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For this high school class, students punch in when they arrive. During the day they learn how to mop the floor at a food court or plant turf on a commercial property, take a meal order at Zippy’s or change bed linens at the Hilton. They punch out when the leave for the day, too.

It’s all part of a program in the works at Kaimuki High School that’s aimed at training kids for entry-level jobs in Hawaii’s hospitality industry — food services or housekeeping work, for example.

The students do some basic reading, writing and math coursework, but most of the program is dedicated to helping them develop real-world vocational skills. And for most of the kids, half of their time isn’t even spent on the Kaimuki campus at all.

As part of the class, students are required to get actual minimum-wage jobs.

Hookipa Workforce Academy, as it’s being called, got a test run this past summer, enrolling 26 rising seniors whom school counselors recruited based on demonstrated interest and credit needs. Kaimuki High — a struggling school with that — will offer one hospitality class next semester. School officials hope to get the full-blown academy up and running starting next fall. The school also plans on developing other academies, including one devoted to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), to supplement the freshmen academy that’s already been set up.

The idea behind Hookipa is to equip kids interested in hospitality work with the industry knowledge and life skills they need to get their feet in the door before they graduate, according to businessman and Hookipa founder Brian Keala Benz.

Moreover, the state’s and could see as many as 10,000 people retire within the next five years, so there’s high demand for new candidates, said Benz, the CEO and president of , a professional cleaning and janitorial services company whose customers include the Aulani Disney Resort and the Ala Moana food court.

“There’s not enough people who want to go into those jobs,” he said, adding that students who complete the Hookipa program would get preference when they actually apply for hospitality jobs post-high school and gain the industry skills and work ethic they would need to work their way up the chain of command. “In the community sense, it’s just responsible. It’s our kuleana.”

But some advocates for disadvantaged and minority populations worry that service-sector vocational programs such as that offered through Hookipa merely handicap poor, struggling students, pushing kids from low-income families into low-paying jobs.

“This is the type of program that has great potential for individual exploitation,” said Victor Geminiani, executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, adding that the program could end up promoting social mobility if it’s focused on boosting students’ self-esteem and encouraging them to lead a “lifetime of achievement.”

“The bottom line is, unless you fill those components in, you aren’t only selling the kids short, you’re also doing them a disservice.”

Kaimuki High serves a large percentage of low-income students; about qualify for free or discounted meals through a federal subsidy program. It also enrolls a relatively large number of high-needs students, who are by the DOE as those with disabilities, language barriers or low family incomes.

Micronesians and Native Hawaiians, ethnic groups that statistically tend to underperform their peers, account for roughly , according to a Hawaii Department of Education report from the 2011-12 school year, the most recent year for which such data is available. Micronesians alone made up nearly 13 percent of the school’s students that year, compared with a .

Meanwhile, the same report found that at least 17 percent of Kaimuki High’s students that year were English-language learners. Statewide, it was .

And though graduation and attendance rates and achievement at Kaimuki High have improved slightly over the years, it’s still far from where it should be, said Principal Wade Araki. The average grade point average, for example, has climbed from its 2011 low of 1.29 to just 2.07.

“The problem was, they just never came to school,” Araki said.

The DOE, which hasn’t yet signed a contract with the Hookipa team, says such factors are exactly what make the Hookipa approach so worthwhile.

For low-income students, “it is unlikely that their parents can afford higher education,” said DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz in an email. “Entry-level jobs have value and provide students an advantage of work experience. It is a pathway for students for greater opportunities in life.”

Stepping Stone or Dead End?

Benz said basic industry competence, such as being able to stack up a set of meal trays within a certain timeframe, is far too often lacking among first-time hospitality workers. But with those skills, “the hospitality industry just becomes more powerful, providing even better service … and you make people feel rewarded for the work that they do, proud of what they do so it’s no longer a chore but rather a good way of living.”

Many kids don’t excel in the classroom as well as they do at a task that’s more hands-on, Benz said, and might find school on the Hookipa track more tailored to their strengths and interests.

First and foremost, Hookipa aims to ensure kids graduate by offering them credit for a class that’s actually relevant to their lives, explained Benz and his partners, who include two retired Hawaii DOE principals. The school has long struggled with low graduation rates, and this past year just graduated on time, compared with a statewide average of 81 percent. Almost every hospitality job these days requires a high school diploma, according to Benz.

But it’s also geared toward making sure the kids are “career-ready,” trained with a strong work ethic and savvy in things like communication, teamwork and professional basics such as how to interview, dress — and punch in and out.

, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University who served as chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor under the Clinton administration, has done extensive research on workforce development efforts in schools across the country. He told Civil Beat that long-term research shows that, when done right, so-called “career academies” can significantly boost the future earning potential of students.

The ideal career program includes a mix of college and career preparation that encourages kids to pursue more than just low-paying menial work. Holzer wondered whether Hookipa will in fact have all those ingredients.

“What do kids do if they don’t want to stay in the hospitality sector or a low-wage, dead-end job?” Holzer said. “Is this a stepping stone for something more positive or a stepping stone to unemployment?”

Holzer agreed with Hookipa’s philosophy that college may not be the most logical next step for certain students but emphasized that everyone should get some sort of post-secondary experience, whether it be an apprenticeship program or a four-year degree.

Is College for Everyone?

Those skeptical of Kaimuki High’s plan wonder whether this “school-within-a-school” will become a de facto program for poor kids who don’t show academic promise.

Benz and his partners say no. That assumption, they argue, is overlooking economic realities and, most importantly, the program’s core philosophy: that high school should offer disadvantaged kids a variety of constructive pathways to their post-graduation lives, whether or not next steps include college.

