Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 7, 1 July 2017 — Pāhoa charter school gets Blue Zone Project approval [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pāhoa charter school gets Blue Zone Project approval

ByTreenaShapiro A few years ago, an eighth-grader told / \ Susie Osborne that she'd never tasted / \ a cucumber.

# % That astounded Osborne, I / \head of school at Kua o ka Lā I puhlie charter school in Pāhoa, but since it had eome up as students were deciding what to plant in the school's gardens, she saw it as a teachable moment. KOKL students now grow cucumbers, along with kale, taro, corn and other vegetables and I fruit. Some of it is left for the taking on a "sharing table" in the cafeteria. Students in culinary classes also use the campus crops in healthy recipes, such as poi smoothies, 'Uala Shepherd's Pie

and hanana ice cream topped with freshly grated coconut and eaeao. "It's showing them how easy it is, and how normal it is, to eook with our loeal foods," Osborne says. This commitment to student well-being helped the small rural school heeome the state's first Hawaiian-focused charter school - and first K- 12 school -

to be Blue Zones Project Approved. Brought to Hawai'i by HMSA, the nahonal Blue Zones Project initiative supports policies and programs that are making permanent changes to build healthier communities. Osborne points out that the rural, Hawaiian-focused charter school already incorporates many Blue Zones Project principles. In addition to regular physieal education classes, physical activity is incorporated into core subjects, as well as in activities like hula, building a traditional hale or competing in makahiki games.

The school's project will keep junk food and sugary drinks off campus and ensure that more fresh foods, white meat and vegetarian options are available. The students already have a headstart in that regard, winning numerous awards in 'ulu and endemic edible contests, and creating two books - one that tells the school's story in 'ōlelo Hawai'i and English and a new 'ulu eookhook. KOKL has accumulated a number of aeeomplishments for a school Osborne describes as "17 poles away" from having electricity (KOKL was the second school in the country to use 100 percent solar power and is the only one in Hawai'i.) With no basic core infrastructure, the school relies

on construction toilets that are hard for the youngest students to pump. The school has also weathered natural disasters that have impacted Puna in recent years. The school

was directly hit by Tropical Storm Iselle, whieh closed the campus for a

eouple weeks. It took an entire quarter to make repairs and restore Intemet access, whieh isn't too stable at the best of times. It also isolated the eommunity, whieh would happen again soon after as a lava How threatened Pāhoa. Then eame dengue, whieh shut down KOKL's virtual site in Miloli'i for a quarter. "Our student populahon enrollment went from 282 to about 160 as people lled the eommunity," Osborne says, adding that enrollment was back up to 207 last school year and projected to rise. "We're rebuilding and that's good." The benefits outweigh the challenges, says Hope Butay who just graduated from KOKL. She likes being around nature - Osbome says the school site was "pure jungle" 20 years ago - and

she likes the hands-on instruction. "They mostly give you academics (in traditional schools) but this school, they eomhine it with our mo'olelo, our mythology, they eomhine it with all the Hawaiian leaends that eame before us." she said.

Hope retumed to campus in June to show off her class' senior project to visitors from Kamehameha Schools. "This project was about turning a broken down bus into a school structure for a school store," she explained. The former bus is now called Mana'olana, whieh means "hope." Hope started clearing the bus out as a junior so she and her classmates would have a full school year to turn it into a store. That included new llooring and an awning, replacing the bus door and steps with a wooden entrance and fortifying it

Kua o Ka La maKes rne mosr or its nmired resources, repurposing buses and growing fresh produce to supplement meals delivered from Hilo. - Photos: Ryan "Gonzo" Gonzalez throughout. "It took a lot of helping hands and especially time because we only had Wednesdays, actually, about three to four hours, to try to

finish it," Hope said. "The last week or two before our presentations, I was cramming. It just took a lot of time." The store will be ready to open next year, and

Hope says the school will decide what to stock it with, perhaps the younger students' coconut fish and guava stick back scratchers, or other schoolproduced art and books. Hope plans to return to the school "to try to see what they did with it and try to see if they need any help and trying to get stuff in here and build some more things." "It's great to turn our limited resources and something that is almost throwaway and giving it life again," said Osborne. "Three's a few different initiatives, salt production, a solar dehydrator. They want to bring it all together and have a great demonstration village." Leam more about KOKL at www.kuaokala.org . ■