Aloha mai kakou to the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you all in good happiness and health during the last few weeks of your summer break from school.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and for being patient during the last five years of tremendous growth plus improvement that we have created together. One of the potential changes that may come forward is a shift from the current platform that is being used to distribute the Monday Message to a new one in the coming weeks. Please contact our school if the Monday Message no longer finds your inbox and we will rectify the issue. Once again, we wish to publicly acknowledge Faith and Brian and their good work and the sharing of their talents to support our Monday Message and make it all possible.

The outstanding preparation work on campus continues as we look forward to the return of our learners on Monday, August 7th. This week we can share that the desks and chairs for the newly added Grade Seven class are now assembled in their classroom under some helpful feedback from Mr. Logan, our Grade Seven facilitator. As we continue to expand our Middle School, Mr. Jon, Mr. Adam, and Kumu Nouveau, our ever-diligent work crew, have constructed a new breakout and conference room on the lower campus.

Even though our keiki have not been on campus since May, we are pleased to share that several helpful staff members have continued to look after the garden area and garden beds. Mahalo e Kumu Nate for ensuring that this area continues to thrive and stay relatively weed-free.

A helpful reminder that you will have the opportunity to see this work yourself plus share your skills of improvement during our annual Campus Cleanup, scheduled for Saturday, July 29th. A SignUp Genius complete with specific tasks and times will be shared in the coming weeks for your planning purposes.

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful week. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you in good happiness and health as we move into the month of July.

The start of the new month is a cheerful reminder that the start of the 2023-2024 school year is just around the corner. We look forward to the return of our learners on August 7th to kick off the new school year which will include the addition of our new Grade Seven grade level. In preparation for everyone’s arrival, there have been several key employees who have worked all summer to help ensure that everything is ready to roll.

Ms. Patricia has done a magnificent job supporting our school since her arrival in the dual role of looking after Human Resources and Finances. Under her steady guidance, the school has moved into financial stability and currently exceeds all the monetary expectations of the state of Hawai’i Charter Commission. In addition, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School has also moved into a high percentage of staff retention. This is a true credit to her work with our valued employees. Mahalo nui, Ms. Patricia.

Ms. Jennifer who is well known to all in our learning community also works tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our school moving upward in a positive direction. Ms. Jennifer fills far too many roles to mention but a few key supports include School Registrar, purchasing plus invoicing, communication, phone messaging, and school tours. One of the key people who helped move Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School from surviving to thriving is the ever-helpful Ms. Jennifer and we are greatly appreciative of her work.

A little over a year ago, our school added a Learning Leader position to our staff and welcomed Kumu Nate to Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School. Kumu Nate has been busy over the summer working on staff schedules, curriculum design plus ordering, technology, and student programs to mention just a few of the many highlights of his contributions. Mahalo nui for your work, Kumu Nate, and for raising the benchmarks of programming expectations at our unique charter school.

A helpful reminder to mark your calendars for Saturday, July 29th for the festive annual event of Campus Cleanup. A ParentSquare invitation will be distributed with a SignUp Genius in the coming weeks so you can sign up for specific tasks at the Campus Cleanup.

Lastly, please enjoy this preview of the newly created Grade Seven classroom with the desks being assembled by Mr. Jon:

Best wishes to you all for a safe and restful summer break. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you in good health and happiness as we move into the month of July.

Mahalo to our dedicated and talented employees who are working hard on campus to make the necessary renovations to prepare for the 2023-2024 school year. You may recall that last summer under the skillful guidance of Mr. Jon, the old Library, Meeting Room, and Storage area was converted into a Counsellor Suite and Learning Commons. This summer much of the effort is focused on preparation for the addition of another grade level to our school plus improving areas already in use.

Ms. Barb, Kumu Nouveau, and Mr. Jon have already significantly improved our campus. A former storage area that was unused on the lower campus has now been converted into a teaching space for our Hawai’iana classes. The need for this new teaching space is a result of the addition of Grade Seven who will move into the former Hawai’iana Room on Lower Campus. We will eventually house all of our Middle School students on the lower campus while the elementary section of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School will remain on Main Campus.

The Grade Three classroom transformation is also ongoing with the removal of the old Science cabinets, the painting of the space, and the installation of new flooring. Mr. Jon has steadily, inch by inch, improved the school over the last five years to the point that he is now changing out the old flooring and replacing it with new. We will continue to work on this transition step by step, board by board, over the coming years.

We wish to acknowledge and thank Ms. Barb, Kumu Nouveau, and Mr. Jon for their work on improving our school. Mr. Adam will be joining this team in July to ensure we have as much completed by the end of the summer as possible.

