Mililani Ike Elementary School

Mililani 'Ike is one of the top ranked elementary schools on island. A lot of families request for geographical exemptions to send their kids here with the expectations that their children will receive top notch education. The campus is relatively new, well maintained, and all buildings, with the exception of the cafeteria, are air conditioned. There is plenty nearby street parking and parking across the street at Mililani Rec 7. However, the school is focused only on their ratings and advanced curriculum, not on the student as individuals. It is a common practice for teachers to repeatedly keep students in for recess to complete class assignments AND not communicate this with parents. Even after parents repeatedly request to allow their children to have recess-for a break, so that they can enjoy school, and to learn how to socialize with their peers-students are still kept in for recess. If a student is repeatedly having difficulty completing class work, parents should be notified and the student should be assessed for any underlining learning disabilities. Further, if multiple students in the same class are unable to complete classwork, the teacher should be evaluated for their teaching abilities.Multiple teachers take extended leaves of absence in the middle of the school year which negatively affects the students' learning. When I registered this complaint with the principal she simply nodded her head, smiled, and said "well, we hoped for a smooth transition."This is pretty much the same response when registering any complaint with the principal. She simply smiles and nods her head . When multiple parents register the same concern, she will hold a mass meeting for the parents and then turn the tables around and ask the parents to step up. For example, a few years ago there were 3 different incidences when vehicles drove in front of the school and took pictures of the student; the principal ultimately rejected parents' demands for a locked campus, security cameras, and security guards. Instead she asked parents to volunteer to patrol the campus for safety. When parents registered multiple complaints about the lack of a cross guard and safety of the children crossing without one, she asked parents to work as a crossing guard.While the principal is very soft spoken and passive aggressive, the majority of the teachers are short on patience, yell in the class, and speak down to children...even before the school day starts! The student body is LARGE, yet shrinking due to multiple families withdrawing their children and enrolling them in private schools. Due to the large student body, school events (i.e. School assemblies where children receive achievement awards, open house events, and concerts) either exclude families or ask that only parents attend and not siblings. Despite all, I still rated Mililani 'Ike as 2 stars because it is a nice campus and there is a pocketful of teachers that truly care. Just cross your fingers that your child is assumed to one of them....and that they don't request a lengthy leave of absence in the middle of the school year.

My daughter attended kindergarten here, and boy was it a rough year! Her teacher was the most unfriendly, sad looking kindergarten teacher I've ever seen. No warmth in her body or voice whatsoever. No hugs, no high fives, nothing! My daughter had trouble adjusting because of this. She got herself into some trouble when she pushed a classmate and got detention in the office where she had to sit with one of the VP's and write and draw pictures of what she did and why it was wrong. Thinking back on it (she's in 3rd grade now) I think that was too harsh for a 5 year old, and I wish I would've stepped in and said/done something.Several times I considered moving my daughter to a different class, but I didn't know if that would do more harm then good. After kindergarten We moved into the Mililani Waena school district so my daughter attended both 1st and 2nd grade there. Let me tell you that school rocked! There was such a feeling of Ohana at that school, everyone was friendly and down to earth. There was so much happiness and life there. Kids were allowed to be kids, laugh, run around, play. The curriculum was awesome too, and my daughter thrived there. I loved Her 1st grade teacher, Ms. Brewer. She was smart and fun and i enjoyed helping her in the classroom. The principal was great. You could really tell he cared about the kids and the school. He even was nice enough to work with me and put my daughter in the same class as her friend to help her adjust. They had an awesome website that was consistently updated and current. Sorry I could go on and on about how awesome that school was, but back to Ike now....So we moved (yes AGAIN lol) , back to the Ike district where like i mentioned earlier my daughter is in 3rd grade now. As soon as we got back there I remembered why i didn't like it 2 years earlier. Everyone walks around like robots, no one talks, there's an eerie quietness on campus. The principal is very quiet and kind of awkward. Their website was so outdated. There were pics on there from years ago, and hardly any current information. I ended up writing in about how bad it was and it's since been updated. At the open house I was one of the last ones there and I felt rushed by the teacher, not a great first impression. She didn't try at all to get to know me or my daughter. So needless to say the year didn't start off in the best way. There's way too much computer homework. Wednesdays there's no regular classroom instruction because the kids bounce around from PE to music to language and so on. Oh and field trips are expensive! I found out it's because enrollment has dropped so drastically which has caused funding to drop as well, so us parents get stuck paying the price. (I should say my older daughter attended 2nd-5th grade here and had a great experience with Ms. Cupp (now Mrs. Laughlin and Ms. Kawai (now Mrs. Nakagawara) and Ms. Okamura.). Teachers can make or break it for the kids they come in contact with, and Ike definitely lacks great teachers, it's sad. I've never been a teacher, and i can only imagine what a tough tough job it is, but it just makes sense that you should have a warmth and a compassion for kids. You should be fun and happy and make your kids say "she's (he's) the best teacher ever! I hope I didn't offend anyone with this post, but I had to be honest.Oh and i just had to add in that the teachers have a lot of teacher work days which means no school for the kids, plus a lot of meetings which means a lot of substitutes, plus school ends 1 hour and 25 minutes early every Wednesday for meetings! Not really sure why....hmmmm? Seems like an excess for sure!

