Mahalo Nui to All the ʻOhana Who Joined Us for Our Open House!
Last month, we hosted our very first open house at the former Kula School location, the temporary home of Namahana School when it opens this coming August. Prospective students and 'ohana were welcomed on campus to explore the site and continue learning about Namahana and its learning model.
The day started with a welcome, as everyone gathered in the piko of the temporary Kula campus and Dr. Kapua Chandler, Namahana School Leader, shared high level info about the school. The day continued as Kapua and Andrea Purcell (from Big Picture Learning) shared more about the educational model and school schedule, Taeko Onishi (Director of Finance and Operations) answered questions about school operations, and Melanie Parker (NEF Executive Director) talked about facilities and permanent campus site plans/renderings.
Mahalo nui to all the prospective students and ʻohana who joined us for this productive day. At the open house, we explored a lot of great questions, and we’ve compiled some of the more frequently asked ones below. Check them out for more insight into the school, its operations, and its learning model.
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When will Namahana open and where will it be located?
Namahana School will open in August 2025 with grades 7 and 8. We will continue to add a grade each year until we are a 7-12 school. We are operating at our temporary site (“Kula”) at 4551 Kapuna Road for the 2025-26 school year, as we progress on our permanent site in Kīlauea town across the post office.
What will the school hours be? What will transportation look like?
The school day will be 8:30 am - 3:00 pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. On Friday students will be dismissed at 1:30 pm. Most Wednesdays, students will be off-campus at our Ulu ‘Aina Field Studies sites. Students will be dismissed at 2:00 pm on Wednesdays either from on-campus or their off-campus site depending on if they are traveling that week. Namahana School is not providing transportation for the 2025-26 school year. This means students must be able to get to our “Kula” site most days, and to their Ulu ‘Aina sites approximately six Wednesdays each quarter.
Namahana School will help connect families to support carpooling and is working with the County to get a temporary bus stop for students for both a morning and afternoon run of the 400 and 500 Kauai bus routes.
What is the curriculum like?
Namahana School’s curriculum is grounded in our Ola Framework and organized around six learning goals: 1) quantitative reasoning (thinking like a mathematician), 2) empirical reasoning (thinking like a scientist), 3) social reasoning (understanding different perspectives and social systems), 4) communication (expressing ideas effectively through various media), 5) personal qualities (developing character traits for success), and 6) knowing how to learn (building capacity for curiosity and independent learning). Rather than focusing on content delivery, our approach emphasizes developing ways of thinking that enable deep learning about any subject, beginning with relationships to ʻāina, community members, culture, and each other.
Our curriculum integrates knowledge rather than isolating it into traditional subjects. Instead of separate classes for ELA, math, social studies, and science, we utilize skills development in communications, quantitative reasoning, social reasoning, and empirical reasoning—reflecting how knowledge is actually used in the real world. We emphasize higher-order thinking and authentic application, with students regularly applying their learning to real community challenges such as designing environmental solutions, preserving cultural knowledge, and creating media that tells important local stories.
Each student at Namahana co-constructs a Personalized Learning Plan with their Kumu Advisor, containing personalized goals based on their interests and concrete steps toward achieving them. Our curriculum values the diverse cultural systems that comprise our community, with particular emphasis on ʻāina. Students learn to navigate between different knowledge systems, recognizing the unique strengths while developing academic skills, personal qualities, cultural understanding, and sense of purpose needed to thrive in college, careers, and community life.
How does the daily middle school schedule work?
Namahana School’s curriculum is built on an integrated weekly rhythm that puts ʻāina at the center of learning. Rather than dividing knowledge into separate subjects, our curriculum weaves together six interconnected learning goals through experiences that are directly connected to place and community.
Daily Advisory Framework: Every day begins and ends in advisory, providing a consistent community where students build relationships, set goals, reflect on their learning, and receive personalized support. This structure ensures that each student is known well and that their individual learning journey is guided consistently.
Mondays and Fridays (Advisory-based Integrated Learning): Students spend these days with their advisory working on collaborative projects, individual learning goals, and reflections that extend from their field experiences. This integrated time allows students to: build advisory culture, prepare for upcoming field studies, process and reflect on their experiences, develop projects that address real needs they've observed, work on personalized learning goals, and share their learning with peers.