Next week we will shift our focus to the other amazing twelve-month employees who work tirelessly behind the scenes to continuously improve our school, even during the summer break.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School may be transitioning to a new Monday Message platform. In the coming weeks, should the Monday Message not arrive on a Sunday evening, please send me an email indicating the issue and we will correct the error.

Best wishes for a joyful July and see you at Campus Cleanup on July 29th. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you in good happiness and health as we breeze through the month of June. We trust that your summer break is filled with fun plus enjoyment. We look forward to everyone returning to campus for classes on Monday, August 7th.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School wishes to spend this week’s Monday Message in appreciation for all the support behind the scenes that we have received from the Maker Learning Network. Most people in our learning community might not know that our modest beginning five years ago would not have been possible without the assistance of iLEAD/Maker Learning Network. Since that time, iLEAD Schools and Maker Learning Network have branched out in fresh new areas and we currently work with the Maker Learning Network only.

We have greatly appreciated the knowledge that has been shared with our school by Ms. Linda, Ms. Nicole, and Ms Kendra. They have all come to our campus and worked directly with our staff on helping to support high-quality project-based learning. In addition, in our early history, Ms. Linda MOVED to Kaua’i and assumed the role of Director when the school was without one. Ms. Linda skillfully guided the school forward into our bright future and we would not be the fastest-improving charter school in Hawai’i without her leadership.

Behind the scenes is the excellent work of Brian and Faith who support our website, social media, and Monday Message. Both of them are as skillful as they are friendly and all of us in our learning community enjoy the fruits of their labors. Brian and Faith have implemented changes in the 2022-2023 school year to improve the website plus make the Monday Message much easier to access.

As mentioned a few short weeks ago, we also wish to acknowledge the outstanding service that Sean provides to our school. You probably recognize a picture of Sean and Jon from early June where they pulled HUNDREDS of feet of fiber optic cable to help improve technology on our campus. Sean consistently works remotely on keeping our technology functioning which can be especially challenging as we moved to one-to-one technology at our school this year.

We wish to share our appreciation to DrB, our former Board of Directors Chair. She forged this relationship together to get Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School opened. DrB collaborated closely with Ms. Dawn, the iLEAD leader at that time, and Ms. Amber, the Maker Learning Network leader to help us become what we are today.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School shares a hearty mahalo nui loa to both iLEAD Schools and the Maker Learning Network for their support and service to our school.

A helpful reminder to mark your calendars for Saturday, July 29th for the annual Campus Cleanup which essentially marks the first event of the 2023-2024 school year.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kākou to the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds you all in good happiness and health during the summer break.

We greatly appreciate your support of our unique charter school, which has grown from a dream to a reality in the last five years. During that time, we were fortunate to be recognized in 2022-2023 as the fastest-improving charter school in Hawai’i (there are 37 charter schools in our state), and one key area that drives this data is test results. As promised, we will disclose the results from the latest State of Hawai’i SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) assessments that we wrote in April and May.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School had another impressive set of results in 2023, as verified that we were above both the state of Hawai’i and the complex area of Kaua’i in 16 out of 18 categories. In almost every case, our unique charter school was DOUBLE DIGIT results above our colleagues in both the island of Kaua’i and the state of Hawai’i. We are incredibly proud of our exceptional learners and congratulate them on this outstanding success.

We also wish to recognize that none of this incredible success story would be possible without the efforts of so many individuals to support our students. Our diligent Assessment Coordinator, Ms. Malissa, has spearheaded the work in our school to create a cultural value that writing assessments can be fun. The dedicated staff and knowledgeable teachers have deeply supported learning at our school and infused the state standards into project-based learning activities. Let’s not forget the essential role that the ohana plays in creating the value that education is vital to success in life. Mahalo nui loa to you all for your work in helping our students to be their best.

Here is the breakdown of the results from the 2023 SBAC assessments for our school:

Language Arts

• Grade Three Language Arts
+11% higher than the state;
+20% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Four Language Arts
+18% higher than the state;
+24% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Five Language Arts
+16% higher than the state;
+19% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Six Language Arts
+39% higher than the state;
+42% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

Math

• GradeThree Math
+5% higher than the state;
+10% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Four Math
-6% LOWER THAN THE STATE;
+4% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Five Math
-5% LOWER THAN THE STATE;
+1% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

• Grade Six Math
+35% higher than the state;
+42% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

Science

• Grade Five Science
+17% higher than the state;
+20% higher than the complex area of Kaua’i

Going forward into our bright future, we have closed the gap in our Math results at the complex area of Kaua’i, but in the theme of continuous improvement, we still have much work ahead in those results at the state of Hawai’i level. These two deficiencies are identified in CAPITAL LETTERS ABOVE and will form part of our preparations for the upcoming school year.

