Honowai Elementary
principal decries
‘failing school’ label

It missed the required
95 percent attendance
rate by 0.1 percent

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

Honowai Elementary School had one student absence too many last year and found itself on list of the state's failing schools.

The school has consistently raised its standardized test scores since 1997, but missed the state's required 95 percent attendance rate by 0.1 percent, said Honowai Elementary School Principal Curtis Young. So now the Waipahu elementary school is on the list of 85 failing schools that face possible sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Young said he hopes Honowai will be removed from the list when the 2002 standardized test results arrive later this month.

However, Young told the Board of Education on Thursday that the "failing school" label has already created problems at his school. "This label has done an injustice to our students, parents, faculty and staff," he said.

The school prides itself on raising its standards, reflected in the students' performance on standardized test scores. "We know that we have done an effective job in raising our students' achievement tests in reading, writing and math," Young said.

In 1997, 60 percent of Honowai's third-graders had average or above-average standardized test scores. By 2000, 83 percent of the school's third-graders met or exceeded the average.

The federal law requires that failing schools offer parents the choice to move their children to a better performing school, or offer supplemental academic services, such as tutoring.

Young said that since Honowai appeared on the failing-schools list, he has had to persuade numerous parents not to move their children out of the school.

"When we were labeled a failing school, I had to go into classrooms and do damage control," he added. Part of that has been sending fact sheets home to parents demonstrating students' achievements, he said.

Honowai teacher Errol Hahn also asked the board to help the school shed its failing-school label.

"As fellow educators, I know you are all aware of the impact of negatively labeling students. ... Well, the same goes for schools," he said. "Call us a 'failing' or a school 'in need of correction' long enough, and many in the public will believe it, even if it's not true," he said.

Board member Denise Matsumoto pointed out, "If this is a failing school, we're doing pretty good."