Kamalani Academy

My daughters have been coming here for 4 years now. They look forward to school every day.The small campus is like an extended family. I appreciate how they speak Hawaiian every day in their morning protocol. All the Kumu give a 110%. The principal, Amanda Fung, truly cares about the students and is easy to reach and communicate with. They have after school clubs and my kids have learned how to knit, sew and dance hula.We also love the community events they have like the trunk or treat and spring carnival. We invite our neighbors and family friends to join in on the fun. They also have a great broadcast club where the keiki work with Olelo. I'm very thankful to have this charter school, the only one in central O'ahu, so close to my home. I have four kids and hope my other two can attend when they are in elementary school.

My child has been attending Kamalani Academy for more than a year now and I have to say how grateful, as a parent, I am to have found this wonderful charter school alternative to Hawaii's Department of Education (DOE).Kamalani has the feel of a private school and their teachers and staff strive to enrich my child's education and development.Led by principal Amanda Fung, the school prides itself on creating opportunities and partnerships in the community designed to benefit our students and staff. Although I live in Kapolei, taking the daily trio to Kamalani Academy it's a small price to pay to make sure my son gets an advantage in his education and his mentality for when he becomes an adult committed to doing good in his community. The pandemic pushed us to explore new education options for a child and we are so grateful to have found this school where individuals work hard to raise up our students in the true spirit of aloha.Mahalo Kamalani Academy and all the staff for everything they have done, where we all continue to work hard for our kids to excel.

Wonderful support to my keiki. Allowing integrative outside of the box thinking while cherishing hawaiian cultures has been excellent. Really feeling like part of an ohana. We have been with the school, all 3 of my keiki from day 1 when kamalani opened. There has been challenges but nonetheless the kumus and staff has always showed my kids love and support. They got my child help with the adhd and tutor help when they struggled. They listened when I voice my concerns and above all got my kids to learn that they can make it successful thru all the struggles. Thank you Kamalani ohana!

**Kamalani is a FREE public charter school. My children attended Kamalani (kinder, third and fifth grade) and had an amazing year. They are devastated to be leaving the school, and honestly, I am, too. Our experience: I'll admit, the administration change at the beginning of the year was rough. Kamalani is a startup charter, and the staff/admin/enrollment changes are not uncommon. We were willing to stick through the growing pains, because our children were thriving and being nurtured by their kumu. About halfway through the year, it was smooth sailing, and we are really pleased with how the school is operating now. This is important to say, because there are people who didn't have a good experience during this time, and their voices are loud. There are many families who are very happy with the experience they have had, and we all know people are more likely to share the negative than the positive. Anyway- I digress. Kindergarten has THE DREAM TEAM as far as teachers go. It could not get any better than these ladies! They do so much for the children, these women are truly gifted. I could go on and on about how amazing they are, truly. My kindergartener has special health needs, which was a major concern, but the kumu took them very seriously and kept him safe all year, and he got to be a regular kid, which was an amazing experience for our whole family.My third grader was actually upset when the kids had a day off from school (what is that?). She learned so much this year, especially doing all the projects. Her kumu was very attentive to each child, working with both their strengths and weaknesses, helping to round them as individuals. I feel like this is really important and overlooked in many settings. My fifth grader... He's a tough one. He struggled a lot in school because: 1. He gets bored easily. 2. He can. not. sit. and. learn. And 3. He is dyslexic and dysgraphic, making it difficult to fit into a 'traditional' school box. Y'all. He came out of this school year LOVING school! This is a huge deal, because he came home crying more often than not from his other (private) school. But wait, there's more. Not only is he comfortable in the classroom, but his test scores improved at an unbelievable rate. I love that the children are treated LIKE CHILDREN at Kamalani! Allowed to move, allowed to express themselves, treated with love and respect. 10/10 I would recommend Kamalani to all of you. We have been paying for private school and education for years, I'm glad we took a chance on this school this year.

2 stars for some of the teachers that really care and how our children enjoy the familial environment. Other than that, Steph S hit the nail on the head. We enrolled all 3 of our children in the school at the start. The school is poorly managed with quality teachers now being uninvited to return. Teachers being required to teach multiple fields due to lack of funding (because so many parents have removed their children) yet they are now in the process of instilling a librarian?!?The school is operated without any seeming long term or even short term goals stated. Communication is poor and the stink of nepotism has crept in with some curious hires.The school, once very promising, has realized the difficulties of operating a charter school. They could still succeed but until they take a strong look in the mirror, chalk us up as another family that will be pulling our children over the summer.