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful summer break, and I look forward to seeing you in August. Malama pono.

Aloha mai kakou to everyone in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you all in good health and happiness as we settle into the month of June.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and we are currently in full-on preparations for the start of the 2023-2024 school year on campus. We have over 20 projects that we will focus our time, attention, and expertise on in June and July as we explore the exciting additions to Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School including 7th grade next year.

We were fortunate to have the talented Sean from Maker Learning Network join us this week on campus to help improve our technology. Sean and our own Jon pulled hundreds of feet of fiber optic cable and we now have internet in the gym plus improved service on the lower campus. The phone system was upgraded to better ensure top-level communication on campus between all classrooms. Mahalo for your excellent work, Sean and Jon.

The ever-artistic Ms. Barb was on campus adding a fresh coat of bright school-colored paint to the benches, tables, and picnic tables that are found in great abundance on our campus. It is wonderful to see many of the drab colors removed and revitalized with vibrant new additions that go along with our school colors. Mahalo Ms. Barb for sharing your talents with us.

Our newly hired Hawai’iana and Physical Education instructor Kumu Nouveau also was on-site power washing away the remnants of the 2022-2023 school throughout the campuses. It is a massive task, especially considering that we use all three campuses daily and have an ever-expanding school population. Mahalo for helping us out on campus, Kumu Nouveau.

One of the major projects going forward will be the transition of the Grade Three classroom. The classroom currently is set up for a Science Lab but with expanding classrooms we now find the need to fully convert this space. The Grade Three classrooms will have all the old Science Lab stations removed. This change alone will double the learning space in this room.

We will continue to post updates throughout the summer and share completed projects with you. We look forward to seeing everyone on campus in late July for the annual Campus Cleanup as well.

My apologies for the delay in sharing the SBAC results with you this week. We are simply awaiting the last of the state results outside of our school to be uploaded in order to share the most current data. The plan is to disclose the SBAC results with you next week in the Monday Message.

Best wishes to you all for a restful summer break. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds the summer break for our learners off to a splendid start.

Mahalo nui for your support during the extremely successful 2022-2023 school year as verified by the recent outstanding success that learners had in the state of Hawai’i standardized writing assessments. Next week we will outline the specifics of the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) results with you in the Monday Message but we can openly share that our school performed over double digits ABOVE the state and complex area results in 14 out of 18 categories. That is correct and not a misprint-DOUBLE digits above, but we still have much work ahead in the theme of continuous improvement.

Speaking of continuous improvement, it may be summer break but it never slows down here on campus. Summer break is a busy time as the twelve-month employees work through June and July to ensure that our campus is ready for everyone to return in August.

Two cornerstones of school improvement are Mr. Jon and Mr. Adam. They take on projects to improve our school while everyone is away. This summer they have an extensive list of over 20 projects that they will work on to help make our unique school even better for our learners. Mr. Jon has been the key figure in transitioning the school from surviving to thriving as he alone came to campus five short years ago and reclaimed the vacant school back from the jungle. We wish to share our appreciation for their work and hope you all understand that we could not be where we are today without their efforts.

We have included the 2023-2024 school year calendar below for your planning purposes. We are excited to add a School Nurse on site next year who can help monitor student health and track student attendance for us.

Lastly, we fully respect that “life happens” but humbly request that you please book major trips away from school during the natural breaks of the school year. One area that our school needs to improve in is the state of Hawai’i tracking of chronic attendance issues which starts at 15 absences or more as we are currently above the state average in this metric.

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful weekend ahead. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community and welcome to the summer holidays for our creative learners and much of our dedicated staff.

Mahalo nui for your support of our unique charter school during the 2022-2023 school year. It was a noteworthy year in the short life span of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School as our five-year charter and the addition of our middle school were both unanimously approved by the state of Hawai’i Charter School Commissioners.

Although the significance of these accomplishments are important, the real work at our school always revolves around our inquisitive learners. We immensely enjoyed some wonderful events last week to conclude the school year. The third annual Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School Talent Show once again showcased the amazing array of skills, talents, and abilities of our students over and above their classroom work. We successfully ran the first-ever Grade Six Overnight Trip to Koke’e and it was magical to watch our Grade Six leaders blossom in an alternative learning environment.

On Friday at the Grade Six Farewell Ceremony, our Grade Six students performed some poignant speeches that they wrote reflecting back on their school year which marked a perfect way to culminate the 2022-2023 school year.

