Monday message 02.22.2021

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

Many people have become curious about our unique charter school nestled back in beautiful Kahili Valley and wondered exactly what differentiates Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School from other institutions. It is surprisingly easy to answer this question with a few pictures from our campus last week.

First off, we are blessed to be surrounded by the wonder of nature here on the garden island. It is common to view waterfalls in the backdrop of the mountains or see a vibrant rainbow pop up seemingly next door in the field by the Upper Campus. We embrace nature to the point that the 2nd grade class created a Butterfly Garden that actually witnessed a harvest of colorful butterflies in the classroom last week that will be released back to the wild.

As opposed to eliminating enrichments, our charter school supports enhancing additional learning opportunities for our keiki through both an art program and a Hawai’iana program. The tree outside the art room continues to flourish under the talented guidance of Ms. Nicole. Kumu Chris has quickly utilized the new outdoor learning space on campus to teach about Hawai’ian culture while being in the great outdoors. Ms. Kate selflessly volunteers her time to provide a cocurricular basketball program for our 4th-6th grade girls.

Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is proudly a project based learning school where learner curiosity is welcomed and critical thinking about real-world problems is encouraged as verified by the student activities in their projects. We also value social-emotional learning, as demonstrated in our strong national rankings in the recent Panorama Surveys distributed by HIDOE.

These are all clear examples that provide sound evidence that Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School is special, unique, and a little different from any other school on our island.

We celebrate these successes from our humble beginnings less than three years ago but must continue to strive toward excellence with consistent improvement. We greatly appreciate the talents of Jon, who recently retiled a bathroom space in our 3rd grade room. We acknowledge the generosity of Tapia + Design, who donated toward improved landscaping on campus, and we can already see significant positive changes in a short time.

Mahalo for your support of our school, and best wishes for a healthy and happy Learner-Led Conference at the end of this week.

DJ Adams
School Director