Principal Edna Hussey's Thursday Message: April 28, 2005

Dear Parents of Mid-Pacific Institute,

My visit to Saipan to accredit a school was eye-opening and a good learning experience. A team of four educators -- two principals and two teachers, all from different schools in Hawaii and Guam -- traveled together to As Lito, a rural area in Saipan. It's an international school of about 200 students, preschool through grade 12, and a faculty and staff of twenty-five. The school population is composed of students from the U.S., Korea, Japan, Saipan, Guam, India, China, and the Philippines.

The first day I arrived in Saipan, I sat through four long meetings with various constituent groups. The remaining three days were observations in every classroom, more meetings with the administration, board of directors, and students, and even more meetings with my team. I think the most interesting aspect of this school is the fact that it was founded by parents and is governed completely by parents. Every parent is a stakeholder in this school, and the parent board creates school policies, hires the headmaster, and oversees finances and fundraising. While the governance and structure of a parent-run school may seen ideal, there are many challenges when lines of authority overlap in admissions, curriculum, student assessment, and faculty supervision. I thoroughly enjoyed the classroom visits and observed many similarities to U.S. instructional practices.

Seeing the school in action gave me lots of food for thought. I came away from this WASC visit grateful for all the things we sometimes take for granted in our own school -- a full-time technology coordinator, a development office, access to a wide variety of instructional resources, highly qualified teachers, and a board of directors with diverse expertise. I am constantly amazed by this enterprise we call "school," regardless of its location. Each community has its own unique mission, philosophy, network of individuals, and system of operations. Makes me proud to be an educator, especially when I see how much children benefit from schools that function effectively in all aspects of "school" - governance, school leadership, faculty, staff, curriculum, instruction, assessment, development, facilities, and finances.

I don't have a current update of the elementary school construction since I've been away, but I do know that we'll hold the first of several "hard hat" tours of the site on May 3. I hope you've called in your reservation to the Office of Institutional Advancement on the Manoa campus. President Rice and I will be taking different groups on tour next week. Before I left, I completed the first draft of furniture orders. We'll need to purchase some new tables, chairs, shelves, etc., and also take usable pieces from our current inventory.

Last Friday morning, I met with Island Movers who'll help us coordinate all the moving. The teachers and I will sort through instructional materials and begin putting books into boxes (packing boxes will be provided by Island Movers) towards the end of this school year. I'll meet with the 'Ohana to discuss ways parents might be able to help us with packing. Island Movers has an excellent system for organizing, labeling, etc., so I'm confident we'll be able to move with few problems. I also told the children at our April school assembly that we'd discuss the "big move" at our May assembly. Until then, we want them to focus on their classroom projects and activities, especially as the end-of-year conferences and progress portfolios come up.

Our 4th and 5th grades have one more day of standardized testing (Stanford Achievement Test) this week. We usually receive the results during the summer. The faculty and I will be analyzing the test results in August as part of our program preparations for the upcoming school year. In addition to these test scores, we will also discuss evidence from portfolios.

May Day is just around the corner -- May 6, next Friday, 10:00 a.m., at Kaimuki Park Pavilion. Bring your beach mats or folding chairs, cameras, and sunny weather. We're all looking forward to another delightful celebration of mele and hula.

For our children,

Edna Hussey
Principal, Elementary School

Posted on April 28, 2005 8:38 AM | Permalink