We hope that everyone enjoys a well-deserved summer vacation after all the wonderful growth we witnessed in our school since last August. We look forward to sending out an invitation to our annual Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School Campus Cleanup on Saturday, July 29th which usually signals that school will be starting soon. For your planning purposes, please note that our ten-month employees return to campus on Tuesday, August 1st and our students return to class on Monday, August 7th.

There are a number of us who are twelve-month employees who will be on campus during the summer break. The office will be open during June and July on somewhat reduced hours. Please feel free to contact the school with inquiries.

Best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy, and safe summer break filled with food, family, and fun. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou and hope this Monday Message finds everyone in the Alaka’I O Kaua’i Charter School in good health and happiness as we head into the last week on campus for our learners in the 2022-2023 school year. We greatly appreciate all the support our school received during last Friday’s Na Kupu Lau celebration on campus. This week we look forward to the first-ever Grade Six Koke’e Overnight Trip, the third annual Talent Show, and the third annual Grade Six Farewell. Those are only a few of the events coming up.Recently our school cheerfully signed our five-year charter renewal with the state of Hawai’i Charter Commission which solidifies our future from Kindergarten to Grade Eight. In recognition of this historic expansion, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School has reached into our past rich history to find a high-quality educator to capture our fascinating history.It is our sincere wish that you have been fortunate enough to meet DrB (or Tutu B as she likes to be called by the keiki) as she has been a driving force that turned our school from a dream to a reality. DrB was recently contracted to write a historical narrative that will chronicle the humble beginnings of the most improved charter school in the state of Hawai’i. DrB has a deep passion for the success of the school including spending significant time as Board Chairperson trying to get our first charter application approved. Most people do not realize that the dream of our school started well before we were granted our first charter contract five years ago and there were actually several attempts that were not approved by the state of Hawai’i Charter Commissioners.
DrB will write the history of our school and then many decades in the future when someone ponders the origins of the school, the answer can be easily accessed. Those of you with greater experiences with the school over the last five years may be asked by DrB to be part of her research on Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School.We greatly appreciate the efforts and passion of people like DrB who spent countless hours volunteering to create a top-notch FREE public education for the keiki fo Kaua’i. Mahalo nui e DrB for your work on this written history of our school and we look forward to sharing the results in the future.Best wishes to you all for a wonderful last week of classes on campus in the 2022-2023 school year!

Mahalo nui for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope his message finds you all in good health and happiness as we reach the mid-point of the marvelous month of May. There is no question that May is marvelous on campus as we enjoy so many diverse experiences during the last month of the school year.

We wish to start with gratitude to everyone who volunteered their time and energy to the annual Kaua’i Charity Walk event. Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School has been the top Not For Profit fundraiser on the island in this event in 2021 and again in 2022, due to your efforts. In 2023, the school set new benchmarks for stations served, volunteers that stepped forward, and points that our school accumulated. The final number will not be announced for quite some time but in 2022 our school received over $27,000 from the helpful people at the Kaua’i Charity Walk. We wish to acknowledge Ms. Kalina, our No Hoa O Alaka’i Parent Teacher Network President who signed up for shifts OVER AND BEYOND the school’s commitments and earned even more points for the school.

We also just completed our annual Penny Wars on campus and really enjoyed the fun we all experienced with the event. It is with great appreciation that we share that this year’s edition raised over $1,700.00 for the school. That is a LOT of coins. Mahalo nui to Ms. Kelly Ann, our No Hoa O Alaka’i Parent Teacher Network Vice-President for running this event this year.

The third annual Na Kupu Lau is this Friday, May 19th on campus. We recently completed the anonymous voting by the staff to select the Royal Court of King, Queen, Princess, and Princess who are pictured below. These fantastic young leaders were chosen based on academics, integrity, leadership, respectfulness, kindness, determination, open-mindedness, and generosity. We hope to see you all on campus to celebrate with us on Friday.

The Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School Talent Show will run the last week of school on Monday (K, K/1, 1), Tuesday (Grade 2 and Grade 3), Wednesday (Grade 3/4 and Grade 4), and Thursday (Grade 5 and Grade 6) which is May 22-May 25 inclusively. A sign-up sheet and flyer will be coming home soon but a slight change is that our keiki are limited to only ONE performance please due to overwhelming entries and enthusiasm last year.

We look forward to the Grade Six Farewell Celebration on Friday, May 26th to conclude the school year. The Grade Six students will be preparing and then delivering a speech that day to share their learnings about the school.

