Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus

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Kamehameha Schools

Name

Kamehameha Schools Hawai`i

Address

16-716 Volcano Road, Kea`au Hawai`i 96749

Town

Kea`au, Hawai'i

Established

1887 (finished in 2008)

Community

Country

Type

Independent Primary and Secondary

Religion

Protestant

Students

Coeducational

Grades

Preschool to 12

Accreditation

Western Association of Schools and Colleges

District

Puna

Nickname

Warriors

Mascot

Warrior

Colors

White and Blue

Motto

Imua Kamehameha

Military

No current affiliation. United States Army JROTC (1916 - 2002).

Newspaper

Ka Mo‘i

Yearbook

Moku O Keawe

Distinctions

Largest endowment of all independent schools in the United States. At the end of the 2006 fiscal year, the endowment was valued at more than $7.7 billion.^[1]

Website

Link

Email

Link

1 History
2 Traditions
3 Curriculum
4 Admissions policy
- 4.1 John Doe v. Kamehameha
5 See also
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] History

Located in Kea'au, roughly 10 miles from the seaside port town of Hilo, Hawai`i, the Kamehameha Schools Hawai'i Campus opened in August 2001. As of 2006, the 300-acre campus serves approximately 1,120 students from grades K-12. The school serves the entire island, however, students on the western side between Pa'auilo and Na'alehu, have the option of apply to either the Kea'au Campus or the Kapalama Campus as boarders.

The Kea'au campus is located on land formerly owned by W.H. Shipman, who, along with Captain Elders and Samuel M. Damon, acquired the property in 1881 when it was auctioned by the estate of King Lunalilo, a grandnephew of Kamehameha I. It is fitting that land once held by Hawaiian royalty is again owned by an ali'i trust, and is being used to education new generations of Hawaiian youth.

In addition to classroom buildings at the elementary and middle school division, shared buildings include a learning center, administration building, and a cafeteria/band facility. At the high school division, classroom buildings, vocational/technology buildings as well as athletic facilities are completed. Also soon a gathering place will be completed in the center of the school for church services, meetings, ceremonies, and also special events.

Construction of the Hawai'i Campus totaled roughly $225 million dollars.

Like its sister campus in Pukalani, Maui, the Hawaii Campus graduated its first class in 2006.

[edit] Traditions

The Kamehameha Schools Hawai'i Campus has started many new traditions apart for the many adopted from the older Kapalama Campus. Among these are:

Ho`ike (Annual student produced performance full of dancing, singing, and drama. Considered one of the best performances on Hawai`i Island second only to the Merry Monarch in Hilo)

Christmas Showcase

Spring Showcase

Senior Trip to Mauna `Ala (The resting place of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Schools Founder)

Junior Class Greek Day (A Greek Culture Day with games, food, music, and dance. Students are split into city states which creates a very competitive atmosphere.)

Freshmen Makahiki (A Hawaiian Culture Day)

[edit] Curriculum

In addition to providing a comprehensive curriculum, with the focus on career academies. The school will draw upon the unique resources of the island, including branches of the University of Hawai'i and Hawai'i Community College, as well as astronomical observatories.

The foresty, geologic, marine life, and agricultural aspects of the island also play an important role in the curriculum.

[edit] Admissions policy

Until recently, in accordance with a century-old interpretation of the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the Kamehameha Schools has given preference in admissions to applicants of Native Hawaiian descent "to the extent permitted by law." Special consideration is also given to orphans and "indigent" applicants. [1] Applicants wishing to claim the preference for Native Hawaiian descent need to submit evidence verifying that at least one ancestor born before 1959 is of Hawaiian ancestry. [2]

The admissions policy of Kamehameha Schools has been a subject of controversy in recent years. Because there are far more applicants that claim Hawaiian ancestry than there are spaces available, the result is a student body where virtually all the students have some Hawaiian blood and where non-Hawaiians are effectively excluded. Non-Hawaiians can be and have been admitted to the school, although this is an extremely rare occurrence. In 2002, Kamehameha Schools admitted a non-Hawaiian student to its Maui campus for the first time in 40 years. The student was admitted after all qualified Hawaiian applicants were admitted to the Maui campus. This decision sparked protest from the Hawaiian community and Kamehameha alumni.

Kamehameha's admissions policy, and whether its provision giving preference to Native Hawaiians is a race-based exclusion that runs afoul of civil rights law, was the point of contention in two lawsuits in U.S. federal court in which Kamehameha was a defendant. Both lawsuits have since been settled, generally in Kamehameha's favor.

The plaintiff in one of the suits, filed by attorney John Goemans in August 2003, was Brayden Mohica-Cummings, a seventh-grade applicant who had been admitted to the Kapālama Heights campus after his mother, who had been adopted by a Hawaiian family, said he was Hawaiian. The school rescinded its offer when his mother was unable to document his Hawaiian ancestry [3]. Because the offer was rescinded only a week before the school year was scheduled to start, U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a temporary restraining order requiring Kamehameha to admit Mohica-Cummings pending a final decision on the case. The case was settled out-of-court in November 2003, when Kamehameha Schools agreed to let Mohica-Cummings attend until he graduates, in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. [4]

[edit] John Doe v. Kamehameha

The most recent lawsuit, filed by Goemans in June 2003 on behalf of an unidentified non-Hawaiian student, claimed that giving preference to Hawaiian applicants violates a federal statute prohibiting racial discrimination in private contracts. In November, U.S. District Judge Alan Kay dismissed the lawsuit, finding that Kamehameha Schools' policy served a "legitimate, remedial purpose by improving native Hawaiians' socioeconomic and educational disadvantages" [5].

In August 2005, however, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voted 2–1 to reverse that decision, ruling the policy racially exclusionary. [6] Hawaiians and also many non-Hawaiians in the community expressed strong dismay at the decision. A protest march to ʻIolani Palace and rally on the palace grounds attracted an estimated 10,000–15,000 participants ([7]; photos), including Hawaiʻi's governor and lieutenant governor. [8]

The Ninth Circuit agreed to rehear the appeal before a 15-judge en banc panel in February 2006.[9] On December 5, 2006, by a vote of 8–7, the en banc panel reversed the earlier decision by the three-judge panel, affirming Kay's ruling. The majority of the court ruled that Kamehameha's admissions policy does not run afoul of a civil rights law, citing what it said were unique factors in the history of Hawaii, the plight of Native Hawaiians and the schools’ distinctively remedial mission, which Congress has repeatedly endorsed. The minority dissent had grave reservations, and stated that civil rights law "prohibits a private school from denying admission to prospective students because of their race", and was very skeptical of the majority interpretation of the intention of Congress towards native Hawaiians stating, "The fact that Congress has passed some measures promoting Native Hawaiian education says nothing about whether Congress intended to exempt Native Hawaiian schools from § 1981 [civil rights law]".

Following the Ninth Circuit's decision, attorneys for the unnamed student appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. However, before the Supreme Court could issue a writ of certiorari and decide to hear the case, Doe v. Kamehameha was also settled out of court. Both this settlement and the Ninth Circuit's decision in December prompted a procession at the Kapalama High School, leading up to an all-school assembly.