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Kahele: I will redirect OHA cashflow to CNHA
SA: … “One area where I can improve is enhancing my emotional intelligence. Empathy is not my natural strength….” -- Kai Kahele is back.…
(IQ Test: How hard are you laughing?)
Kahele wants OHA to work even closer with the nonprofit Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Hawaii’s congressional delegation, the state Legislature and, notably, his onetime political opponent Gov. Josh Green to build more housing for Native Hawaiians and address other Native Hawaiian needs.
He wants to reopen an OHA office in Washington, D.C., to make OHA more relevant to Congress and already has been in touch with some of his congressional contacts, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
(Hakeem: “Kai who?”)
Kahele plans to appear regularly during the upcoming legislative session and — along with fellow OHA trustee and fellow former state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria — has been talking to state lawmakers ahead of the Jan. 15 opening day….
His gubernatorial run against Green and former first lady Vicky Cayetano was notable for sometimes testy exchanges between Green and Kahele during televised debates.
Kahele acknowledged earlier last week that they had not spoken since Green beat him in the Democratic primary and went on to an easy victory in the general election….
(What could possibly go wrong?)
speculation over whether the relationship between the state and OHA would deteriorate with Kahele as chair.
Before they met Friday, Kahele pledged to put aside any ill will …
“There was some very tense moments. During the debates both picked on each other, not on Vicky.”…
(TRANSLATION: Kahele is still stuck in 2022.)
Kahele said he especially plans to push legislators to repeal the ban on housing for its 30 acres of Kakaako Makai land to create affordable workforce housing aimed at “law enforcement, firefighters, teachers, health care, the hospitality industry, civil service,” Kahele said (gleaming luxury condos 700 feet tall.)…
Kahele said that in just over a week he has empowered committee chairs to set their own agendas and operate more independently, which was not typical under former OHA chairs and helped stir OHA’s reputation for dysfunction….
(TRANSLATION: This is how I bought the chairmanship.)
And Kahale remains eager to make even more progress by working closer with the nonprofit CNHA, which includes people who came out of OHA, and with DHHL, which has a mandate to create housing just for Native Hawaiians. Each brings different strengths, such as CNHA, which Kahele called “more nimble than OHA.”
(TRANSLATION: CNHA’s Lahaina and COVID grifts are winding down. Now they can milk OHA.)
2022: Delusional Kai Kahele Thought Andy Winer Would Make Him Governor
read … OHA Chair Kahele uses relationships to aid Native Hawaiians
Selection of Kamehameha Schools Trustees – Insiders Grab for Control
CB: … The selection process for Kamehameha Schools trustees is undergoing its first review since scandals in the 1990s unearthed deep problems with the 140-year old estate created to educate Native Hawaiian children.
Under the current process, a court-appointed panel evaluates trustee candidates and selects three finalists. From there, a state judge chooses the new trustee. Names of the selection committee members are not routinely made public, and the process for recruiting trustees is opaque.
A state probate court and court-appointed special masters have spent the past two years reviewing Kamehameha Schools’ current trustee selection process. The result is a potential new process that would add transparency to the management of one of the largest private trusts in the U.S., with the names of the selection committee being made public and opportunities for public comment.
But alumni (ie: insiders) want even more significant changes — a selection committee to be composed of teachers, former students and their parents who are beneficiaries of the trust. Trustees have also said they want to be more involved in the selection process….
(TRANSLATION: Insiders are grabbing for control again.)
read … Selection of Kamehameha Schools Trustees Is Under Scrutiny
Lahaina School Enrollment drops by 1,000 After Fire
CB: … Enrollment at Lahaina schools fell by approximately 1,000 students after the fires ….
Last year, 5% of Lahainaluna students tested proficient in math, down from 10% in the 2022-23 school year. The school's college enrollment rate dropped from 48% to 40% between 2023 and 2024, despite the University of Hawaiʻi's offer of full scholarships to students who graduated from Lahainaluna in June. Some seniors last spring struggled to keep up in their classes after the fires and complete graduation requirements.
Test scores for the current school year won't be released until next fall…
Students at King Kamehameha III Elementary experienced some of the greatest disruptions, missing over 50 days of school last year. In the spring, roughly a third of students tested proficient in math and reading, down from 45% the year before….
Before the fires, roughly half of Lahaina students were low-income. Now, at least three-quarters of students at Lahaina schools are, according to data from standardized tests issued every spring….
white students made up over 45% of King Kamehameha III Elementary's student population before the fires but have since dropped to less than 30% of the overall enrollment. English language learners now make up more than a third of the elementary school's population, compared to only 18% before the fires….
HNN: New report reveals impact of Lahaina wildfire on local Filipino community
read … Lahaina Schools Are Recovering From The Fires, But Challenges Remain
Donʻt Justify Public Preschools By Citing Dubious Studies
CB: … If you’ve spent any time working in education, you know how often data is conscripted to justify change, big and small….