Tuesdays and Thursdays (Skills Labs & Creative ʻĀina Activation): For skills labs, students participate in focused sessions designed to build specific skills they need for their field studies and projects. These might include scientific data collection techniques, research methods, cultural protocols, writing labs, nursery and plant propagation, technology, or technical skills. Creative ʻĀina Activation is an opportunity to explore connections to place through various art forms and creative expressions including visual arts, music, singing, and drama. These sessions help students develop additional ways to process and express their relationship with ʻāina.
Wednesdays: The heart of our middle school curriculum is our Wednesday Ulu ʻĀina Field Studies, when students are immersed in specific sites throughout our island. Each advisory visits the same site for six consecutive Wednesdays per quarter, allowing students to develop deep relationships with these places and their caretakers. Other learning during the week connects back to these field experiences.
What is “Piko & Pick Me Up”?
Piko and Pick Me Ups occur on Monday mornings. They are a time when students gather together to learn about career and college information, community service, class projects and to engage in community building and student recognition. Students take an active role in planning the weekly Piko and Pick Me Up with their advisors.
How is technology used to support teaching and learning at this school?
We recognize the critical tool and resource of technology and our responsibility to teach students how to use it. Technology will be integrated into learning wherever and whenever useful. Namahana will have enough laptops to enable all students to use them at the same time, and whenever they are integrated into learning.
What is available for lunch?
We are partnering with a local chef and food truck owner to provide the option of lunch each day, except Wednesdays. To whatever extent possible our lunch partner will use locally sourced foods, partnering with local farmers. Each quarter students will participate in a tasting event to give feedback and make suggestions for lunch for the following quarter.
Students whose families have SNAP cards will receive lunch free of charge. Students whose families make less than 300% the federal poverty guideline can opt in for about $35 each quarter ($1 per lunch), and other students and staff can opt in at about $200 per quarter ($6 per meal) or about $400 per quarter to pay for your child plus another child’s lunch. Currently, a breakfast program is not available, but as the school grows in size, we hope to be able to provide that service to students.
Where is the student voice and choice at Namahana?
Student voice and choice are defining characteristics of Namahana Schoolʻs approach to education, as we grow students as drivers of their own learning. We believe that meaningful learning happens when students have agency in their educational journey. Rather than offering unlimited choice all at once, we thoughtfully scaffold student decision-making, gradually increasing autonomy as students develop the skills and self-awareness to make informed choices.
In grades 7-9, students begin developing their voice through structured opportunities to express interests and preferences. They contribute to advisory, provide input on projects connected to their Ulu ʻĀina sites, select focus areas for their skills labs, and choose creative expressions that resonate with them. Their Personalized Learning Plans, developed with advisor guidance, incorporate their goals and interests while ensuring they build essential foundational skills. Throughout these years, students practice making thoughtful choices, reflecting on the outcomes of their decisions, and articulating their learning needs.
As students progress to grades 10-12, their opportunities for choice expand significantly. By 10th grade, students begin spending one day per week in internships aligned with their interests. These internships, which increase to two days per week in 11th and 12th grades, are 100% student-driven—allowing each student to deeply explore fields they are passionate about while contributing to real community needs. Students have greater flexibility in designing independent projects, selecting specialized skills labs or college course work, and customizing their learning plans to align with their post-secondary goals, whether those involve college, career preparation, or community-based work.
How is learning assessed at Namahana?
At Namahana School, assessment is designed to be meaningful, authentic, and supportive of student growth. Rather than relying primarily on traditional tests, we use multiple forms of assessment that give students opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and skills in diverse ways. One key assessment at Namahana School are student exhibitions. Students regularly present their learning to authentic audiences including their peers, community members, field study site partners, and families. These exhibitions might include demonstrations of skills learned, presentations of research findings, performances, or displays of solutions to community challenges. By explaining their work to others and responding to questions, students deepen their own understanding while developing valuable communication skills.
What student support services are offered?
With our small student to kumu ratio at Namahana, all students are offered a personalized education. Since Kumu Advisors work with the same students for three years, they know the student well and build strong relationships with their family and other support systems in the child’s life. Namahana, as per each student’s IEP or 504, will have targeted special education services provided by Namahana staff as well as through the HIDOE area complex. Our Student Support Coordinator will help coordinate for any student, not only students with IEPs or 504s, resources and supports.
What electives are available?
