Hundreds from Kaua‘i’s North Shore Rally for Namahana School
Community-Driven Fundraising, Enrollment, Recruitment, and Campus Construction Headline Lively Meeting
PRESS RELEASE- April 30, 2024 —The excitement was palpable at Anaina Hou’s Porter Pavilion in Kīlauea, where approximately 200 North Shore residents gathered on April 28 to learn about Namahana School’s rapidly approaching opening in fall 2025. This was the latest in a series of public gatherings dating back to the 2019 community-wide engagement process that solidified the public charter school’s mission, vision and values. For many of the families in attendance, the project has been years in the making, and the event’s atmosphere was one of joyful anticipation and readiness to support.
In addition to sharing its recruitment plans for faculty, staff and volunteers, Namahana School leaders urged the entire community to participate in a short-term grassroots fundraising campaign. The campaign’s urgent goal of raising $1.5 million by August is determined by manufacturing timelines to kick-start the school’s campus construction process, and part of a broader campaign to fully build out the middle school.
“We need you to share our story more than ever,” explained Namahana Education Foundation Executive Director Melanie Parker. “This is about inspiring others with our vision and working collectively as a community towards a common goal. Whether it’s $5 or $500,000, each and every gift represents a personal vote of confidence in Namahana School, our shared values, and our highest aspirations for future generations.”
The tuition-free, middle and high school has evolved with impressive speed – a testament to the passionate backing and involvement of the North Shore community, which has long expressed an acute need for more middle- and high-school options closer to home. After receiving its charter approval in 2022, Namahana’s leadership has developed a unique ‘āina-based academic model in partnership with the international educational nonprofit Big Picture Learning. Simultaneously, it assembled the nonprofit Namahana Education Foundation, the robust organizational team that oversees fundraising and facilities management for the school.
School Leader Dr. Kapua Chandler highlighted the key role that the community has played in Namahana from the beginning: “Standing before you once again, I’m reminded of how much this is truly a school by and for the community of Kaua‘i’s North Shore. These public gatherings bring together all the faces and families whose hopes we are working so hard to fulfill. You have been with us every step of the way. Your voices have shaped our mission, vision and values, and you continue to inspire us as we enter this critical final stretch before opening next fall.”
After sharing the latest details of Namahana’s instructional model, including “Ola,” an instructional framework that interweaves ecological, social and individual health with the school’s learning goals, Chandler outlined the much-anticipated process for student enrollment and faculty/staff recruitment over the coming year, both of which can be viewed on the school’s website. Namahana will welcome its first cohort of students in grades 7 and 8 in fall 2025, adding an additional grade each year thereafter until reaching full capacity with grade 12.
“There are more opportunities than ever to be a part of Namahana – we need passionate faculty and staff, enthusiastic volunteers, steadfast community partners, and generous donors by our side in order to open our doors next fall. We can’t do this without you. I believe that you will stand with us because I know firsthand this community’s enormous aloha for our keiki, those future generations who will bring our mission, vision and values to life when they step out into the world with the confidence and energy to change it for the better.”
Namahana’s Governing Board Facilities Committee Co-Chair Adam Roversi, who serves as the Director of Housing for the County of Kaua‘i, also shared the latest plans for the campus build-out. The middle school facilities will consist of state-of-the-art “eco structures” made by WABi Systems that are energy efficient, sustainable and can be installed in less than one year. These highly durable structures made from pre-fabricated components can be customized to the school’s current building designs and will allow Namahana to dive directly into its permanent campus construction, without resorting to temporary facilities in the first phase as previously thought.
Namahana Education Foundation Board Member Monica Belz closed the program on an inspiring personal note. “As a mother of three, I relate deeply to all the other North Shore parents here who have faced the difficult question of their child’s education after sixth grade.” After asking all the children in the room to raise their hands, Belz poignantly observed: “Look around at our youth. This is our island’s greatest resource. And we are currently exporting our greatest asset outside our community, first to schools and then often to universities and professional opportunities far from home. Yet no one knows better than our children what an incredible home we have, and no one appreciates better than they do that we have everything we need to truly thrive, right here. The good news is, Namahana gives me hope. I know that this school, which is like no other I’ve ever heard of, will help close the gap between our amazing, untapped local resources and the tools that can transform them into a more resilient community, and a more resilient world.”
Namahana will host another community-wide event on August 4 at its 11.3-acre property in Kīlauea Town, where parents and students will be invited to declare their intent to enroll and officially begin the one-year countdown to the school’s fall 2025 opening.