Mahalo nui for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds you in good health and happiness as we conclude the first week of May.

Last Monday, May 1st was Lei Day in beautiful Hawai’i and we were pleased to see many colorful leis on campus to celebrate the day. Being the unique charter school that we are, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School did not host any Lei Day celebrations again this year as we focus our attention on a slightly different presentation.

Our third annual Na Kupu Lau celebration is scheduled for Friday, May 19th here on campus. This creative event has grown significantly from some humble beginnings three short years ago right in the middle of the pandemic. We look forward to welcoming any and all members of our learning community to attend and enjoy the artistic work of our talented keiki.

Once again, each of our classrooms will give a presentation during the celebration. We have included some photos from last year’s events so that those people new to our learning community can have a quick view of Na Kupu Lau. The celebration will include a post-event social with light lunch for all the participants and guests that join us.

We want to share this invitation with you a touch early as we understand that prior planning might be essential in your busy lives to be able to attend the event here on campus with us. More details will be shared via ParentSquare Messaging for those who currently have learners enrolled in the school.

Mahalo nui for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community and we hope this message finds you all in good health and happiness as the calendar turns over to May tomorrow. Hard to imagine we are just about to start the last month of the 2022-2023 school for our learners.

As we conclude the month of April, it is a perfect time to reflect on the character trait focus of the month which was ACHIEVEMENT. Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is currently engaged in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) state of Hawai’i assessments which is a perfect way to celebrate achievement in our school. The SBAC assessments are administered in Grades 3-6 in our school are one of many areas of the data collected that helps guide future educational planning at Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School. As you probably know, our school was recognized as the fastest-improving charter school in the state of Hawai’i. One of the sources of data for rankings of schools comes from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium assessments.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School embraces the opportunity to discover the quality of the education we are providing for our learners. Writing the SBAC assessments is celebrated at our school and this involves all the keiki on campus and not just the learners in Grades 3-6. We philosophically enjoy coming together to support the learners and intentionally attempt to diminish any phobias of writing assessments or tests. The ability to write assessments without great fear is a lifelong skill that is important for success in life. This is demonstrated by the reality that even getting a Driver’s License involves testing.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School wishes to recognize the incredible efforts of Ms. Malissa in supporting our learners’ success through her role on campus as the Assessment Coordinator. Ms. Malissa works tirelessly to ensure that each and every learner is supported not only during SBACs but also during the entire school year. We continue to see our learners perform much higher on state assessments in most categories compared to other schools and much of this happy news is built on the efforts of Ms. Malissa. We greatly appreciate your incredible work, Ms. Malissa, and we know that you believe in all of our learners.

Mahalo nui kakou for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this late April Monday Message finds you all in good health and happiness.

As we roll into the last week of April, we are pleased to share some behind-the-scenes work in Human Resources and share some upcoming staff changes for the 2023-2024 school year. We appreciate all the people who applied to join our team and also wish to extend our gratitude to the people who worked with Ms. Patricia and me throughout the hiring process.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School congratulates Ms. Whitney who will be moving from an Educational Assistant at our school into a substitute teacher role for the 2023-2024 school year. Mahalo for your work with our keiki and we look forward to continued work with Ms. Whitney, albeit in a different role.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School warmly welcomes back Ms. Claire to our school to replace the vacant Educational Assistant position. Ms. Claire knows the school well already. She helped open the school five years ago while working in the office and currently serves as a substitute teacher at our school. It is wonderful to have you return to our school in a full-time role, Ms. Claire.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School wishes continued success to Kumu Kali who will be moving back to Moloka’i and rejoining his former school there. Mahalo nui for your contributions to our learning community and for helping us discover in a much greater depth, the incredible culture of where we live, Hawai’i.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is pleased to announce we will be expanding our offerings on campus next year and filling the vacant Hawai’iana teaching position with the same individual. A warm welcome to Kumu Nouveau who will join our team in the dual position of Physical Education teacher and Hawai’iana teacher for the 2023-2024 school year. Kumu Nouveau is already well known at our school as an excellent substitute teacher on campus and joins us full-time from the Hawai’i Department of Education where his last posting was at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is thrilled to introduce our new Grade Seven teacher to our learning community. After an extensive search, we can now share that Mr. Logan Hamzl will be joining our team to educate the newly offered Grade Seven at our school. Mr. Logan is currently teaching in Colorado and is moving to the island this summer along with his ohana which will include two new learners at our school. Mr. Logan has an impressive resume complete with years of outstanding teaching in project-based learning settings which includes nominations for the state teacher of the year a remarkable five times. We will arrange in the coming weeks a virtual meeting with the current Grade Six students and their ohana so everyone can “meet” Mr. Logan in advance.

