Monday message 08.24.2020

Aloha to the good people in the Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School learning community and hope this Monday Message finds you in good health and happiness.

Mahalo to all who supported our on-campus face-to-face days with our facilitators this past week. Your adaptability in assisting with the shifts and changes that came about with rising COVID cases on Kaua’i is greatly appreciated. It is comforting to see the numbers on our beautiful island flatten out again, and these numbers combined with inter-island quarantine again gives us all hope to return to campus safely for everyone.

Accordingly, we will continue to welcome our learners back on campus gradually starting on Monday, August 24, with our vulnerable learners first. Vulnerable learners would be classified as our keiki who would find distance education most challenging and potentially unproductive for their developmental needs. Younger learners in our school definitely fall into this category, so we will have our kindergarten, grades 1 and 2, and learners with special needs back on campus in the initial phase.

Grades 3-6 will start distance learning on Monday, August 24, as previously announced. These learners will remain in our distance learning program until an evaluation on Tuesday, September 8, to determine whether health experts and government officials give us the recommendation to open campus safely for the reminder of our learners.

Your dedicated facilitators will communicate with you directly about the particular details of their educational delivery model as each one of them is special and unique and will teach in different ways.

We could see and feel the joy of the learners to be back at school face-to-face again. They quickly adjusted to new procedures, protocols, and expectations on campus despite being away since March. Mahalo, learners, as we enjoyed having you here and appreciate your eagerness to learn new concepts about being on campus during a pandemic. We are excited about our future together when we can all return to campus at the same time without a health risk to any in our learning community.

This week we also wish to express our gratitude to a group of people who sometimes get overlooked in today’s world: the PARENTS. Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is blessed to have a strong foundation of parents who support our collective work together. A majority of our talented staff members are passionate about our success, as they are PARENTS of learners in our school. Many of our dedicated Board of Directors members selflessly volunteer countless hours to govern our school, as they are PARENTS. Let’s also recognize that there are also PARENTS from all parts of our beautiful island who give their time, effort, and commitment to have their young people attend our school. Mahalo to you all for your support of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School!

You may have noticed a photo highlighting parents in this week’s message. We were blessed to have a Board of Directors Strategic Planning Session this week, which featured a talk story component between our staff and Board of Directors to improve communication plus build cohesive problem-solving.

Our featured Monday Message image is of a promise fulfilled, as Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is now running a bus to campus. This endeavor was made possible through the efforts of many people for numerous years and speaks well of our bright future.

Best wishes to you all for a terrific day and mahalo for your support of our school.

DJ Adams
School Director