Poetry Rocks
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Education
Add your commentMolokai Schools Get Help
Sen. Kalani English is looking out for the little guy. He recently proposed an amendment to a bill that puts an inadvertent budgetary strain on small, remote schools.
The Reinventing Education Act of 2004 established a weighted student formula for schools to receive money – meaning the more students at a school, the more money would be needed and given. However, smaller schools received less funding since then – some were shut down.
Spelling Creates a Buzz
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Community Contributed
By Noa John Horner
Kualapu’u School held their annual School Spelling Bee on Jan. 7. Congratulations to Kamalei Davis who was our runner up this year and to Geisha Nunez who won first place. These two students will be representing our school in Maui on Feb. 11 at the Maui District Bee. If successful, they will be eligible to compete at our state level in March and hopefully continue on to national recognition in May.
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This year we watched 16 students from Kualapu’u School compete for the two top seeds to advance to the district level. The bee went through 12 intense rounds before a winner could be chosen. It was ultimately decided when Geisha Nunez got the correct spelling of the word “opacity.” Congratulations to Geisha for a job well done.
Gift bags with various school supplies were presented to all 16 finalists. Our two top winners went home with gift bags, school packs, a dictionary, a Scrabble game and cash prizes. The Spelling Bee Committee would like to thank Alu Like, Queen Liliuokalani Trust, Kualapu’u School, and Kualapu’u PSO for their generous donations to our winners.
We would like to say a very special Mahalo to Andreana Reyes who coordinated the whole event. All the time planning and preparing really made this event a successful one. Thank you also goes out to Faith Horner, Minky Young, Christine McGuire, Ted Takamiya, Leila Elia, Brianne Naeole, Tarrah Horner and Lydia Trinidad. Thank you for your time and expertise. Thank you also to all the families who helped and supported their children in this year’s spelling bee.
Congratulations to all our students who participated. Study hard and we’ll see all of you next year. Finally, good luck to our two students, Geisha Nunez and Kamalei Davis, as they prepare for the upcoming bees.
Swimmers Learn from First Meet
The Molokai High swim team made their season debut last weekend at a meet in Lahainaluna. While the team’s small number kept them off of the leaderboard, they hit the water with some strong individual races.
Junior Cole Mosher and sophomore Lawaia Aalona placed in the top eight out of 37 swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle event. Mosher picked up seventh with a time of 25.66 and Aalona finished just behind him in 25.72 seconds. The boys’ raced in adjacent lanes, playing on their teammate competitiveness. Molokai head coach Jessie Ford called their efforts “absolutely outstanding.”
“They raced about how I thought they would. They went in there and put it down, Molokai style,” Ford said.
The Farmers head to Kihei next weekend for back-to-back meets on Jan. 15 and 16. The first taste of a swim meet has energized the team for the rest of the season.
“It makes me hungry to race again,” Puhi said.
“I’m excited for the next two meets, I think the closeness of the two meets is going to help the swimmers stay focused and stay with racing mentality for next week,” Ford said.
Molokai Monarchs Fly to First
When the 21st Century NXT Navigators robotics team returned from the Lego League qualifying tournament in Maui last November, they did something surprising – they started all over.
The all-girls team from three different Molokai schools experienced technical problems with their robot before Maui, and decided to rebuild it to give their best effort at the state tournament. They also renamed their team the Molokai Monarchs, complete with costumes.
Janice Espiritu, principal of Kaunakakai School, is the director of the 21st Century grant for all Molokai schools, which got the robotics project started in 2008. She hopes to expand the grant to start a high school team.
“A lot of times people might sell us short because we’re coming from a little island, not knowing that we can compete with the best anywhere,” Espiritu said.
The winning team
Moriah Jenkins, 10th grade at MHS
Sarah Jenkins, 7th grade at Aka`ula School
Momi Afelin, 6th grade at Kaunakakai Elementary
Puakea Domingo, 6th grade at Kaunakakai Elementary
Cendall Manley, 6th grade level, homeschooled
The coaches
Kawika Gonzales, 5th grade teacher at Kaunakakai Elementary
Heidi Jenkins, 3/4 grade teacher at Kaunakakai Elementary
Melanie Goode, 6th grade teacher at Maunaloa Elementary
The cheerleaders
Louise Manley, parent and chaperone
Kim Svetin, parent
Meg Afelin, parent and chaperone
Amy Keanini, parent and chaperone
Michelle Tancayo, parent and chaperone
Greg Jenkins, parent and chaperone
Furlough Fight Continues
Officials from the Department of Education (DOE) and Governor Linda Lingle’s office failed to reach their goal of creating a new furlough schedule before Hawaii’s public schools reopened this week.
