destination on our horizon, would be irresponsible. This plan has not been provided to us. So we commit to you to work directly with the transitional leadership team to develop such a plan. It is not possible to say that we can complete all of this work in the next six months, but we will try to identify how to take the first step forward, and chart a course for growth that ensures that our keiki will not only have a place to learn, but a place to learn well—with the resources that will let them succeed in all they undertake.
It has been an emotional week for all of us. For our staff and our parents, who are understandably shaken and uncertain; for the outgoing leadership of Kamaile, who feel unsupported; and for us, your school board, who have had to make very difficult decisions in order to make Kamaile the best possible school for the students we serve. Let us all put the emotion aside and concentrate on the work ahead, with increased student achievement and success as our primary goal. Developing healthy, confident children who are secure in their abilities and well prepared for success in school and in life is the only goal that matters.
We will be posting updates on our website, www.hookakoo.org. We encourage you to email any questions to us at contact@hookakoo.org, or you can call us at 983-3835. If we can’t answer the phone in person, please leave us a message and we will return the call as soon as possible. We understand that we are on the agenda for the November 16, 2010 Local Advisory Panel meeting to discuss the leadership transition team. In the meantime, we will post updates to our website and notify you via email or through messages sent home with your children.
Sincerely,
Keith Vieira
Chair, Ho’okako’o Corporation
Note: Here is the letter that much of you had asked about, it's better to get it from the horses mouth.
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