School news and events for the week of {date}

Aloha to the good people of Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and hope this message finds you in good health and happiness in the month of November.

With the shift of seasons, heavier rains are coming to campus. Mahalo to those families who have already sent raincoats, umbrellas, and proper footwear to school with their keiki. We hope to avoid having our learners getting wet, but some school schedules such as drop-off or dismissal leave us at the mercy of Mother Nature. We love the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful waterfalls that appear on the mountains after a vigorous shower.

As we move into November, we are announcing our new character trait focus: respect. The wise author Robert Schuller once wrote, “As we grow as unique persons, we learn to respect the uniqueness of others.” We are extremely impressed with the quick adjustments our keiki have made to new policies, procedures, and protocol on campus, especially in light of our significantly increased enrollment. The next positive progression for our school culture is greater awareness and engagement in the area of respect of others. Our facilitators have shared this focus with each of the classes, and it has been added as a component of our daily morning assemblies. Our keiki will be doing skits, stories, songs, and activities on the topic of respect. It’s great to see our learners perform in assemblies, and the leaders in 6th grade introduced a school-wide contest right after Halloween. Keep up the great work, Alaka’i O Kaua’i learners. Our school name translated from Hawaiian to English would be “leaders of Kaua’i”!

Mahalo to all of you for your efforts in keeping everyone safe and healthy on our beautiful island so we can remain open at the green level of on-campus face-to-face education. The threshold in our revised school opening plan is 11 active COVID cases on our island; if that happens, our school would move to the yellow level or a hybrid model of learning. We all sincerely hope this shift is not necessary but wanted to give a quick reminder of the plan.

We appreciate the efforts of our dedicated Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School Board of Directors for their annual visit to our campus last week. The board members spent the entire day visiting classrooms, observing procedures, and reviewing the current state of affairs within our school. These volunteers selflessly contribute their time and knowledge to improve Alaka’i O Kaua’i Charter School, and we will continue to evolve thanks in part to their guidance.

Mahalo to you all for your support of our school, and best wishes to you for a terrific week.

DJ Adams
School Director