A compromise between the two parties and the main teachers’ union – the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) – looked possible towards the end of December. The HSTA and representatives from the Board of Education (BOE) reached an agreement on Dec. 28 to reduce the number of furlough days remaining in this school year.
“This settlement ensures that there will be no furlough Fridays for the remainder of the current school year,” said BOE Chairman Garret Toguchi in a statement released the day of the meeting.
Early Christmas for Science
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Community Contributed
By Dawn Bicoy
Three Molokai teachers got their Christmas presents a little early last week. Malia Lee, Jenny Ainoa and Scott Hemenway were all presented with grants from the Monsanto Hawaii Science Education Grant Fund at the conclusion of last week’s Science Fair.
The grants were awarded for a variety of educational endeavors, including requests for the purchase of digital cameras, science fair supplies, and digital probes for labs to study water quality and oceanography along Molokai’s shores.
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The three award winners were excited about the possibilities it will open for them inside the classroom.
“We really need the supplies and tools. Just to have these items in the first place, makes all the difference. Instead of me doing a demo in front of my students, we can now do it together” said Scott Hemenway, Molokai Intermediate School science teacher.
The fund is open to public schools serving students at the intermediate, high school and college grade levels on the islands of Molokai, Maui, Kauai and Oahu. Established in 2005 it was intended to help our Hawaii public schools with programs, tools and supplies, as well as enhance science education and encourage students to consider a future career in the sciences. It is entirely up to the school, teacher, or parent-teacher association to envision its grant request and apply.
“As a company we’re dedicated to scientific research, and we’re proud to be able to support these educators who empower students with science and technology skills. Their vision is instrumental in creating this partnership so that everyone here on Molokai wins,” Bicoy said.
For more information on Monsanto Hawaii, visit www.monsanto.com/hawaii
Off to the Capitol
Washington D.C. is a day of traveling away, but worlds apart from what most Molokai High School students are used to. It has stoplights, an area population in the millions, and museums with artifacts documenting the birth of our nation. But, as these students said, they will have the opportunity to use the nation’s capitol as their classroom to better understand their country.
This year, a record number 23 students from Molokai High School are signed up to participate in Close Up, a nonprofit organization that brings U.S. and international students to visit and study in our nation’s capitol. The week-long excursion will be over spring break in 2010.
The $2500 price tag for the trip is steep, but it comes with the opportunity to discuss and debate domestic and international issues with other students around the country, as well as meet members of Congressional staff, visit museums like the Smithsonian, monuments like the World War II memorial, and government buildings like the Supreme Court. Each student is responsible for raising their own money for the trip.
The students will be traveling to Washington D.C. from March 14 – 19, and are still actively seeking donations. They will continue to hold fundraisers until their trip, and encourage anyone interested to contribute.
Choke Talent on Molokai
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Nearly 50 students from four Molokai schools participated in this year’s Brown Bags to Stardom talent show last Saturday night, an island-wide talent competition. This was the second year that the competition was open to elementary and middle school students, and the first year that Molokai had all three divisions represented.
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The King of Roi
Community Contributed
What started off as a senior project for Kumu Spencer-Misaki, soon became something much bigger and much more meaningful to him and to Molokai’s community.
Kumu’s project was to address how to control the population of the peacock grouper fish, better known here in Hawai’i as roi. It is an invasive species that was introduced to Hawaii in 1956 from French Polynesia as a food source.
However, it soon became apparent that the majority of the roi contained ciguatera a toxin that when consumed, can cause extreme sickness. The roi also began eating a lot of Hawai’i’s reef fish. A roi can consume 150 fish annually and its lifespan is approximately 13 years. So in essence, one roi can consume 1950 fish in its lifetime.
All in all, the tournament brought in 392 roi in far from ideal conditions. Cameraman Cal Hirai said it was the most he had seen at any tournament this year.
After the prizes were awarded, Kumu presented Camie Kimball, Molokai High School Athletic Director, with a check for $1500. Kumu also donated an additional $122 that he made by raffling a spear that was made by Eddie Castro.
Kumu decided to donate the money to the high school despite not playing any sports. He also has been working hard to raise funds for a school trip to Washington D.C. in March, but did not keep any of his hard-earned roi money for that trip.
It was not just an individual who made all this happen, it was a community. In these hard times, Molokai continues to do what we do best, support each other. This was evident by the amount divers that came out in force that day, the businesses and individuals who so generously donated prizes, and the families that gave of their time and support. Without all of them, this could not have been possible.
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