Blog #2 Portrait of a School

Portrait of Kalaheo High School

Kalaheo High School sits at the base of Mahinui, a series of rolling hills that makes up the dividing line between Kailua and Kaneohe ahupua’a. A mile down the road from our high school sits Castle High School. I think it’s important to talk about the culture of Castle to understand Kalaheo. Castle gets students from Kaneohe all the way to Kahuku, the majority of them being “local” kids, and when I say local I mean born and raised here, no matter what ethnicity. Even the “haole” and Japanese students at Castle are descendents of kalo farmers and fisherman, so they have a deeper connection to land and resources.

In contrast, at Kalaheo, a third of our 1000 student population and faculty are military, residing in the nearby Kaneohe Marine Core Base. The other third are the sons and daughters of mainlanders who recently moved here in the last 20 years to dwell on the white sands of Kailua. There are some local haole families that have been in Kailua since the 50’s. They are the stereotypical stoners/surfers/beach bums that Kailua is famous for. And then we have the few Kanaka Maoli sprinkled into the mix. They go to Kalaheo either because they come from a long line of Kailua lineage or their parents didn’t want to send them to Castle, a school with a subpar academic reputation.

               

            Kailua High School to the south, which scoops up all the Waimanalo kids, and Castle to the North, which scoops up the country windward kids, have a reputation as rougher schools in comparison to Kalaheo. Kalaheo is viewed and views itself as the smaller, more academic, more military, and more “white” school. Kalaheo students are either from the marine base, lanikai, or coconut grove (the area all along Kailua beach). The cost of living in these areas could be twice as much as the neighboring school districts of Kaneohe and Waimanalo. What has happened is the iconic white sandy beaches of Kailua have drawn wealthier families, (many millionaires) to move into Kailua, thus forcing out the native people and local families. This stigma of being the “whiter” school certainly impacts the way Kalaheo kids view themselves. Whether or not they’re proud of this stigma is uncertain to me. But the students definitely see the difference between their school and Castle and Kailua. They call those the “local” schools.

Within the confines of our school, the culture of the students and faculty are very unique compared to other public schools I’ve been to. First off is the lack of school spirit. I’ve had teachers who worked at Kalaheo for 15 years tell me that the school has always struggled with school spirit, meaning low attendance at the sporting events, lack of enthusiasm at school rallies and club weeks, and limited after school activities. I was told even the teachers have a reputation for not having school pride.

The answer to this riddle is fairly obvious after working at other public schools. At Castle, first built in 1951, the faculty are Castle High graduates themselves. Some are even 3rd generation Castle grads. The teachers and office workers know all the families of their students, many are related to each other, and there’s much more of an Aunty/Uncle vibe going on.

Kalaheo was built in 1976, so they don’t have a long enough history to have 3^rd or 4^th generation students. On top of that, being a military fed-school, many of our students and faculty stay for 1 or 2 years and then move. It’s very hard to garner school spirit when your faculty has such a high turnover rate. Teachers don’t connect with their students on a deeper level because either consciously or subconsciously, they know they won’t be there for long. It’s a very transient school. Another answer to why we don’t have after-school activities is that most of the kids live within walking or biking distance to home. So when that bell rings at 2 PM, they are gone in a flash. They’re not waiting for busses or parents to get off work. Kalaheo is notorious for being a ghost town ten minutes after the bell rings.

The one arena that Kalaheo thrives is the basketball culture. We always have one of the best teams in the state and have won multiple state championships as recently as last year. When you go to Kalaheo basketball games, that’s where the families show up in numbers to support.The culture of the school and community absolutely affect my teaching environment. For one thing, because our community is very affluent, we have an invested parent community. What I mean is that everything that is taught or said in the classroom is heard by the parents at this school. Many administrators have warned me of this fact. Unlike Castle, where parent involvement was hard to come by, Kalaheo has a very active parent voice. This is turn makes the admin much more watchful of what the teachers are teaching, knowing that they have parents breathing down their necks. These parents expect that if they send their students to the more affluent high school, they better be getting a good education. However there are some good effects to this problem. The students are much more academically inclined and you can tell they have support from their parents. My students are respectful, and engaged during class.

The culture inside my classroom is pretty awesome. My classes are all pretty evenly distributed, with 1/3^rd being military, 1/3 being local kids, and 1/3^rd being Kanaka Maoli. This makes for very interesting discussions because we have so many different lenses to look through. At the same time, I have to be very careful to cater to all viewpoints when I’m teaching. Sometimes when I’m discussing Hawaiian language and the Kanaka are nodding their head, I have to remember that the military kids are totally lost. This has made me a better overall teacher when I have to where 3 different hats to relate to all of my students.