PHOTOS BY DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Jessica Ua, 8, wheeled her books to class yesterday at Kalihi-Kai Elementary School with mom Kuulei. Below, Lilibeth Lyness and her daughter Lovely, 8, waited to enter a class.

Kalihi-Kai parents say
they will support the school
despite a new law

---

By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Parents plan to keep their children in Kalihi-Kai Elementary School despite a federal law that allows them to move their children to better-performing schools.

Kalihi-Kai is one of Hawaii's 85 "failing" high-poverty schools. Unless this year's standardized test scores show adequate improvement, the school will be sanctioned under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates school choice and supplemental services for schools that fail to meet the state's academic standards.

Few of the parents dropping off their children for the first day of school yesterday were aware of the new law. Those who had heard of it tended to want to keep their children at Kalihi-Kai.

Kuulei Ua's children have been attending Kalihi-Kai since kindergarten, and that is where she wants them to finish elementary school.

"I'm pretty satisfied with the teachers," she said.

Roxanne Abing said that when her daughter Shoshanna transferred to Kalihi-Kai from Kalihi Elementary at the beginning of the first grade, "she was so far behind when she started, I didn't know what they could do."

With special-education classes, tutoring and summer school, Shoshanna has managed to pull through, Abing said. Without them, Shoshanna would have failed, "or they would have floated her through without knowing her vowels or her ABCs," she said.

Shoshanna is staying put at Kalihi-Kai.

"I'm very happy with this school," her mother said.

Kalihi-Kai Principal Stanley Kayatani said that given the school's clientele, "I don't anticipate parents requesting to move en masse."

Kalihi-Kai has the largest enrollment of any elementary school in the Honolulu District, with 835 registered as of yesterday, Kayatani said.

About 74 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Seventy percent are of Filipino ancestry.

He said parents have not yet started calling for information about transferring to another school.

Some of the parents who heard about the new law for the first time were interested in the possibility of moving their children to other schools.

Diannen Park has two children attending Kalihi-Kai. "I like the school here," she said, but added that she has concerns about the school's standardized test scores.

Her son is doing well in school, but her daughter "hasn't been learning as much as I think she should," she said.

Park said she would be interested in exploring the school choice option. "They have better opportunities at other schools, like Kapalama School," she said.

Distance is everything for Rolly Madayat, who can walk his 6-year-old son Bradley to school in four minutes.

"We live close," he said. "We cannot go someplace else."

The sentiment was echoed by several other parents, who said they would not be interested in moving their children.

"It's close to my house. It's very convenient," said Lourdes Whiting.

Lilibeth Domingo fretted that as a single mother she would have a difficult time getting her children to any other school. In any case, she said she is pleased with the progress that her children have made since moving to Hawaii from the Philippines last year.

Pony Chandara also likes the convenience of bringing his son Jerrick to a school close to home. However, he added, "If he's not learning in this school, I would want to send him to another school."

Information about the DOE's plans to implement the No Child Left Behind Act can be found on the Internet at doe.k12.hi.us.