EDUCATOR AWARD
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Eco-trips distinguish
third-grade teacher on Kauai
LIHUE » It was obvious someone at Kalaheo Elementary School was going to receive a top educator award when a special assembly was called and top Department of Education officials were spotted on campus yesterday.
Clyde Hashimoto, a third-grade teacher at Kalaheo Elementary School, said he thought he wouldn't be the recipient of the Milken Educator Award.
"I really though it was my sister," said Hashimoto, noting his sister, Hazel Fujimoto, teaches first grade at Kalaheo. "The amount of time she puts in, wow, I was really happy for her."
It wasn't her; it was him.
Clyde Hashimoto couldn't have been more surprised when he received the $25,000 cash award yesterday.
"I never even guessed that it was me," he said.
The remark was typical of Hashimoto, said former Kalaheo Principal Dianne Nitta. She described him as "extremely humble." She said he has refused nomination for several other prestigious awards but couldn't decline the Milken award because he didn't even know he was nominated.
Hashimoto, 45, who is in his 21st year of teaching, is a Kauai native and University of Hawaii graduate.
His use of field trips to teach ecology was one of the key factors in winning the award. He takes his students to his family's farm in Hanapepe to pull taro and hunt frogs with nets.
He takes them to see salt ponds and coral reefs. "When I'm not teaching, I'm in the water, usually diving," he said.
Nitta said Hashimoto inspires his students with his "warmth, welcoming smile and rascal sense of humor."
As to the $25,000, Hashimoto said, "The first decision I made is that I am going to spend it on all the teachers here."
Hawaii has been involved in the annual Milken Educator Awards since 1991. Two teachers in Hawaii are chosen every year. Hashimoto is only the fourth from a Kauai school.
Katherine Nakamura, a teacher at Oahu's Moanalua Elementary School, was announced Tuesday as Hawaii's other winner this year.
Both will be honored at an event in Honolulu next month and at the Milken National Education Conference in Washington, D.C., next year.
The Milken Family Foundation was established in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. The Milken Educator Award winners are nominated secretly and chosen by each state's education officials.