We anticipate that there are potentially more announcements in the coming weeks as we all understand that hiring GREAT employees is a global challenge even on beautiful Kaua’i.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you well as we head into the last six weeks of the 2022-2023 school year. We greatly appreciate your support of our unique charter school and we have enjoyed a great variety of events on campus in the last ten days that enhance the quality of the educational experience for our keiki.

As mentioned last week, we were successfully able to host our second annual Makahiki Games on campus on Thursday, April 6th. Enjoy a photo from the fun event below. We wish to once again express our gratitude to the selfless volunteers who made these activities possible. Over a dozen individuals, under the guidance of a parent volunteer (mahalo nui Norman), helped us all learn much more about the games. Dreaming into the future, we hope that some of our learners will participate in the annual Makahiki Games on Moloka’i.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School was honored to host crew members from the Hokule’a to speak to our Grade Four and Grade Six students last Tuesday. They shared incredible stories of the bravery, courage, and fortitude needed to sail this ship in respect of the original Polynesian explorers. We look forward to their return again later in the school year to share more stories with our keiki.

Captain Mark visited campus this week and shared his talents of storytelling with the younger grades. He brought a “whale” for the keiki to sit inside while he shared a “whale” of interesting stories. Creativity and imagination were on full display for all involved in this exciting addition to our classes.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is fortunate to be part of Hard University’s “The Thinking Classroom Hawai’i” sponsored by the Hawai’i Charter Commission. This incredible opportunity empowers our staff to examine the delivery of education at our school and to search for new lenses in the world of learning.

As you probably know, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School was recognized as the fastest-improving charter school in the state of Hawai’i in the 2021-2022 school year! As we roll toward the conclusion of the 2022-2023 school year, our collected data shows steep growth, with the exception of one area. Student chronic absenteeism (which consists of 15 or more days of school missed) has increased this year and is projected to exceed the state average. Student chronic absenteeism negatively impacts not only the school’s STRIVE HI metrics but is also detrimental to the learning that occurs for our keiki. We respectfully ask everyone to be mindful of the importance of regular attendance at school.

Best wishes to you all for a terrific week. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds you in good health and happiness this Easter Sunday.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and it is wonderful to share all the various activities happening with our learners to start the month of April.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School participated in our first-ever attempt at the Mayor’s Track Meet last weekend. We are proud of our participants and look forward to distributing the ribbons for the top finishers at our next school-wide Assembly on Friday, April 14th at 9 am in the gym. Parents and community members are warmly welcome to attend.

We held our second annual Makahiki Games on campus last Thursday. Mahalo nui to the dedicated community volunteers spearheaded by one of our parents (Norman) who came to campus to run the events. In preparation for the event, some of our Grade Five students volunteered their lunchtime to make leis for our guests.

The second annual Keiki Rainbow Wellness Challenge is still ongoing and our learners have until Tuesday to return their sheets to win a shoe sack backpack. Our learners could also earn the right to sign their name on the window in the Main Office. We wish to share our gratitude to the Grade One class and Mrs. Shay for bringing this event to campus again this year.

The next No Hoa O Alaka’i Parent Teacher Network Meeting will be virtual this Wednesday, April 12th at 5 pm. All parents and community members are encouraged to attend so please watch for a Zoom link that will be distributed in a ParentSquare message on Tuesday.

The Hawai’i State Teachers Association (HSTA) Collaboration and Planning Day will be tomorrow. Accordingly, while the staff is at school there will be no school for learners on Monday, April 10th. We look forward to seeing everyone back on campus on Tuesday, April 11th.

Best wishes to you all for a festive Easter Break. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds you healthy and happy as we enter the new month of April. The character trait focus for the month of April will be ACHIEVEMENT and we are fortunate to see countless examples of this trait on daily on campus.

Our keiki had a marvelous experience with the talented Captain Steve on campus in our Hawai’iana classes during the last two weeks. Captain Steve volunteered his time and expertise to teach our learners about the Hokule’a, a performance accurate wa’a kaulua as he has experience working on the crew. We greatly appreciate him sharing his knowledge so that we could all learn about the early brave Polynesian voyagers.

Ms. Nicole, our talented Art teacher, continues to offer high-quality classes to our learners. Anytime anyone wanders into her happy classroom, they are instantly overwhelmed with the ACHIEVEMENT and engagement of our learners.

