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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Submitted by Dr. Rizor 6/20/11
2011 Graduates on Kaho'olawe
Submitted by Kalima Cayir 6/14/11
This year, the VSAS 8th graders had the privilege of spending four days and three nights on Kaho'olawe to volunteer with the Kaho'olawe Island Restoration Commission. While on island, the students learned to make seedballs with soil, a little shredded paper, water. After making the ball of earth, they poked a small hole in the top and dropped three seeds in each hole. The balls were then closed up and the left in the sun to dry. The next day, the students went into the field to rest the seedballs in burms of mulch bags on the dry, barren hardpan. The wind was so strong, they could hardly stand up and dirt and dust pelted their cheeks. The students learned to chant the 16 winds there. The students also learned how to make paperwad seed beds, how to use burms of pili grass to catch downwind seeds, and what goats and bombs do to an island. The last night, the students had a singalong as they prepared to be released from the tentacle of Kinolau.
Results from Self Study for Accreditation
Festival of Lights Winners
Keakealani Campus Updates
submitted by Dennis LaPointe 1/8/2011
Dr Rizor will present a brief description of our purposed use and potential development of the Keakealani school house and grounds to the annual meetings of the VCA and Coopers Center in the latter half January. On February 3, 2011 VSAS will host a community meeting at the Keakealani School House to present and discuss our proposed development of the Keakealani campus. The presentation will consist of a panel of five individuals. Dr. Rizor will present a brief history of VSAS and the need for development of the Keakealani campus. Boone Morrison, architect will present the building plan and Fia Mattice of the Friends of VSAS (and VSAS co-founder) will present a brief on fundraising activities. Dina Kageler (VSAS co-founder and board member) and Karl Halemano (VSAS Board Chair) will also be on hand. After presentation and a limited Q and A period there will be breakout sessions where the concerns, recommendations etc can be discussed and recorded. Dr. Rizor is preparing a brief document to be distributed to the public at these meetings.
Regarding HEPA regulations. Dr. Rizor is communicating with officials at the county planning office and they will be investigating whether we need to submit a letter to the Office of Environmental Quality Control. We hope to know more about this soon.It was decided that a single individual should be dealing directly with state and county offices regarding development of the Keakealani campus to avoid confounding the process. Dr. Rizor was nominated, and approved, by the members of the meeting to serve as the point person.
Submitted by David Rizor 12/9/10
In July 2010, Volcano School was granted a lease for the Keakealani School Campus. Since that time, volunteers have been working hard to clean, paint, and prepare the existing building to hold classes. The board has been negotiating the laws and regulatory hurdles that must be addressed before we can begin using the facility. On December 8, the fire inspection was completed. An upgrade to the fire alarm system will need to be completed before the building can be occupied.
The future plan is to build an environmentally friendly campus to house our entire school that honors Volcano’s unique natural and cultural resources, and the original intent of the donation of the site to build a school for Volcano’s children. However, at a cost of about $6 million, the new campus may be a long-range effort. We have applied for state Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funding, which will be considered by the legislature during the upcoming session. We are also beginning a capital campaign to help fund the construction if the CIP funding is not approved, and to develop the “extra’s” if it is approved. In order to apply for CIP funding, we had to move quickly to draft a site plan and submit that with the request for funding. The site plan was developed using teacher and student input gathered in previous years as we have discussed the future needs of the school. It addresses the myriad laws and regulations that schools must follow, giving a more tangible concept to discuss in order to consider and incorporate community input prior to adopting a final plan.
Volcano School started with our community and continues to be our community school. With this initial site we are prepared to seek community input prior to moving forward.
We will be holding our first community meeting soon. Notices about the meeting will be published on our school’s website, the school newsletter, and various community bulletin boards. Volcano School is committed to our community and we look forward to community support and involvement as we create this new community resource.