We're a military family who's been on the island just over a year. Thanks to Ike's dedicated teachers and staff, our 3rd grader and a Kindergartner are thriving. No school's perfect and no teacher is perfect and our boys have come home complaining about the workload and etc on a few occasions. I believe this is where parental involvement comes in. Rather than expecting the school to do everything FOR your kids, it's just as important to be actively engaged in your children's education. Ike does a good job to facilitate parental involvement.

I read the other reviews so I felt compelled to write my own review based on my own as well as my children's experiences with this school. First of all, no school is perfect and every school has its positive and negative points including private schools such as Punahou and Iolani. Also, you will have wonderful caring teachers and uncaring teachers at any school. My oldest son attended Ike from k-5 grade, he is now a 6th grader at Mililani middle school. I told him and his best friend I was going to write a review and they wanted to add that they both had great experiences at Ike. It started with Mrs Fujumori who really helped my son's writing improve. She was firm but the children really seemed to thrive under her teachings. (I was able to observe this first-hand since I volunteered in her classroom for two years and still volunteer for her until this day.) Next my son had Ms Terao. She was calm, caring and organized. My son continued to do well in her class. Finally, my son had Mrs Lee for 4-5th grade. I also volunteered for her so I was able to observe how she ran the class. She had 28 students but she was able to capture and keep their attention. She did funny games such as the Cat Olympics but she could also be firm. My son really loved coming to school because of her. You might think that my son is a well-behaved robot but he is anything but. He is a rascal and a jokster and he talks too much but luckily he had teachers who accepted him and challenged him to be better.My daughter is currently in second grade at Ike. She had Mrs Powell, Mrs Matsumoto and she currently has Mrs Kawakami. Mrs Powell was one of the best teachers I could have asked for her. Mrs Powell is a very competent, caring, organized and loving teacher. She made memory albums for each child by using her own money to print pictures of the children and she organized their writings and drawings and compiled it in a binder. I also volunteered in her classroom and still help her till this day. Mrs Matsumoto was her second teacher and she is the one of the most organized teachers I have ever met! My daughter blossomed under her care and for that I am grateful. And then there is Mrs Kawakami who is another wonderful teacher. She really loves teaching and it shows! She cares for each and every student and treats them all with respect. My encounters have been positive with the teachers but also with the staff. Mrs Honda is the librarian and she works hard to instill the love of books into the children. She also volunteers her time to teach interested students flag and dance (aka HYPE). Mrs Matsunaga is the librarian assistant and she is so warm and friendly with the children (I sometimes help in the library as well). I know that there are teachers at Ike who perhaps should not be teaching but I can't speak to that. I am only sharing my family's experience. I think it would be helpful for parents to get more involved in the school not so that they can critique their children's educational experience but so they can feel more connected to the school and see how hard that most of the teachers are working.

Your experience at Mililani Ike will vary entirely on how smart you are. If your child is a super smart, 4.0 or Meets with Excellence student, you will undoubtedly give this place 5 stars. If your child (or if you're a former student who stumbled across this place on Yelp), and aren't exactly the brightest kid around, I can assure you, you will rate this place a lot lower. If your child is of the latter, my word of advice is simple; do not send your kids here. Most teachers are extremely biased and have no patience with the students. Counseling services and assistance from the teachers are completely ineffective. As a former student, I can attest to the fact that many of these teachers simply don't care about the students here, and will pick and choose who they will be helpful to. My 2nd-3rd grade teacher was one of the most biased people I've ever known, and she had a small group of boys, (I was one of them) that she'd basically take her anger out on. The smart, outgoing girls of course could do no wrong in her eyes, and these were the people that would always come back to help out in her class for years to come. Due to some issues I was having, I was referred to mandatory counseling, and one of my counselor did nothing to help me. She was very rude, and would constantly make condescending remarks to me. I was often shouted at and belittled, and developed a serious fear and distrust of counselors for years after that. It boggles my mind how many parents rave about this school. Of course, most of the people that write those glowing reviews are probably those PTSO moms, so to some degree, I'm not surprised. Anyway, enough ranting. You probably get the drift; a smart, outgoing, and role-model student will not only excel at Mililani Ike, but will have a blast. Anybody who doesn't, probably won't. YMMV

Great school with caring faculty who plan out their days like they care. I'm so glad my son goes there. Very lucky!

Mililani Ike is a wonderful school. The bathrooms, classrooms, cafeteria are amazingly clean. The food is always fresh and delicious. The staff is professional and caring. Teachers are simply the best. Everyone you come in contact with at school is friendly! My children had wonderful experience here. Ike staff and faculty provides great support for children. I always feel that my children are safe and well taken care of. The school has some great after school activities, like orchestra club, police clubs, robotics and many more.