Mahalo nui e Kumu Nouveau and Ms. Kelly Ann for supporting ACHIEVEMENT at the Mayor’s Track Day(s) that were held over the weekend. It was wonderful to see our unique charter school participate in this event on Saturday (Kindergarten to Grade Five) and Sunday (Middle School) and we will share out the results in an upcoming Monday Message.

This week we will also celebrate ACHIEVEMENT with the second annual Makahiki Games that will be held on Thursday, April 7th. We are fortunate to have a local group of volunteers who will come to campus and run the event with our learners. Parents and community members are welcome to attend to event and learn more about the activities.

This a helpful reminder that there is another long long weekend coming up around the holiday of Easter. On Friday, April 7th the campus will be closed due to Good Friday and Monday, April 10th is a Hawai’i State Teachers Association (HSTA) Collaboration Day with no students at school. We look forward to welcoming our learners back to campus on Tuesday, April 12th for the stretch run of the 2022-2023 school year. There are no other planned breaks from school for the remainder of the school year which concludes on Friday, May 26th.

An update to a miscommunication on our Instagram and Facebook accounts-we have NOT hired a Grade Seven facilitator for the 2023-2024 school year yet. We are still collecting resumes to fill the position and we will be vigilant and make sure that we have high-quality educators working with our keiki.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and malama pono.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and malama pono.DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Happy almost Prince Kuhio Day to everyone in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community! We hope that this message finds you in good health and happiness as we prepare to celebrate his holiday tomorrow.

Known as the citizen Prince for his life of dedication to the people of Hawai’i, Prince Kuhio was instrumental in fighting for the homelands of the native Hawai’ians. He diligently lobbied US Senators, once writing to them “After extensive investigation and survey on the part of various organizations organized to rehabilitate the Hawaiian race, it was found that the only method in which to rehabilitate the race was to place them back upon the soil.”

Prince Kuhio was born just down the road from our school in Koloa and the impact of his life of service is still felt today long after his passing. Due to the persistent efforts of Prince Kuhio and a group of advocates, President Warren G. Harding signed the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, of 1920. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act intended to return native Hawaiians to the land while encouraging them to become self-sufficient homesteaders on the leased parcels of trust land.

We hope everyone spends a moment or two on Monday to reflect on the incredible person that Prince Kuhio was and his impact on our lives in beautiful Hawai’i.

Last week on campus we were blessed to have a special guest in our Hawai’iana classes. Captain Steve will be working with Kumu Kali and all the learners in our school on building model replicas of the boat Hokule’a which holds a prominent place in the history of Hawai’i. Please watch for further details as Captain Steve will be visiting us for the next two weeks.

We look forward to sharing further details on our upcoming Makahiki Games in April and Na Kupu Lau in May in upcoming editions of the Monday Message.

Please enjoy the scenic photo below captured by Ms. Barb. Notice the heart shape in the valley created by the shadows of the sun on the trees. It’s a splendid photo and it clearly speaks of a school that wishes to live aloha daily.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and malama pono.DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you enjoying the last few hours of a festive Spring Break. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to campus to commence the last quarter of the 2022-2023 school year and would like to share some shifts coming on campus.

As most of you know already, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School was unanimously granted approval by the state of Hawai’i Charter School Commissioners on March 9th to add Grade Seven (2023-2024) plus Grade Eight (2024-2025) so that we will become a full K-8 school. We are now working to ensure that we meet the expectations of highly qualified educators leading each of our classes. We have been advertising for a Hawai’i Teacher Standards Board-certified Hawai’iana teacher for several months now and can share that we internally found our candidate!

Kumu Kali will be moving from being the Grade Three/Four teacher to becoming the Hawai’iana teacher for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year. Kumu Kali has a Master’s Degree in Hawaiian studies from the University of Hawai’i and extensive teaching on several islands in Hawai’i. Kumu Kali spearheaded the introduction of the Makahiki Games to our school last April, so it is a perfect fit for all!

Ms. Emily (pictured below with Ms. Chasa) will remain as the Grade Three/Four teacher for the remainder of the school year to fill this vacancy left by moving Kumu Kali to the Hawai’iana teacher. Ms. Emily is already well known in our learning community for her warm smile and attention to detail with our learners.

Kumu Chris will shift from Hawai’iana teacher to Educational Assistant with Ms. Kate and the Grade Four class. Kumu Chris has already been in this role on Wednesdays and we plan to use his background knowledge in preparation for Na Kupu Lau in late May.

We also wish to introduce Kumu Nouveau (my apologies for the lack of a photo) to our learning community. He will be providing Physical Education to our learners in Kindergarten to Grade Six. We have asked Kumu Nouveau to please work with our keiki to assist with the preparation for the upcoming Mayor’s Track Meets on April 1st and April 2nd.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school and malama pono.DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community, and we hope this message finds you in good health and happiness as we move towards the end of February.

