Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 8, 1 August 2012 — 2 Hawaiians named to new charter school oversight board [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

2 Hawaiians named to new charter school oversight board

By Kekoa Enomoto Two Native Hawaiians were named to a new nine-member Public Charter School Commission by the state Board of Education. The appointments of Peter Kauhola Hanohano Jr. and Henry Halenani Gomes eame just after Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill to

overhaul governance and accountability within the state's charter school system in June. The Legislature passed Senate Bill 2115 to change the way the schools are governed and put schools on performance contracts to better track academics and finances in the 32 charter school campuses. The reform follows a critical audit that concluded that in many cases charter schools spent public money without oversight, as well as reports of ethics lapses at a few schools. The new commission, whieh has the power to grant and renew charters, will oversee the system and make annual reports on charter performance. As a former criminal lawyer with mostly Hawaiian clients,

Hanohano said he had seen it wasn't enough to keep people out of jail; he had to get them on a different path. "That's why I am an advocate for education, especially for Hawaiians," said Hanohano, a former executive director of the Native Hawaiian Education Council. Hanohano currently serves as capacity-building manager for Hi'ilei Aloha LLC, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. A Maui resident, Hanohano noted a grassroots movement to establish the Valley Isle's first Hawaiian-focused charter school at the old Ke'anae School. "Schools are so critical to the identity of a community," he said. Hanohano's grandson, Kia'i Hanohano-Hashimoto, is an

incoming second grader at Honolulu's Voyager Public Charter School. Regarding Hawai'i's status in the national char-ter-school movement, Hanohano said, "We are ascending, and I want to ensure that we excel." Hanohano said charter schools are key to creating Hawaiians who ean excel in a modern world. "Charter schools are setting the path for our Hawaiian nation,"

he said. Lor me it s not enough to be educated, but be educated Hawaiians - educated in modern society but grounded in our traditional culture. Hanohano said charter schools are key to creating Hawaiians who ean excel in a modem world. "Charter schools are setting the path for our Hawaiian nation," he said. "Lor me, it's not enough to be educated, but be educated Hawaiians - educated in modern society but grounded in our traditional culture." That way, he said, Hawaiians ean face the future with "traditional Hawaiian values, understanding and perspective while being fully involved and engaged in the 21st century." Gomes, the director of Chaminade Univer-

sity's Office of Native Hawaiian Partnerships, has helped establish a scholarship programopen to all Hawaiian-focused charter school graduates with a 3.0 grade point average. Gomes, the director of Chaminade University's Office of Native Hawaiian Partnerships, has helped establish a scholarship programopen to all Hawaiian-focused charter school graduates with a 3.0 grade point average. He said the board needs to develop administrative and organizational structures suited to the unique Hawaiian-focused charter schools and have a balanced tenure system that rewards SEE CHARTER SCH00LS "II PAGE 13

Charter school facts > Hawai'i has 32 charterschools, including 17 Hawaiian-focused charter schools, of whieh six ate Hawaiian-language immersion. > Act 106 allocates $61.8 million tocharterschools forfiscal year 2012-13, depending on enrollment. > 0verall projected enrollment forthe 2012-13 school year is 10,162 students, up 8 percent from 9,339 students this past school year. > Largest isle charter school is Waipahu-based Hawai'i TechnologyAcademy, with a projected 2012-13 enrollment of 1,161; second largest is Kamaile Academy on the Wai'anae Coast, with a projected 2012-13 enrollment of 980. Sowce: Kenyon Tam, Hawai'i Charter School Administrative Oiiiee

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Henry Halenani Gomes

Peter Kauhola Hanohano Jr.

CHARTER SCHOOLS Continued from page 4 dynamic, quality instruction, hard work and innovation. Gomes also would like to see a value system "largely dependent upon responsibility to the community." Gomes said his interest and involvement in puhlie charter schools stem from his own background. Originally from Mākaha, O'ahu, he attended Wai'anae and Mākaha elementary schools, and graduated from Damien Memorial High School. He has an undergraduate degree in horticulture from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and a master's degree in biology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "I'm proud of my puhlie school education," he said. The other members of the eommission are: Chairperson Karen Street, vice president of organizational development for First Insurance Co. of Hawai'i; Vice

Chairperson Catherine Payne, a retired educator and former principal of Farrington High School and a winner of a national Milken Educator award; John Colson, former Waimea Middle School principal; Richard Hogeboom, an instructor in Chaminade University's Master's in Educational Leadership for Charter Schools; Usha Kotner, Kona Paeihe Puhlie Charter School director; Roger Takabayashi, retired Hawai'i State Teachers Association president and an educator for more than four decades; and Peter Tomozawa, a director of FX Allianee ine., an electronic foreign exchange trading company. Puhlie Charter School Commission meetings are open to the puhlie. Visit hcsao.org for information, or eall Sylvia Silva at (808) 721-8615 in Kona or Roger McKeague at (808) 586-3775 in Honolulu. ■ Kekoa Enomolo is a retired copy editor and staff writer with The Maui News and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.