A growing demand for Hawaiian language education has prompted communities in Leeward Oʻahu to establish their very own Hawaiian language immersion school.
The newest kaiapuni, or immersion program, at Kapolei Middle School has seven students in its inaugural class. They all hail from Waiʻanae, Nānākuli, Waiau and Mililani.
The seventh graders of Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Kapolei spent the year carving canoes from clay, creating Makahiki dioramas, and studying the phases of the Kumulipo creation chant.
"Kūkākūkā kēia mau wā i nā holoholona nā meakanu, nā pua, ke akua pū."
Kumu Hemakana Lam-Yum, a kaiapuni graduate himself, said the growing demand for ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi in Leeward Oʻahu requires a K-12 kaiapuni campus.
"ʻO kekahi kula kaiapuni mai ka mālaaʻo a hiki i ke kula kualua...he pono ma kēia ʻaoʻao. A ʻike wau e wehe ana nā kula kaiapuni ma ʻō a ma ʻaneʻi ʻo Māʻilikūkahi ʻoe. ʻO Ka Waihona o Ka Naʻauao. ʻO Waiau ʻoe. ʻO Nānākuli ʻoe. He pono ma ʻEwa."
Lam-Yum said immersion programs are popping up at elementary schools from Māʻili to Waiau.
However, immersion options beyond elementary are limited out west, according to Andrea Dias-Machado, whose son Kahuliau attends the newly established Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Kapolei.
"It really emerged from him being at Waiau and me wondering how come there was no next step within our kaiaulu and I looked at my husband and I said I’m gonna make my son a school," Dias-Machado said.
For decades, Hawaiian language immersion students on the west side of O‘ahu have had to leave the kaiapuni program or make the daily commute to Pālolo, home to the only K-12 immersion school on island: Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Ānuenue.
"He ʻehā kaʻaʻōhua e hele mai i ke kula i kēlā lā, kēia lā - ʻekolu o nā kaʻaʻōhua ʻehā no kēlā ʻaoʻao.ʻO kēlā, kēia kaʻaʻōhua ma kahi o ke 70, 80 keiki. No laila, ʻo ia ka nui o nā keiki e hele mai i aneʻi," said Ānuenue Principal Babā Yim.
He said of the four yellow school buses that transport students to his school every day, three of them come from the west side. That's about 70 to 80 students per bus.
So having the new Kapolei immersion program fall under Ānuenue made sense, Yim said.
"Ma hope o kekahi wā e haʻalele ana kēlā papahana mai lalo o ka malu o Ānuenue, a kaʻa ma lalo o Kapolei. ʻO ia kahi kūpono. Akā kōkua wau e hoʻomaka i kēia."
But eventually, the program will stand on its own. Yim said he is just here to get things started.
Kapolei Rep. Diamond Garcia, a big supporter of Hawaiian language immersion education, said his district is the best place for a K-12 kaiapuni program.
"I am very happy that they are starting the satellite school in Kapolei. We have a growing homestead communities," Garcia said.
"As of right now, we are constructing more Hawaiian homesteads out there. So looking long-term this will really benefit the families of West Oʻahu," he said.
Lam-Yum said Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Kapolei plans to add another seventh-grade class this fall.