We wish to recognize great appreciation for all the tremendous support that we have enjoyed from our learning community. The photos in this week’s message outline the gift of time and expertise, in the last school year alone, that people have given unconditionally to improve the educational experience for our learners. We started the 2022-2023 way back in last July with the annual Campus Cleanup and sailed through Trunk or Treat, Holiday Performance, and our Chess Club. These are just a small sampling of the countless contributions that our learning community gives generously to our school.

Mahalo nui loa for all of your selfless acts of kindness to add numerous programs to our school. Despite being a tiny school with a small staff of less than thirty people, Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School has been able to offer unique programs not often found in schools with a student population of 500 learners. These programs have been achieved by our dedicated staff and supportive learning community working together in collaboration.

As we move towards the last quarter of the 2022-2023 school year, we have several upcoming large events that once again could use your assistance. We have Makahiki Games in April and Na Kupu Lau in May. Both of these important events will occur on campus. We are also looking forward to participating in the annual Mayor’s Track Meet for the first time during the first weekend in April (see the PDF below before more information about this event). We will definitely need parent assistance to help marshal our keiki to their events at the proper time.

Let’s all continue to work together to provide as many learning opportunities for our students as possible! We appreciate your willingness to be part of our learning community and collaborate to empower continuous growth at our school.

Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Mayor’s Track Meet PDF:

Aloha mai kakou to the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we hope this message finds you in good health and happiness during this long President’s Day weekend, despite the challenges of a Kona low storm in the islands. A helpful reminder that Monday, February 20th is Presidents Day and there will be no school for students tomorrow.

Although the weather has been cooler and rainy, the climate on campus last week was filled with aloha and love to celebrate Valentines Day! Our learning community is blessed to have such thoughtful, generous, and supportive people and staff that helped around campus so that our learners could be treated with so many delicious goodies. Valentines Day provided a fun day on campus but also provided the opportunity to showcase student creativity and thoughts.

Witness the artistic expression of the Grade Four class who built their own Valentines Day boxes in the photo below. They solicited responses from each learner on campus about “What Is Love?” and then created this wonderful display outside their classroom which is also included as the thumbnail photo this week. It is fascinating to read their responses and learn more about our learners.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School also wishes to share some Spelling Bee successes with our learning community. Ho’omaika’i to Makoa who recently won the Junior Spelling Bee on campus. The competition even needed to extend into double digit rounds due to the quality of our participants.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is thrilled to announce that Orah recently was named Runner-Up in the County of Kaua’i Spelling Bee and she will now head off to the State Championships on O’ahu. Best wishes to Orah at the state level! We also wish to express our appreciation to Ms. Giselle in her work supporting the school Spelling Bee program.

Mahalo for your support of our unique charter school. Malama pono.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.

Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community. We hope this message at the midpoint of February finds you in good health and happiness. A helpful reminder that Monday, February 13th with be the annual Hawai’i State Teachers Association (HSTA) Institute Day and the teachers’ union provides professional learning for our educators on that day. Accordingly, there will be no school for students tomorrow so everyone can enjoy Super Bowl festivities a little longer.

The late, great basketball player Kobe Bryant once remarked “Dedication makes dreams come true” and these wise words perfectly describe the outstanding service to our school from Mr. Jon. The dream of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School would not have become a reality without the selfless efforts of Mr. Jon over the last five years.

A perfect example of Mr. Jon’s dedication comes out of a recent challenge on campus last week. The massive thunderstorms that graced our beautiful island on Saturday, February 4th, knocked out our internet service on campus. Jon immediately leaped into action over the weekend and attempted on both Saturday and Sunday to get the system operational. Over the course of the next five days Jon spent countless hours including staying on campus until 10pm on Tuesday night to get the necessary repairs completed. Due in great part to his efforts and dedication, our school finally did get the internet damages repaired and back functioning late on Wednesday afternoon.

Jon was the very first employee at our school. He literally carved our unique charter school back from the jungle, as our current premises had sat vacant for numerous years with no tenants. It took a special person with a special set of skills and mindset for this to happen. We applaud Jon for his outstanding service and dedication to our school! Next time you see Jon on campus please take some time to share some aloha his way for making the dream a reality.

Hope the Super Bowl turned out as you had hoped and best wishes to you all for a terrific week.

DJ Adams – Po’o Kumu (Director), Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, Koloa, Hawai’i

“Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha.” There is life in a kindly reply.