Elliot Washor's TGIF 08.01.2025

I arrived on Thursday with Darlene and Dennis to get ready for the opening of Namahana School. We started this charter school process a few years before COVID and now next week, Namahana opens. I’m thrilled and excited to be here but honestly the North Shore community of Kaua’i is way more excited. As they build the new school in the center of Kilauea their temporary site is just amazing. The Namahana community contributed in so many ways to making everything ready for the opening including the physical space as well. They built out the advisories by constructing new tables both in and outside. This is truly an en plen air school.

Yesterday, we attended a workshop on ʻĀina Education facilitated by Mehana Vaughn. The connections to BPL design are readily apparent and the fact that Mehana is Hawaiian and an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa brings together old and new ways of knowing which deals with many of the major problems from real estate development and gentrification to the environmental impacts of living in community, on Hawaii and on the planet. This week I’m hoping to find time with Mehana to further understand her use of meaning. In her talk it was yet another way of looking at what gives life meaning.

On Friday, we took time to visit the land where the new school will be built. The site in itself is very important because it is an example of putting schools in a central location in a community rather than alienating youth from communities by siting schools far away from a town’s center in land that is relatively unusable and having little real estate value. A rural school being built in the center of town is a way of going back and also going into the future where schools, especially rural one become the centers of their communities as they once were. Presently, school consolidation reigns supreme creating many of the issues youth have for the sake of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and competition albeit in academics, sports or the arts. Namahana stands with just a few schools where a community has got the education system interested in what is taking place here. The tail usually does not wag the dog, but can it? I’m really excited and proud to have a role in all of this especially, in the way the community is driving new ways, forms and measures. Remember Namahana School is the first start from scratch school to use the International Big Picture Learning Credential with BPLiving integrated in Aloha ʻĀina, Aloha Kanaka and Aloha I Ke Ao.

Also yesterday I met with Sarah Mirembe from Uganda who lives nearby Namahana. Sarah is doing her PhD on refugee camps in Uganda and asked about how BPL might be able to support her work. It was a great conversation with more to come during the week ahead.

Lots of questions from an excited staff emerged and of course, Andrea has been doing incredible work in all aspects of school coaching as she works closely with Kapua. To top it off, on a visit to Sonoma, Advisor Shannan Johnson made dinner at her house and showed Andrea and Anthonette a Hawaiian tapestry that her grandfather brought back from WW2. That tapestry is now at Namahana. ‘Nuff said.

This coming Monday is the opening of the school and so many from the community will turn out to greet students as they start the year.

Be well and Plenty, plenty, bye, bye

Be Well!