KS Kapālama update #3

September 11, 2020

School is in full swing and I have been pleased to see that our distance learning journey continues to reveal so much about ourselves as teachers and learners. Just as I had mentioned in my Convocation manaʻo, now is the time to smile a little longer, shine a little brighter, and forgive with a little more compassion. We are all learning together.

In maintaining our commitment to keeping our campus community informed, we'll continue to share information on reopening plans, campus updates, and resources for our ʻohana through these bi-weekly updates. As always, I encourage you to reach out to the appropriate contact if you have any questions about anything including the items shared here.

EXTENDED CAMPUS CLOSURE AND 2ND QUARTER PLANS

Earlier this week, the City and County of Honolulu announced that the current stay-at-home order would be extended for an additional two weeks and will now continue through September 23. Accordingly, we will extend the closure of our campus for the duration of the order. During this time, campus will be accessible only to residents, select essential staff, and haumāna who have received special approval from poʻo kumu for distance learning support. 

We have been monitoring community conditions and processing campus survey feedback to determine our plans for 2nd quarter. Please expect to hear an update late next week announcing the details for those plans. Mahalo for your understanding and flexibility as we determine the forward path that is pono for our haumāna, kumu, and school.

ʻOHANA SURVEY RESULTS

In our last update message, we invited our families to participate in a survey asking how distance learning has been going. Mahalo for sharing your manaʻo as it has provided great insight around the start of the year and how we might plan for the future.

According to our families:

84% of ʻohana are satisfied with their child's distance learning experience

Making distance learning the best it can be is the top priority for many of our ʻohana. 

36% of ʻohana feel that motivation and focus on schoolwork might be a barrier for their child in effectively learning at home. 

View the expanded survey report here

To see more information from this and other ʻohana surveys, visit the Health and Safety page of our KS Kapālama Roadmap to Reopening website and scroll down to the Resources section.

FIRST-EVER VIRTUAL CONVOCATION

Marking another "first" in this special year, we were proud to present our Convocation in a virtual format. This is a time for our campus ʻohana to ground ourselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as we start the year. While we obviously would have loved to share this time of fellowship together in-person, the virtual format made it possible for us to invite parents, ʻohana, and other members of our Kapālama community to join in the festivities.

You can view the pre-recorded video presentation on the Events page of our KS Kapālama homepage.

DISTANCE LEARNING TIP

To support our ʻohana during this time, we continue to share tips and resources designed to help families support their keiki in the digital learning space.

Distance learning ʻohana tip this week: Promote self-directed learning

Embrace the idea that many of the benefits of distance learning come from the individual, self-directed journey of each child.

Let us continue to support each other as we discover the wonders of distance learning together.

KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS COVID-19 UPDATES AND RESOURCES WEBSITE

Keeping our haumāna, ʻohana, and staff informed about the frequently shifting COVID-19 situation in Hawaiʻi is one way we are supporting our community. To help with awareness, we have developed a new KS COVID-19 Updates and Resources website that provides weekly tracking of confirmed cases, positivity rates, and other important data points in our organization and across the state.

Please take a moment to visit this resource to familiarize yourself with the evolving circumstances within our community.

Mahalo nui for your time and attention. As we become more informed as a campus ʻohana, we are in a better position to help support our school and each other.

Ke Akua pū,

Dr. Taran Chun, Poʻo Kula