“I think going to college is a great thing, but it may not be for everybody at a specific point and time in life, and for some it may not be for them for their entire life,” said Benz, recounting how he enrolled in the University of Hawaii after graduating from Kamehameha Schools but decided not to complete college. Instead he worked his way up the ladder in the hospitality industry. He said Hookipa is actually setting the bar higher for kids considering many of them might not otherwise graduate.

Sen. Jill Tokuda, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, echoed Benz’s logic, saying that the academy could be just the beginning for students who’d like to work their way up in the hospitality industry.

Even top managers, she said, “need to learn how to fold perfect corners on the bed, wait the tables … how to make a milkshake, how to fry a chicken.”

Hookipa traces back to an epiphany Benz had just this past January. He wondered why the state lacked a school program in which students earn credits and prepare for the workforce while also bolstering the state’s tourism economy. The program would boost graduation rates by offering coursework that engages students and at the same time helps businesses by saving them the time-consuming and costly hassle of training a first-time employee, said Benz, who’s also a member of the city’s .

If nothing else, it’d also put money in kids’ pockets. Indeed, many of the students who participated in the summer program beamed when they recalled their first paychecks.

“It’s like summer school but it’s way better because you get more experience and, you know, get paid,” explained Vincent Siuze, a 17-year-old senior of Mexican, Native Hawaiian and Filipino descent who found out about the Hookipa program from his counselor and worked in housekeeping department at the DoubleTree by Hilton Alana Waikiki hotel.

Siuze’s good friend and fellow 17-year-old senior Justin Liyeg, who also participated in the program but worked in facilities maintenance on the Kaimuki High campus, said he still needs to “do some soul-searching” but feels better prepared to transition into the career world after getting his job experience, which involved landscaping, renovation work, floor sealing and scrubbing.

“I’ve definitely grown more accustomed to work,” said Liyeg, a proud Yapese, noting that he’s planning on applying to a number of colleges, including the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California. “It (the program) really put an emphasis on exploring ourselves. How we see ourselves really reflects in how we perform in the workplace.”

Creating Relevance

The months following Benz’s epiphany involved a whirlwind of planning and coordination. He brought on retired principals Beatrice Zane and Randall Higa, who eventually became the program’s education coordinator and administrator, respectively. Benz also made business connections, partnering with Zippy’s, the DoubleTree’s Hilton Alana and, of course, his own Team Clean Inc.

Before it connected with Hookipa, Kaimuki High was already one of several large high schools in the state with a grant from the federal government to create in which students are divided into themed tracks — arts and communications or health services, for example.

But Kaimuki High’s smaller learning communities never quite got off the ground, and Principal Araki was also looking to set up a hospitality academy as part of a longer-term strategic plan to turn the school around and create a “middle college” of sorts. After all, the school is located right on the outskirts of Waikiki, home to the bulk of the state’s hospitality jobs, he said.

The summer program was supported by stipends from the city’s workforce development department and Benz’s company and had two components. The participating students attended school for four hours every morning. Their instruction, led by two DOE elementary school teachers, included conventional academics (math and critical reading exercises, for example) and activities emphasizing life skills critical to the hospitality work culture such as time management, conflict resolution and interpersonal relations.

Then, in the afternoons, the kids took city buses to their jobs, where they worked for another four hours.

The students were broken into four tracks, depending on what job they got. They had to interview for their positions on the second day of class with the actual companies, and not everyone got his or her first choice.

“We didn’t simply just get it (our job) — we had to earn it,” Siuze said, noting that he was one of the students who landed their first-choice positions. Suize plans to enroll in the two-year Hotel and Restaurant Operations program at Kapiolani Community College, after which he’ll transfer to UH Manoa.

The four students who got jobs with Team Clean Inc., Benz’s company, worked in the Ala Moana food court as janitors, while another five worked in different roles at Zippy’s. Four students worked at the DoubleTree by Hilton Alana Waikiki in housekeeping, and the rest worked in facilities maintenance on the Kaimuki campus, doing tasks such as landscaping, bathroom cleaning and woodwork. Some of the students are still working in the same jobs.

During a recent interview with Civil Beat in a run-down warehouse on Kaimuki High’s campus, Higa and Zane, who run Hookipa’s education components, showcased journals from the class and recounted how the students evolved over time. They sat in an office adjacent to the program’s planned classroom — a set of garages with overhead doors that they hope to renovate into mock hotel replete with beds, a lobby area and lanai where students will practice serving pupus. (Students in the summer program helped revamp the space, planting new grass and upgrading the mechanics, among other tasks.)

The classroom time supplemented the real-world training and aimed to mimic the kinds of expectations the teenagers would face in their jobs, they explained.

“We treated them as adults,” Zane said. “And (taught them) just to be a professional in whatever you do, regardless of what you do.”

Students had come to school wearing their work uniforms according to dress code — fingernail polish and rolled-up trousers were prohibited, for example — and were expected to arrive and punch in 10 minutes early.

“If you’re on time, you’re late,” reads a sign bearing the class’s motto. “If you’re early, you’re on time.”

The kids were also forced out of their comfort zones.

Rika Mile, a 17-year-old senior whose mom and dad immigrated from Japan and Hungary, respectively, said she most valued the confidence she gained by participating in the program, which got her a job at Zippy’s that she kept until recently.

“I was really scared going in. It was scary talking to customers,” she said, adding that she’s planning on enrolling in a two-year program at Kapiolani Community College and then transferring to a school on the mainland. “But it’s not that bad after a while.”