I have a kindergartener and second grader at Kamalani Academy, this was their first year. My daughter lost her teacher after the second quarter of the school year. I can't understand why any teacher would leave mid year, but the administration and my daughter's new teacher handled the transition very well. Both of my kids loved the Hawaiian-focused curriculum, giving service at the loi, and the use of arts integration. My daughter who is a struggling learner enjoyed working on her comprehension skills through tableau's. Kamalani Academy is a community school, it's not just the job of the administration and teachers to develop the school, as a parent it's also my job to develop the school. I like being part of the school and being able to volunteer my time and knowledge to help the school, which directly impacts the quality of education my children receive. Rather than point fingers at what's not going well, I appreciate that the school allows me to be part of the solution.

Our daughter attended Kindergarten at Kamalani for the 2018-2019 school year. We and she very much enjoyed the Hawaiian immersion and Arts integration approach to learning. The co-teaching Kinder team of Kumu Elle and Sydney, with aid from Kumu Angie were a dynamic force in maneuvering our kiddo through her first year of grade school.We hope to continue the path with Kamalani and can't wait to watch it grow. Hopefully with increases to enrollment and community involvement, we can continue to see improvement and funding increases.

Love this school! Faculty, staff, parents I've met that have become friends are all great people. My daughter is going into the 7th grade and couldn't be happier. My son is getting the help he needs going into 6th grade, and I couldn't be more pleased to be a part of this Ohana.

The one star is for the amazing teachers who have left. The ones that haves stayed are holding the school together by a thread. Kamalani was an amazing place by the end of the school year last year. My child attended Kamalani half of last year and one quarter this year. My child thrived. But this year Kamalani is literally a three ring circus. I Have never seen any school (or business for that manner) be managed so poorly. Because Kamalani is an option school it is important for families wishing to attend to have a clear understanding what they are walking into. It is interesting when a school erases not just two parents speaking out but dozens who had made public comments at the board meeting. This isn't about 2 parents!!! They have erased FB comments and previous Yelp comments. Why are they doing that? What do they have to hide? Here are the facts: 1st quarter 2018-19 more than 40 students have been withdrawn and more than 15 teachers and support staff have left. You read that right!!! Ask yourself if this is normal for a school. Ask principals from other schools, even other charter schools if this is normal. They have advertised the school as an arts- integration school, but no longer have any arts-integration specialists assisting the school with those goals. Do your own research and ask questions. Request real answers (numbers) and not blanket statements. People leave en masses when there are huge problems with administration, when there are safety concerns, when there are communication issues, lack of transparency and when they have been lied to. The previous comment stating that this is two parents who have issues shows what the school will do to silence parent voices.

I was a parent of 3 that attended Kamalani Academy since day 1 when they opened in 2017-2018 school year. However being that the school was new I accepted the fact that things were done differently and things will eventually fall into place, it's simply a trial and error run. Although the teachers were awesome, my kids learning started to fall behind due to not even learning how to read. I had to reach out and send my kids to an outside source to get this help they desperately needed. Arts integrated was an awesome idea because it gives the child time with their family at home and they are not piled with homework. But no homework had me questioning myself. You can ask any of the older kids that graduated last year or is currently there, what have they learned? You'll be amazed at their response. Communication from the administration was terrible. You figure okay if a kid bumped there head and it's not serious just put an ice pack and send home a incident report home with the child right but no they couldn't even do this. My kids came home on different occasions saying they had a headache because they got hit in the head with a ball, where's the note , phone call, email? Bad enough there was no communication on little things like that but when it came to my kids being bullied and physically abused by other kids and no communication between staff and administration what you think as a mother I would do. This was the second year they were being bullied. I called many different occasions. I walked into the office many times. I emailed staff and administration with no response.Administration has also made false accusations of my behalf as a parent on my childs IEP. An IEP was held without our consent as parents. The IEPs was not meeting my kids requirements. Trust me if Kamalani Academy changes from Art's Integrated to Hawaiian Immersion I would love to have my kids back in that school but not under the direction of the current Principal or administration! That just shows how bad it got so I had no choice but to remove my kids. Location was really convenient for me but my kids education is more important so traveling a bit just to get to school will do. Everyone has had a different experience but most had a bad and similar experience at Kamalani Academy. So to have our reviews deleted shows how much these people is trying to silence us parents. They had our FB reviews removed also. And Yelp this is the truth! Flat out facts. That's why Yelp was created so that one's experience can give advice to another who is looking into that certain business. Not to mention a local news station did a story on the Kaos at Kamalani Academy. Ain't no parent being cyber bullies and you are right by us getting our stories out there shows our character that we are not letting anyone run over our children and we are taking a stand!!!With that being said take your kid and run!!!A'ole Kamalani Academy