The state’s only new charter school is set to open its doors in Ka‘u in July, following unanimous approval of its facilities Thursday by the Windward Planning Commission.
The state’s only new charter school is set to open its doors in Ka‘u in July, following unanimous approval of its facilities Thursday by the Windward Planning Commission.
Ka‘u Learning Academy plans to use the Discovery Harbour golf course clubhouse as a temporary facility. The school won a special permit for 3.69 acres in the state land use agricultural district.
The Big Island school was the only one of six schools applying statewide that won approval from the state Charter Commission last year, under stricter guidelines put into place by the state Legislature.
Executive Director Kathryn Tydlacka said the school will run a bus with stops in Pahala, Naalehu and Ocean View.
Ka‘u Learning Academy will have a “highly academic focus,” she said. It will have 65 on-campus students and provide support to 35 home-schooled students its first year.
The tuition-free academy, for grades three to six, will follow the public school calendar, with a first day of class July 29. Eventually, the school will expand to a kindergarten to eighth-grade.
Tydlacka told the commission the academy plans to use the clubhouse for only three years. After that, the school plans to move to Lehua Court plaza in Ocean View.
Under questioning from Commissioner Donald Ikeda, Tydlacka said there are two backup sites in case the Lehua Court site isn’t ready. One alternate site is a 5-acre parcel on the border of the Discovery Harbour subdivision; another is in Ocean View, she said.
“I do support what you’re trying to do, I’m just making sure everything is covered,” Ikeda said.
Planning Commission staff incorporated recommendations by the Hawaii Police Department that the current bar operations at the clubhouse be terminated and no alcohol be stored in the facility, and the Hawaii County Fire Department’s requirement for a fire alarm.
The fire alarm will add to the cost, but the school is prepared to comply, Tydlacka said.
School officials submitted pages of signed petitions from area residents as well as a letter of support from state Rep. Richard Creagan, a Democrat representing the Ka‘u district.
“As a former Peace Corps volunteer to the Marshall Islands I also applaud your commitment to serving the large number of Marshallese students who live in the Ocean View community,” Creagan said in his letter. “Having a school campus in Ocean View will be critical in facilitating contacts with the parents of these students, who primarily live in Ocean View, as well as making extracurricular programs more accessible.”
School officials praised South Point Investment Group for donating the use of the clubhouse property for the school, and other large donors, such as Hawaiian Electric Light Co., for donating equipment.
“We have hundreds of supporters in Ka‘u who have definitely wanted this school,” said Managing Director Joe Iacuzzo.
School officials describe on their website, kaulearning.com, how they will meet lofty goals to improve learning and test results. Their plan includes using a system Tydlacka developed that analyzes student data and which she used to predict — with nearly 80 percent accuracy — how successful students would be on standardized state exams.
Students will be assessed for how they are reaching certain academic benchmarks monthly and quarterly and teachers will be given sufficient time to analyze data from those benchmarks, the school plan, available online. The school’s curriculum will align with the Common Core standards.