Accreditation Self Study
Submitted by Kalima Cayir 12/22/10
Accreditation
We are wrapping up our Self Study. Teachers, parents, students, staff, and community members have been involved, collaborating together and interviewing one another and we are all on the edge of our seats to see the results. Our next steps are to synthesize the input, identify strengths and needs, revise our Schoolwide Improvement Plan accordingly, and write a report called Focus on Learning. After the visit from a WASC accreditation team the week of April 11, we will start right away to implement the committee's recommendations and continue with our improvement plan. The ongoing improvement process will incorporate many of the methods for inclusive participation that proved successful in this first full self study.
We have completed three Self Study Saturdays and three rounds of teacher interviews. We have completed interviews 16 staff members, 24 students, and 20 parents. We have required teachers and invited staff and parents to conduct observations of students working in the classroom (called Learning Snapshots). Each teacher visited another teacher’s class (Elementary teachers are visiting Middle School classes and vice versa). Learning Snapshots by parents and staff were being completed ad hoc. Several parents and staff members expressed interest, but only 2 Learning Snapshots were returned. We are all on the edge of our seats to see the results of our Self Study. The Steering Committee will be starting the process of synthesizing input on December 17.
Inclusive Participation Results
We had 26 participants on November 6 Self Study Saturday, 28 on November 13, and 28 on November 20. Altogether there were 13 teachers (including Counselor and ERM), 12 staff members, 12 parents, and 9 students represented. Here is a breakdown of attendance by date.
|
|
Nov. 6 |
Nov. 13 |
Nov. 20 |
|
Teacher |
8 |
10 |
7 |
|
Staff |
9 |
8 |
6 |
|
Parent |
3 |
4 |
8 |
|
Student |
4 |
4 |
5 |
|
Ed. Director |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Accr. Spec. |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
26 |
28 |
28 |
We are interviewing 25 students (three students each in grades 2-8 and two students each in K and 1st grades). Student interviews are being conducted by two parents, four staff, and the six middle school students who are Board representatives and in the Leadership elective. Thank you to the student interview team: Parents - Holly Zimmerman, Paris Kapuniai; Staff - Lydia Meneses, Raina Dale, Charae Galigo, and Marilyn Hiestand; Students – Maileen Nakashima, Emily Mishler, Benito Salinas, Taliesin Sumner, Nick Reed, and Vincent Vanterpool.
We are also interviewing 21 parents based on a stratified sample (two parents of students in grades K-5, three parents of students in grades 6-8). Parent interviews are being conducted by other parents. Thank you to our parent interview team: Nicole Young-Domingo, Kauilani Perdomo, Eva Smith, Mahi Snell, and Kai White! Additionally, non-faculty staff members are interviewing other staff members.
We completed three interviews of teachers on the topics of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Interviews were conducted by non-faculty staff members, parents, a community member, and other teachers. Interviews were conducted in the teacher’s classroom and teachers provided evidence for each of their responses. Because we only have one teacher per grade in Elementary and one per subject in Middle School, all teachers have been required to complete interviews. Thank you to parents, Mahi Snell, Karla McDonnell, Erin Cole, Shannon Fisher, Tracy Johnson, and Jeff Judd and community member and Friends of VSAS member, Fia Mattice for volunteering to interview teachers. Also, thanks to Lydia Meneses, Shannon Mann, Kim Miller, Marilyn Hiestand, Stacy Halemano, and Xanthe Serafin for volunteering extra time to complete make-up interviews.
Additionally, we have formed two voluntary Critical Friends Groups. Critical Friends Groups (CFG’s) are professional learning communities of educators committed to improving their practice through collaboration with other educators. Our two CFG’s include 11 participants: 4 full-time teachers (3 elementary and 1 middle school), 3 part-time teachers, 1 aide, the ERM, Counselor, and Education Director. For more information about Critical Friends Groups, visit http://www.nsrfharmony.org/faq.html.
A special mahalo to the Steering Committee, without whom none of this would be possible: Lisa Barnard, Marilyn Hiestand, Kim Miller, and David Rizor!
Mahalo, everyone! What a cool little school!