Sept. 18

Editorial Mission: As the Department's primary publication, we aim to live up to the meaning of ha‘aheo – to cherish with pride – by bolstering and sustaining pride in public education and touting the successes happening across our system.

Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow!

Despite starting this school year with suspended bus service due to the ongoing bus driver shortage, Mountain View Elementary, in East Hawai‘i, has been seeing an approximately 90% average daily attendance rate. That’s due to a team effort from families, teachers, administration and counselors, according to Principal Adria Medeiros. The school’s attendance team developed their own attendance awareness and promotion activities last school year, which have carried on into this year. 

One of their initiatives was creating a weekly video series using puppets, Kimo and Leilani, who talk about the importance of regular attendance. The videos are aired during the school’s Wednesday broadcast.

Counselors also visit each classroom that achieves five or 10 days of 90% or higher attendance with a spinning prize wheel called the Attendance Wheel. The prizes on the wheel can vary by class, and teachers can submit requests for incentives (e.g., extra recess, TV time, dance party, karaoke, bubble fun, icy treats, chalk art, etc.) Classes earn letters for each day the class reaches the attendance goal. Once a class earns enough letters to spell out “H-A-W-K-S” (five days) or “W-E-A-R-E-H-A-W-K-S,” (10 days), the homeroom teacher submits a referral to the counselors and students get to spin the Attendance Wheel the following Monday, with rewards redeemed that Wednesday.

The school also has an Attendance Bulletin Board displayed prominently on campus that highlights the school's overall attendance rate. Students earn two blue tokens for daily attendance – one for being present and one for being on time – which can be redeemed at the school store for notebooks, stuffed animals, erasers and other items.

Teachers also provide students and families with a Quarterly Attendance Tracker to share the importance of tracking attendance using a calendar, along with an incentive for submitting it. Students with perfect attendance or improved attendance receive a quarterly certificate and “brag tags” that can be redeemed for popcorn.

With the added obstacle of not having school bus service at the start of the school year, MVES staff adjusted the pick-up and drop-off locations to accommodate the increased number of vehicles on campus. Staff postponed the start of the Attendance Tracker incentive by one month. A larger team of support staff personally reached out to the families of students who were absent during the first few days of school to understand the reasons for their absences (e.g., issues related to the bus, moving, etc.). Staff said the most effective method for attendance outreach has been making personal phone calls to families.

Congratulations to Mountain View Elementary School for being a leader in attendance!

“Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow!” is the slogan for the Department’s multi-year campaign aimed at boosting student attendance at schools. With September being Attendance Awareness Month, we will be sharing stories of attendance successes.

Ho‘oha‘aheo Photo of the Week

Kealakehe Elementary Warriors wore their grade level colors on School Spirit Day to show their sense of belonging and pilina (connection/relationship) with their classmates on Aug. 30, 2024.

Credit: Malaea Spencer / Kealakehe Elementary School

Submit your public school-related image from this school year for a chance to be featured as next week’s Ho‘oha‘aheo Photo of the Week!

Student Voice: Homecoming 'ignites flame' of school, community pride

Mililani High School’s Class of 2025 performs a cheer during last year’s homecoming celebrations. Credit: Mililani High School

By Lotus Yasuda

September marks the beginning of one of Hawaiʻi’s most anticipated and cherished high school traditions. Homecoming! Behind the scenes, student leaders across the islands work tirelessly to prepare their schools for a week full of cheering, competition and community. Once the adrenaline of homecoming kicks in, it transforms the entire school’s atmosphere. Walking through each school, you can feel the change from students studying quietly in their classrooms to being decked out in their school colors and yelling their class cheers at the top of their lungs. Students develop a stronger sense of belonging in their school, forming bonds with their classmates through discussions about upcoming activities and competitions. Homecoming plants a fiery seed of school spirit within their hearts, and it grows as the days lead up to the big event.

Every school has its unique way of celebrating the homecoming season. It may be through fun dress-up days, a dance, lip sync battle, parade, fair, cheer competition, bonfire, or even a powderpuff assembly, where girls compete in flag football with the football players cheering for them.

At Waipahu High School, we celebrate our homecoming as a week filled with competitive activities hosted by Student Government to build momentum toward our famous annual cheer competition, Arthur Awards. Our class councils spend their entire summers secretly planning their class cheers. From there, they teach the cheer to their entire grade level during advisory periods while working to boost the spirit of and strengthen the connections with their peers. Finally, they lead their classes through the various competitions of Homecoming Week. This year, our senior Mystic Knights, junior Immortal Lions, sophomore Moonlight Soldiers, and freshmen Valiant Vipers will face off in Marauder Wonderland through friendly competitions of tug-of-war, singing our alma mater, cheering our school’s colors and, finally, showcasing class pride during Arthur Awards all in hopes of being deemed the winners of the week during the homecoming football game.

Lotus Yasuda is a junior at Waipahu High School and serves as the 2024-25 Hawaiʻi State Student Council (HSSC) Chairperson. She is a dual-enrolled Olympian working toward earning her liberal arts degree from Leeward Community College through Waipahu High School's Early College program. She is a part of the Student Government and Phi Theta Kappa Collegiate Honor Society. Her goal is to help others realize the best versions of themselves while creating equitable opportunities for students throughout the state to succeed.

