By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com
TEACHERS at more than 100 public schools are reporting to work today for the start of the traditional school year, but not all will open their doors to students.Many schools have decided to use one or two days this week for teacher development days or new student orientation, and students will be welcomed back together tomorrow or Monday.
Because the school year started on a Thursday, "it just kind of made it convenient to set aside two days for additional development," said Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen.
The teachers won four professional development days a year in the contract agreement reached with the state following the three-week strike in April.
Although the contract remains unsigned due to a dispute over teacher bonuses, the staff development days were not in question. Since many schools have been planning on the extra days to review and prepare for classes since April, the department has no objections to implementing that part of the contract, Knudsen said.
At Royal Elementary School this morning, Roxane Javonillo said her 5-year-old son, Brennan, was excited for his first day back.
"He couldn't wait to go back," she said shortly after dropping him off.
Javonillo said she, too, was glad to have school back in session.
"I couldn't wait either because I got tired of making home lunch," she said.
Another Royal parent, Larene Ishitani, said she's glad her two kids are back in school because it means they will have to study more. "At home, they just play Game Boy, they haven't been doing that much studying," she said after dropping off her sons Randy, 7, and Kevin, 5.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Unlike Javonillo's son, Ishitani's sons were not as excited about the prospect of coming back."They were kind of nervous," she said. "My 7-year-old, he already asked me, 'When is the next holiday?'"
Roughly 25 percent of the 183,000 public school students returned to the classroom today, Knudsen said. About 60 percent started earlier in the summer because of modified schedules. "We're already well into the 2001 school year," Knudsen said. The rest will be back in school by Monday. Monday is also the first day of classes for University of Hawaii campuses.
At Roosevelt High School yesterday, teachers spent the last two days preparing to open their doors to incoming freshmen today and the rest of the school tomorrow.
Special-education teachers spent the day moving their department, which included gathering desks, hanging chalkboards, searching for textbooks and even painting walls.
"We're all doing last-minute preparations," said first-time teacher Jackie Ornellas. "I don't know how long we'll be here, but we're going to be ready."
Ornellas painted a new partition that turned one special-education classroom into two, and at 2 p.m. was waiting for someone to hang a chalkboard on it.
At the same time, Physical Education Department head Cary Kano was calling it a day after cleaning out his office, re-pumping balls, cleaning the floors and clearing off the bulletin board.
Kano, who just received a master's degree in adaptive physical education over the summer, said he was not going to concentrate on the ongoing contract dispute over whether teachers with advanced degrees will receive bonuses for one year of the contract or two. "It's an issue I cannot control," he said.
"I have to just go about my job not worrying about the union or the state and just focusing on my students."
Kano's two children, who were helping their father clean up, return to Trinity Christian School on Monday.
Fifth-grader Kiley Reese Kano looked forward to returning as student body president, with plans to unify the school and "enforce playground rules so people can have more fun and be safe at the same time."
His sister Carissa was not looking forward to entering the second grade, where she would be learning multiplication tables.
Nevertheless, she was full of self-confidence, saying that her teacher likes students like her, who are "mature, well-behaved and quiet."
"I do things when they say, at once," she said.