By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Janis Boteilho, left, wiped away tears after her mother,
Charlotte Boteilho, right, from Maui's Baldwin High School,
was named 1999 State Teacher of the Year yesterday. Baldwin
Principal Wallace Fuji, center, congratulated her.
Top teacher
By Debra Barayuga
was doubted
by her teacher
Star-BulletinHer 12th-grade English teacher said she wasn't college material and that sending her to college would be a waste of her parents' hard-earned money.
Charlotte Boteilho's father thought otherwise. His daughter wanted to go to college and be a teacher.
"I told her: 'Don't let anyone tell you what you can't do. If you set your mind to it, you can do it,' " said Henry Abreu.
Abreu and wife Helen were overwhelmed with emotion last night when Boteilho was announced as Hawaii's 1999 State Teacher of the Year.
She's been teaching for 26 years, the last 16 as an English and speech teacher at Maui's Baldwin High.
"I hope, Dad, it was money well spent," Boteilho said after accepting her award.
"My father believed that I could, and that meant a lot," she said later.
Boteilho credits her husband, Al, and daughter for their loving support and Baldwin High Principal Wallace Fujii for giving her a chance and hiring her even as she questioned her capabilities.
She has been named Teacher of the Year three times at Baldwin since she joined the school in 1982. She is also Baldwin's third state teacher of the year.
Boteilho helps them cast aside their own self-doubts by beginning each semester with an "I Can't Funeral," an exercise she began when she first began teaching at St. Joseph Elementary in 1972.
Students list their perceived weaknesses, place the lists in a shoebox and bury them behind the school. At the end of the year, students revisit the lists and cross off all they have achieved. The lesson shows students that with perseverance and hard work, anythings is possible, she said.
BOE sets procedure
By Debra Barayuga
for leader’s evaluation
Star-BulletinSchool board members will meet individually with the schools superintendent in January to begin informal discussions on his performance.
It's the first of quarterly meetings Paul LeMahieu will have with the school board to see how he is doing on eight standards - from promoting leadership and excellence for staff and students to building community support for educational priorities.
The formative evaluation is part of a report card the Board of Education last night approved that includes a comprehensive end-of-the-year evaluation of his accomplishments in seven areas. They include:
Setting priorities for the school system and an action plan to address them.
LeMahieu has also agreed to set goals for student outcomes and report on achievement as shown by test scores, attendance and graduation rates and student misconduct - areas that board members felt were important.
"Student achievement and conduct - that's the backbone of the school system," said board member Mitsugi Nakashima.
The board is also asking LeMahieu to keep them informed about developments that affect the school system.
The board has agreed not to include student test scores as part of LeMahieu's first-year evaluation, but has asked him to report them anyway. "I agree not to hold him personally accountable, but he has to hold the system accountable," Nakashima said.
LeMahieu has said he is willing to be held accountable for improving test scores in subsequent years.