During our first year, our creative ‘āina activation classes will focus around the arts (ex: visual, music, singing and drama). Each quarter, students will participate in one of these classes twice a week for 85 minutes each day. In future years, students will have more options individually, as well as more communal say over the opportunities available to students.
What extracurricular opportunities (sports, clubs, activities) are available for students?
Starting at our Signing Event, students will have the opportunity to shape our extracurricular opportunities for the coming year. Sports, clubs and other after school activities will be developed based on student interests and participation.
What is ʻĀina-Based Learning (ʻĀBL)?
ʻĀina-Based Learning (ʻĀBL) is an educational approach deeply rooted in Hawaiian cultural understanding of the reciprocal relationship between people and land. The word ʻāina literally means “that which feeds” - not just physically though sustenance, but spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. In ʻĀBL, students engage in an extended process of inquiry in response to observations, complex questions, or challenges that are directly connected to the land, waters, and communities of Hawaiʻi. Students develop deep, lasting relationships with specific places through regular, consistent interaction while learning from community members who have generational connections to these places. ʻĀBL is characterized by:
Deep relationships with specific places developed through consistent, dedicated time spent in those places
Learning from community members and ʻohana who have cared for these places across generations
Reciprocity with the land—not just learning from a place, but contributing to its wellbeing
Integration of multiple ways of knowing, including Hawaiian cultural knowledge, values and practices
Rigorous academic learning that encompasses empirical, quantitative, social and communication skills
Authentic application of learning through projects that benefit the community and ʻāina
Through ʻĀBL, students develop a strong sense of kuleana (responsibility) to care for their island home and community while mastering academic content and skills in meaningful contexts. A powerful component is that ʻĀBL is applicable and replicable globally. The experiences students will have through ʻāina-based learning here on Kauaʻi will help them to identify ways to connect, learn, and contribute to whichever communities they live and work throughout their life.
When do students get to do internships? How does Namahana’s educational model progress from grade 7 to graduation?
Namahana School’s vision is to nurture ʻāina-conscious graduates who have deep connections to place and community and are prepared to pursue their individual futures. Our educational model intentionally evolves as students grow, building on the foundations while expanding opportunities.
Grades 7-9: Building Connections with ʻĀina
In grades 7-9, our focus is on helping students develop foundational skills and strong connections to ʻāina and community through:
Advisory Cohorts: Students stay together in an advisory ʻohana group that travels as a unit to Ulu ʻĀina Field Studies sites, building a sense of belonging and shared experience.
Consistent ʻĀina-based Experiences: Each advisory visits the same ʻāina sites regularly throughout a quarter, allowing students to observe and explore learning with specific places and their caretakers.
Foundational Skills: Students develop core academic and personal skills through integrated projects that relate directly to their ʻāina experiences.
Cultural Understanding: Students learning Hawaiian cultural practices, values, and knowledge connected to the places they visit, developing a sense of kuleana (responsibility) for these places.
Collaborative Learning: Students work together on projects and challenges, learning to cooperate, communicate, and contribute to group efforts.
During these foundational years, students learn to love, respect, and care for ʻāina while building the academic, social, and personal skills theyʻll need for more independent work.
Grades 10-12: Individualizing with an ʻĀina Foundation
In grades 10-12, our model becomes more individualized while building on the ʻāina foundation established in the earlier grades:
Internships: Students participate in internships with community organizations, businesses, or individuals aligned with their interests, spending 1-2 days per week at their internship site in grades 10-12.
ʻĀina-Informed Inquiry: Students use their understanding of ʻāina and community to ask deeper questions and pursue more complex projects related to their personal interests.
Independent Projects: Students design and implement increasingly independent projects that address real community needs or opportunities.
College and Career Preparation: Students prepare for their next steps through college courses, specialized skill development, and career exploration, all informed by their understanding of what their community and ʻāina need.
Leadership and Mentorship: Students take on leadership roles, mentoring younger students and contributing to community initiatives.
This developmental progression is intentional—by first grounding students in ʻāina and community, we ensure that their later individual pursuits remain connected to place and purpose. As students develop and explore their unique interests and talents, they do so with an awareness of how their individual paths can contribute to the wellbeing of their community and island home. This may include opportunities to connect work done with our island community to larger state, national, and global communities.
