Aloha mai kakou to the good people in the learning community of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School. We hope this message finds you in good health and happiness as we transition into April. With a new month also comes a new character trait focus, and we will be recognizing ACHIEVEMENT on campus, so we wish to share a shining example with you all.

The American politician Robert F. Kennedy once wrote, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” These wise words perfectly capture the incredible work of our first Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School Board of Directors Chairperson, Dr. Kani Blackwell, who dared to turn a vision into a reality in helping to create our unique charter school. DrB or “Tutu B” as she is affectionally known on campus worked for several years to get a charter contract approved even before we were able to open our doors to learners.

The idea of creating a high-quality free public education for the keiki of Kaua’i had actually been around for years, but it was the leadership of DrB that brought synergy and life to the notice. As far back as 2012, a group of visionary people came together and submitted an application to the Hawai’i Charter Commission to open the school in the 20213-2014 school year. The application was denied. In 2014-2015, under the steady guidance of DrB, the group came back again to apply to the Hawai’i Charter Commission to open the school. The application was denied. Despite these “failures,” the strength of DrB remained true, and the group came back with an application to open the school again in 2015-2016. On August 16th, 2016, the state of Hawai’i Charter School Commission approved the application, and then the process of starting up a brand new school from scratch commenced.

DrB clearly epitomizes the wise words of Robert F. Kennedy as she achieved greatly in taking the vision of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School to a reality. She openly shared her talents, expertise, and passion, plus she volunteered countless hours to contribute to building the school that we all enjoy today. We wish to publicly express our gratitude to DrB for all of her amazing work with our learning community and for helping us to become the unique school that we are.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School also wishes to express our deepest condolences to DrB with the passing of her husband, Paul Blackwell. Paul was a dear friend of our school and was immensely supportive of our growth of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School. We share warm aloha with DrB for peace and tranquility in her life and salute her role modeling of ACHIEVEMENT for our learning community.

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

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