After nearly a decade of planning, Kauaʻi's North Shore will finally have a middle and high school. Namahana School is slated to open its doors to students in fall 2025.
On Tuesday, the charter school received a more than $1 million gift from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. The funds will help cover the cost of building the facilities on 11 acres of land the school bought last year.
"There is a huge need for this and folks have been trying to get a school on the North Shore forever," said Melanie Parker, executive director of the Namahana Education Foundation.
She said the school will welcome 120 students in seventh and eighth grade for its first year of operation. Then each year after that, the charter school will add a grade until it reaches its full capacity of 360 students by 2030.
For years, middle and high school students living in Wainiha and Hanalei have traveled to Kapaʻa or beyond. Sometimes families spend hours on the road to drive their kids to school and back home.
Kauʻi Fu, chair of the Namahana Education Foundation, said the community has been advocating for a middle and high school since 2015.
"The commute time is very far for children and for parents to reach those schools on a daily basis," she said.
Fu is a mother of three, and her daughter is currently in a lottery process to get into the charter school.
"I’m really excited for the opportunity for our children to stay close to home and be raised in the community in which they live,” she said.
The charter school’s education is modeled after ‘āina-based learning. The facilities will also have space for students to do podcasts and robotics.
For more information on the school, click here.
