Namahana Education Foundation is proud to present our 2024 Annual Impact Report.

Walter and Marcia Kortschak have made a $250,000 gift to Namahana School, which can be renewed annually for four years for a total $1 million. Continue reading their inspiring journey, and hear why Namahana’s emphasis on relevant, real-world problem-solving that improves communities both locally and globally is important.

Enrollment for 7th and 8th grades for the 2025-2026 school year will launch this Saturday, January 25th, and will close on Tuesday, March 25th. Once enrollment is live on our website, we will share additional information and application links via an email, the news section on our site, and our Instagram. Please stay tuned for updates.  

Hiring at Namahana is in full swing, as we prepare for our first classes this August! We are actively seeking teachers for the 2025-26 school year, and are also hiring for Office Manager, Student Support Coordinator, and Educational Assistant. 

We invite prospective parents to mark their calendars for February 23rd, as we are currently planning an optional open house at the Kula site.

Support Namahana Educational Foundation on February 15 by attending the Jake Shimabukuro center at Anaina Hou’s Porter Pavilion. $2 from every ticket sold will go right to Namahana!

The New York Times recently featured a great article featuring Big Picture Learning, titled “Giving Kids Some Autonomy Has Surprising Results.”

Our Facilities Committee has been hard at work with both our architectural firm G70 and WABi Systems to move our middle school development forward. Check-out the new campus renderings from G70 here!  

We are thrilled to welcome Namahana School’s two newest team members, Taeko Onishi as our Director of Finance and Operations and Tamra Moriguchi as our Director of Learning!

Enrollment for our 7th and 8th grade classes for the 2025-26 school year will open next month. If you are interested in enrolling your child, please follow our newsletter, Namahana’s Instagram, and the News section at Namahana.org for more information. Links to all the necessary forms will be available shortly. Stay tuned!

Mahalo to co-anchor Stephanie Lum at  Hawaiʻi News Now for sharing Namahana’s story! In a television segment, she showcased our recent milestones, as well as the generous gift from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. In the Muthaship podcast, Lum hosted a 20-minute interview with Namahana leadership and a prospective family counting down the days to Namahana’s opening next Fall.

Check out this interesting piece at newschools.org that showcases how student interests and needs are evolving, and how Namahana is finding creative solutions to unique challenges. The article highlights Namahana when discussing “A Resurgence in Rural Innovation.”

Did you know you can support Namahana via a charitable bequest? Your gift can impact innovative educational programs, empower our community’s future leaders, and ensure you can create a lasting impact aligned to your values. 

Does the organization you work for want to expand its impact and contribute to the North Shore community? Namahana is now on Benevity, a platform the helps some of the world’s top brands create social impact.

As we look back on 2024, we are filled with gratitude for your unwavering support. We made incredible strides together this year…

Although its doors won’t open until fall 2025, Namahana School has already built a remarkable network of philanthropic partners. Today, the public charter middle and high school on Kaua‘i’s North Shore announced that Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, through the Chan Zuckerberg Kauaʻi Community Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, made a cash gift of $750,000 alongside a set of state-of-the-art mobile facilities valued at $800,000.

In this article, Dennis Fujimoto highlights the incredible generosity of Chan and Zuckerberg. With this recent gift, our pre-opening fundraising total has reached $6 million, which includes $5.3 million toward our Phase I $10 million capital campaign to build the middle school portion of our campus.

Mahalo TGI for consistently sharing our milestones with the community.

Check out this interview with Dr. Kapua Chandler, Namahana School Leader, on Kaua’i Community Radio. Featured on the “Out of the Box” program, the interview is a great dive into the school, from the community engagement that was done to build the curriculum, to the continued efforts by many to build the school as we prepare to welcome our first students next August.

Whether at our parent meetups or via Instagram, we love receiving questions from the community. Please keep them coming. Here are some answers to our most frequently asked questions.

We are continually updating the Careers page on the Namahana website, and this week we’ve added a new job opening for Office Manager. Under the supervision of the School Leader, the position of the Office Manager is responsible for providing support to the School Leader in all areas of administration.