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Education

Spartan Showdown

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Spartan Showdown

With less than a minute left in Friday night’s game at The Barn, Seabuary Hall’s Reynald Sorayama nailed a three-pointer to cap off a 73-23 victory over the Molokai High boys’ basketball team. The Spartans couldn’t miss from beyond the three-point line and rode their hot shooting streak to a pair of wins over the previously undefeated Farmers last weekend.

“[Seabury] shot the ball really well all weekend,” Molokai coach Lee DeRouin said. “They are good shooters and they are good basketball players.”

,” she said.

Saturday afternoon started on a warmer note, as all six girls and Aalona prepared to race their final events of the season. Because only eight teams competed in the championships, all relays were raced on Saturday – giving the Molokai girls one more chance.

“They all swam great, all swam to their current potential,” Ford said.

The Molokai kane swimmers finished the season in sixth place, but didn’t place in the wahine division. Ford and the swimmers are already thinking about next season, and a potential club team by summertime.

“They’ve made so much progress in three months, now all they need to improve is more training and development of details,” Ford said.

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Poetry Rocks

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Community Contributed

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Molokai Schools Get Help

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

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.

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Spelling Creates a Buzz

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Spelling Creates a Buzz

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.

Administered by the E.W. Scripps Company, the nation-wide spelling bee is the largest and longest-running educational promotion in the country.  The purpose of the popular bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

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. 

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Swimmers Learn from First Meet

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

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.”

Small numbers hurt the final scores for the Farmers who have only nine members on the team. The wahine finished seventh out of eight teams overall and the boys were unable to compete in any relays with only three swimmers, which meant they could not place. Ford was pleased with the performance.

“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.

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Molokai Monarchs Fly to First

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

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.

,” said Momi. “And it went well with theme of transport.”

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

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Furlough Fight Continues

Monday, January 4th, 2010

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.

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Early Christmas for Science

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Early Christmas for Science

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. 

“It’s truly gratifying to see the range of projects and commitment from educators like Malia, Jenny and Scott, who continue to pursue such worthwhile programs despite the tough economic times our state is facing,” said Dawn Bicoy, Monsanto Hawaii’s Molokai Community Affairs manager.

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

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Off to the Capitol

Monday, December 14th, 2009

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.

,” Mokuau said.

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.

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Choke Talent on Molokai

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Choke Talent on Molokai

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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