Yet in a recent report on statewide kindergarten readiness – defined by skills such as sharing, using scissors and recognizing shapes and letters – there was a noticeable absence of data about the academic benefits of early childhood education, despite a preponderance of confident assertions from various education leaders….
studies have been criticized for their small sample sizes and significant investments that can’t be replicated at scale.
“Contemporary preschool programs are not like these intensive small-scale demonstration programs,” write Vanderbilt University researchers Dale Farran and Mark Lipsey, who conducted a rigorous study of pre-K programs in Tennessee. “To assert that these same outcomes can be achieved at scale by pre-K programs that cost less and don’t look the same is unsupported by any available evidence.”
Even the results of those best-case scenarios seem less impressive the longer you look at them: the Perry Preschool study shows, for instance, that if we take a small group of largely homogenous at-risk students, put them in classes with a 1:4 ratio of teachers to students and invest more than $15,000 per student, then only one in three students will get arrested five or more times in adulthood instead of one in two.
And those are the best results we have, so unique that they can’t be reasonably scaled….
Larger, more recent studies – with better methodology including random assignment of students to the pre-K and control groups – show much more mixed results. The aforementioned study from Tennessee showed that students who enrolled in early childhood programs experienced significant short-term gains compared to their peers, but by the end of kindergarten the students who did not attend had already caught up.
Worse yet, by second grade, the students who did not attend a pre-K program outperformed the students who did on cognitive assessments. Teachers also rated the students who attended pre-K as “having poorer work skills in the classrooms, and feeling more negative about school.” …
Dec 3, 2024: $250M Later, Hawaii Kindergarten Readiness Remains Low
read … Eric Stinton: Donʻt Justify Public Preschools By Citing Dubious Studies
BLNR Tells Lahaina Condo Complex to Fall in Sea
KHON: … Many West Maui beaches have been facing severe erosion for over a decade.
Back in 2007, the Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands issued the Hololani in Kahana an emergency permit for sandbags to protect their building from erosion.
In 2018, the BLNR required the building to come up with a long-term solution and that solution involved a 400-foot steel sheet pile wall and rock revetment.
The project was approved by BLNR in 2018, before Act 16 was passed in 2020 which prohibits shoreline hardening on sandy beaches.
“Those decisions have been made and this is, now are we going to let them to use state land? Or give them use of state land to do all the things they’ve already gotten approvals for?” BLNR Chair Dawn Chang said to the board members who seemed torn on the decision.
“I’m also concerned of the optics of this because we fined owners a considerable amount of money for hardening their properties,” explained BLNR member Kaiwi Yoon. “So, I think this sends an unclear message, and it’s messy all the way around to me.”
Hololani’s emergency permit from OCCL is set to expire in 2025.
“I hear the concern about the board sending a double message,” explained OCCL Administrator Michael Cain. “But sometimes we do have to act on permits that we wouldn’t have recommended today.”
A board member asked him why the state no longer supports armoring the shoreline.
“We’ve known for over 100 years that shoreline armoring can negatively impact beach properties,” explained Cain.
Hololani tenants told the board they only wanted to replace the existing structure with a safer one.
“We’re not asking for something new,” said Hololani resident Spencer Schermling. “We’re just replacing something that’s already there and making it better and it will make it easier for people to get to ocean.”…
… In the end, the board voted four to three, denying Hololani’s right of entry and construction request.
read … BLNR sends strong message to private beachfront landowners | KHON2
Honolulu City Council Addresses Kahuku Windfarm Fiasco
IM: … The Honolulu City Council passed a comprehensive, 280-page, overhaul of the Land Use Ordinance (LUO). Bill 64 (2023) CD2 FD2 passed the city council 8-1 on December 11, 2024.
“The purpose of this article is to identify the permissible land uses in the various zoning districts and the conditions in which they may be conducted. Development standards and uses restrictions are imposed on certain uses in order to mitigate and prevent disruptive community impacts that might otherwise result if these specially regulated uses were permitted without restriction.”
All communities must work together to achieve a 100% low climate impact renewable energy future, that includes the electrification of transportation and meets the growing energy needs of the information age. Costs and benefits must be shared.
The watershed event of how not to do it is the Na Pua Makani windfarm in Kahuku. Approved by the Public Utilities Commission, the developer worked in secret with the county to move a few turbines right up against the community. This launched protests and the current efforts towards energy equity.
Bill 64 defines three sizes of wind turbines. Small wind turbines are less than 15 kilowatts (kW). A medium wind turbine is 15-99 kW. A large wind turbine is 100 kW (0.1 megawatts) or larger….
read … Honolulu City Council Addresses Kahuku Windfarm Fiasco | Ililani Media
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