On the week of April 8th-12th, Alaka’i will hold its first Penny War! This simple fundraiser is a fun way to involve the whole community in raising money for our school. This particular fundraiser will be to raise funds to buy a full class set of ukuleles!

How Penny Wars Work:

The basic premise of a penny war fundraiser is that learners bring spare change to school for a set period of time, usually a week or two, and deposit it into containers. At the end of the collection period, the change is donated toward a cause, for a purchase within the school, or to an outside charity. The class that nets the most is rewarded.

Each penny is worth one point and counts “positively” toward a group’s point total. Each silver coin or dollar bill gets points based on its value (a nickel is worth five points, a dime is worth 10, etc.), but counts “negatively” toward other groups’ totals. So in a competition between classrooms, learners who want their class to win will place pennies into their own buckets and place nickels, dimes, quarters, or dollar bills into other classrooms’ buckets. In some penny wars, dollar bills are counted positively along with pennies.

It’s official, Alaka’i O Kaua’i is a “Box Tops for Education” school! Many of you have probably heard of this program, but for those of you who haven’t, here you go.

In 1996 in California, General Mills wanted to start a program to help raise money for education. They came up with the box top idea, where people could clip box tops on select products (initially only on several big name cereals such as Total, Cheerios, and Lucky Charms) and send them in to receive money for their school. The program was such a huge success that it has since expanded to include hundreds of different food and non-food products, including Pillsbury, Green Giant, Ziploc, Hefty, and many, many more.  

How you can help: Clip box tops! Ask your friends and family to clip and give you their box tops! They can be found on so many different products, and it is not only food anymore. Garbage bags, toilet paper — you name it! We can almost guarantee you have an unclipped box top in your house right now.  

Please be aware of the expiration dates on the box tops and turn them in to your child’s facilitator or the office. Katie Horgan is our school’s coordinator for this program. You can use the attached form or just turn them in in an envelope or baggie.

The money raised from Box Tops for Education will be used for school supplies, field trips, technology, and more. Thank you all for your help on this. Every little bit helps!

• MAHALO to the Berginz family for our school’s new guitar!
• MAHALO to the Salamey family for our school’s first ukulele!
• MAHALO to Christine Ferguson, Leia Makaneole and the Tapia family for coordinating our first Spirit Week!
• MAHALO to all our amazing volunteers who show up EVERY week to support our school!

Alaka’i O Kaua’i is celebrating its inaugural SPIRIT WEEK, starting tomorrow, Monday, March 11.

Families are encouraged to send learners to school dressed up throughout the week in order to participate.

• MONDAY is Super Hero Day
• TUESDAY is Pajama Day
• WEDNESDAY is Wacky Wardrobe Day
• THURSDAY is Aloha Day
• FRIDAY is School Colors Day (Purple & Green)

Two assemblies will held during the week — one on Monday morning at 9 a.m., and one on  Friday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. Parents are welcome join in on the fun!

To close our fun festivities, we are excited to host a schoolwide potluck on Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. We are asking families to help by bringing something delicious to share, as assigned by class:

• Kindergarten: Fruit
• 1st grade: Drinks
• 2nd grade: Desserts
• 3rd grade: Appetizers
• 4th grade: Side dish
• 5th grade: Main dish

Mahalo for participating and helping us make Alaka’i O Kauai’s first Spirit Week great!

There are lots of exciting changes underway at Alaka’i O Kaua’i, including expansion into new parts of our campus, adding: a new health room, staff lunch room, learner  work room, and meeting room. We are also in the process of renovating our enormous gym, which will hopefully be ready for use by the end of February. Having access to our gym will provide lots of new opportunities for our school community, including an indoor recess space, all-school assemblies, and after-school programs.

On Friday, the “School Quality Survey” form from the Department of Education was sent home with each child. The purpose of this survey is to provide the State Charter School Commission with one indicator of parent satisfaction with Alaka`i O Kaua’i Charter School. Please do your best to complete and return these surveys with your child by the end of the week. Thank you!

• Please do your best to be on time to school! Students need to be dropped off no later than 8:10 a.m. every day. (The earliest drop-off time is 7:30 a.m.) Late arrivals are disruptive to the start of the school day, so please do your best to make it on time (without speeding on our road!).
• Dismissal is at 2:25 p.m., Mon-Thurs, and 1:40 p.m. on Fridays. Please do not arrive early to sign out your child before 2:25 p.m. unless absolutely necessary.

At Alaka’i O Kaua’i, our school-wide discipline policy is based on the foundational skills of Love and Logic. Love and Logic is a philosophy founded in 1977 by Jim Fay and Foster W. Cline, M.D. It is the approach of choice among leading educators, parents, and other professionals worldwide, as it is dedicated to making parenting and teaching fun and rewarding, instead of stressful and chaotic. Alaka’i O Kaua’i believes:

Respect, appreciation, and love prevents potential problems

• When learners feel respected, appreciated and even loved by their teachers, they are far  more motivated and cause far fewer problems.

Freedom to problem-solve and make decisions fosters motivation

• Learners are far calmer and more motivated when their faciltators allow them to make choices and solve their own problems within limits.

Focusing energy on problem prevention is rewarding

• Successful educators focus most of their energy on simple tools for preventing  misbehavior or keeping it small, rather than trying to provide consequences for every problem.

Showing empathy and compassion is effective

• When consequences are necessary, effective educators provide them with sincere empathy or compassion.

Linda Krystek will be offering “Parenting with Love and Logic, Part 1” at Alaka’i O Kaua’i on Tuesday, Jan. 15, from 2:45-4 p.m. in the Library. Join us to learn how to show love and empathy while setting limits and holding children accountable with logical consequences. We will be diving deep into the Five Core Principles of Love and Logic and learn practical tools and skills to help develop well-behaved, happy, and responsible kids. Please RSVP to linda.krystek@ileadschools.org.

We have some great Alaka’i O Kaua’i bumper stickers and pencils for sale in the front office. They are $2 per sticker; $1 per pencil.

Now that we are in the heart of mud season here at Mount Kahili, please be sure to put an extra change of clothes in your child’s backpack so they are able to change if they get muddy or wet.

We are also happily receiving clothing donations of all sizes/genders for children who do not have extra clothes! Extra shoes/slippers are also welcomed and kept as loaners in the shoe rack right outside the main office.

Please check the Lost and Found right outside the office for any items that may belong to your child. Any items not recovered by Winter Break will be donated to charity or discarded.