Our partnership with Big Picture Learning provides a proven model for the individualized learning that characterizes our upper grades program, while our ʻāina-based approach ensures that this individualization remains rooted in and responsive to our specific island context. Through this connected journey from grades 7 through 12, Namahana graduates emerge not only with strong academic skills and individual passions but also with a deep sense of kuleana to their community and ʻāina that will guide them throughout their lives wherever that may lead them.
Why internships and how do they work?
Internships are a crucial part of the Namahana High School (grades 10-12) experience. Based on each student’s interest, the student works with an expert mentor, doing authentic work that benefits the student, the mentor, the internship site and ‘āina. Students are at their internship site one to two days a week in grades 10-12.
Here are some sample projects from our partner organization, Big Picture Learning School: assisting with surgeries at veterinary hospitals, preparing 3-D renderings to present to clients at an architectural firm, teaching classes in middle and elementary schools, developing websites for a design company, rebuilding carburetors at a motorcycle shop, assisting researchers in biology and astronomy at a local university, and helping to secure dental care for low-income children.
Why are kumu (teachers) called advisors?
Kumu at Namahana School work closely with a small group of students over multiple years. They get to know each student well, help students design learning plans that combine their coursework and interests, and work alongside students and families to help each student succeed. Due to the fact that kumu do more than teach a specific course, “advisor” best describes their work at the school.
Why am I hearing a lot of unfamiliar words, and not hearing a lot of words I’m used to hearing about school, when people talk about Namahana?
Words hold tremendous power, particularly words we use frequently and have a lot of experience with. When striving to change, and improve, people’s visions and expectations, the use of new words, or familiar words in new ways, can force important shifts and conversations to happen. It can shake us out of habituated ways of thinking. It can energize and motivate us. It does not mean that many of the important words you want to see in schools are not present at Namahana, rather that we want you to rethink your understanding of some of these words.
For example, we do not use the word “academic” as much as one might expect from the college preparatory school that we are. We do not support the false dichotomy between academic and social-emotional learning. There is a lot of higher order thinking in learning to resolve conflict, and social skills in presenting and productive group work. Instead of talking about ELA, math, social studies and science, we talk about communications, quantitative reasoning, social reasoning and empirical reasoning. We want the focus to be on ways of thinking and doing rather than content. For example: how do you think like a scientist and be a scientist instead of studying what a scientist knows?
This approach is also designed to initiate conversation and communication. We encourage you to reach out if you have questions about specific words we are using or not using.
What does it mean to be a founding family?
Being a founding family at Namahana School means joining us in building not just a school, but a learning community deeply connected to our community and island home. Our founding families help shape school culture, establish traditions, and collaboratively create the foundation for generations to come. Founding families share a commitment to our mission of graduating ʻāina-conscious students and are willing to partner with us through the exciting journey of growth and development that characterizes a new school.
What opportunities are there for parental involvement and engagement?
Namahana sees families as full partners in the journey of supporting their children and the broader Namahana School. Parents help to co-create and support each students’ Personalized Learning Plan. Family members will be invited to quarterly Hō'ike that will take place on campus and at Field Studies sites. Family members can support the school by bringing their own passions and strengths to building a strong school community and helping to facilitate opportunities for students that grow out of student interests. Namahana takes an asset-based approach that recognizes and values’ parents’ expertise in contributing to the whole school. Some examples include: volunteering, building tables or bookshelves, leading an extracurricular activity, starting a club with students, sharing career expertise, fundraising, school programs, lifeguarding at field study sites, supporting the Namahana plant nursery, or mentoring other students.
How are Namahana families and parents involved? What are expectations for Namahana parents and families?
At Namahana, we see families as full partners in education, not just supporters from the sidelines. We value the knowledge, skills, and perspectives that each family brings to our community. Parents and caregivers are expected to meet quarterly with their child and their child’s advisor to endorse their child’s personalized learning plan. We expect families to be in regular communication with student Advisors and Namahana School. Regular communication helps families extend learning conversations at home, creating meaningful connections between school experiences and family life. This relationship creates a powerful dynamic where learning flows in multiple directions. Students bring home what they have learned about ʻāina, culture, and themselves, often becoming teachers to their families. Meanwhile, the diverse knowledge and experiences that families share enrich our curriculum and strengthen our community bonds.
What if I am interested in being a mentor or know a person or organization who is interested in helping the school?
We continue looking for community members and local organizations and businesses who want to work with our students and school. If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering with us or becoming a mentor, please contact us at aloha@namahanafoundation.org.