#HIPublicSchoolsProud

Social media highlights of the most engaging posts of the week. 
Use the #HIPublicSchoolsProud hashtag for a chance to be featured!

Hilo High School

» Shoutout to everyone who rocked their beachwear and showed up with that Viking spirit tonight! 🌴🏈 . Thanks for bringing the beach vibes and boosting our team’s pride! #VikingPride #BeachwearNight #HiloHighStrong #hilohighfootball

Olomana School

» Thank you, Hawaiian Airlines! Olomana students went on a field trip where they got to fly in the simulator and learn about different jobs.

Waiāhole Elementary

» One of our favorite traditions at Waiāhole! “Gonna plant our corn seeds down in the garden.” Mahalo to the Reppun ‘ohana and Uncle Kanaloa for helping us today. #waiaholees #smallschoolbigheart #Mauka2Makai #corn

HIDOE Headlines

A roundup of announcements, resources and shoutouts.

» Red Hill Elementary third-grade teacher N'mmah Kanu received items for dream classroom thanks to generous donations from her viral TikTok post.

» The Maui Pono Foundation donated $5,200 to Lahaina Intermediate School to fund their Eighth Grade Banquet.

» The Honolulu Museum of Art’s newest exhibition “Home of the Tigers: McKinley High and Modern Art,” showcases work from seven of the most significant artists to come out of Hawai‘i in the 20th century – all McKinley High School graduates.

Family Focus

“Venmo Mom” or “Volunteer Mom” (or Dad or other family student supporter) Have you heard of the term “Venmo mom?” It’s a moniker a Tennessee mother of four recently coined as she declared on TikTok that she doesn’t volunteer at her kids’ events and would rather donate money. Some echoed her sentiments saying they simply don’t have the time or that gatherings give them anxiety. Others asked how things are supposed to get done without volunteers. While volunteering sometimes isn’t possible for some parents, research shows that the more a student’s family is involved in the school, the more comfortable the student feels, and student progress increases. Parents whose children have completed their public K-12 education often report that they have met their best friends for life by bringing refreshments, driving for field trips or preparing for classroom/school events. We hope you will check out these ways to be involved with your child’s schooling.

• Consider joining a School Community Council. They help craft the school’s Academic Plan and Financial Plan, which establish the goals and programs for the school, and the available resources. Contact a school directly or contact the HIDOE Community Engagement Branch at (808) 305-0691.​
• Become a member of your school’s PTSA. It’s a great way to learn more about the school and meet other parents, teachers and administrators while helping the school. Ask your school for details.
• Visit your school and meet your teachers! Take the time to attend school orientations or open houses. Give your child opportunities to share about teacher interactions and discover each teacher’s expectations and opportunities to volunteer.
• Join Us! Parents for Public Schools Hawai‘i is free! Tell us your school joys, hopes and concerns, and we will work with you to celebrate, share and solve. Email us to join our meetings and events in person or by Zoom. Click here to join.

But if you cannot volunteer, or even if you DO volunteer, we hope you will also consider supporting your child’s school with donations!

• September is the Month to Give Aloha through Foodland’s Annual Community Matching Gifts Program. Maika‘i members are invited to make donations up to $249 to their favorite participating Hawai‘i nonprofit organization at checkout. Donations to each organization are tracked, and Foodland’s matching gift is divided proportionately among all participating organizations based on customer donations to the organizations. Find out if your child’s school is participating and give what you can.
• Shop and Score at Times Supermarket between Sept. 4 and Oct. 15 to help Hawai‘i’s high school student-athletes. Buy participating Shop and Score products at Times, then tell your cashier which high school you’d like to support. The designated high school receives the points. At the end of the program, each school will receive a percentage of the $250,000 Shop and Score athletic funds based on their equivalent percentage of total points earned.

Family Focus is a monthly column coordinated by Parents for Public Schools Hawai‘i, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of parents, educators, community leaders, policy makers, and other stakeholders in Hawai‘i public education.

Important Dates & Upcoming Events

• September 19: Board of Education Student Achievement Committee and General Business Meeting
• October: National Principals Month
• Oct. 4: End of First Quarter

Hale Pa‘i was Hawai‘i’s first printing press and where students and teachers published the first Hawaiian-language newspaper, Ka Lama Hawai‘i, on Feb. 14, 1834. Hale Pa‘i, which now serves as a printing museum and archive center, is housed on which public school campus?

1. McKinley High School
2. Lahainaluna High School 
3. Kahuku High & Intermediate School
4. Honokaʻa High and Intermediate School

Find the answer at the end of this newsletter.

Work With Us!

Grade 4 Elementary Teacher, Maʻemaʻe Elementary (O‘ahu)
Secretary II, Standards Support Section (O‘ahu)
Transition to Middle School Teacher, Kapa‘a Middle (Kaua‘i)
School Custodian III, Lanai High & Elementary (Lāna‘i)
Communication Aide, Hawai‘i District, North Hawai‘i Regional Special Education Office (Hawai‘i Island)

For more career opportunities in the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, please visit hawaiischooljobs.com.

Public School Pop Quiz! Answer: 2. Lahainaluna High School

HAWAI‘I STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Keith Hayashi

Superintendent

ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTS

Ho‘oha‘aheo

PUBLIC SCHOOL PROUD

Contributors

1390 Miller St. Honolulu, HI 96813 | Phone: (808) 784-6200 | Fax: (808) 586-3234

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