05-26-2013, 02:21 PM
Just a note, call on Tuesday this week...as Monday is Memorial day, and you probably will not get anyone answering the phone...
There are also ways around the geography...but there is also the problem of from home to school, Keaau is a bit of a daily drive, unless you are doing it already (sometimes the Keaau bottleneck at 130 is bear when school is released...
There are buses, but the school bus system has had some ....complications. The HeleOn bus does run from Nanawale through to Keaau & then into Hilo...and does work out for some students (it is currently free for students, but that may change by fall semester...)
I have heard good & bad about both the public DOE & Charter schools & have worked in & for many in East Hawaii. All the schools I have worked with have had some issues that could be worked on, some absolutely spectacular staff, some staff that is totally lacking...
All the schools I have been in have a majority of the staff working to provide a positive education experience for their students. All of the schools here have done much better at diffusing some of the more touchy issues that have come up, and all have room to improve.
One thing to note here, the Public Charter schools are normally allocated less $$ for students & must also pay for their facilities out of their student allocation funds, so the public DOE schools should have more $$ for schooling, and a separate budget for facilities, which has lead to more interesting school facilities for the public charter schools. This can be a positive for some students, but can also be a negative for other students...
You may not realize that Keaau Inter. is the oldest of the Keaau schools, and does lack a lot of the newer fancier looking facilities of the El & HS... so that facility is more equal to the other options (Charter & Pahoa)...It also does have a large construction project that has been on-going for over a year now...with open window buildings....
There are also ways around the geography...but there is also the problem of from home to school, Keaau is a bit of a daily drive, unless you are doing it already (sometimes the Keaau bottleneck at 130 is bear when school is released...
There are buses, but the school bus system has had some ....complications. The HeleOn bus does run from Nanawale through to Keaau & then into Hilo...and does work out for some students (it is currently free for students, but that may change by fall semester...)
I have heard good & bad about both the public DOE & Charter schools & have worked in & for many in East Hawaii. All the schools I have worked with have had some issues that could be worked on, some absolutely spectacular staff, some staff that is totally lacking...
All the schools I have been in have a majority of the staff working to provide a positive education experience for their students. All of the schools here have done much better at diffusing some of the more touchy issues that have come up, and all have room to improve.
One thing to note here, the Public Charter schools are normally allocated less $$ for students & must also pay for their facilities out of their student allocation funds, so the public DOE schools should have more $$ for schooling, and a separate budget for facilities, which has lead to more interesting school facilities for the public charter schools. This can be a positive for some students, but can also be a negative for other students...
You may not realize that Keaau Inter. is the oldest of the Keaau schools, and does lack a lot of the newer fancier looking facilities of the El & HS... so that facility is more equal to the other options (Charter & Pahoa)...It also does have a large construction project that has been on-going for over a year now...with open window buildings....