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“We’re number one! We’re number one!”

The classic chant, yelled by enthusiastic young people for time eternal (at least back when Hawaii used to have state championships), now applies to a more sobering statistic for Hawaii’s public school students.

Hawaii is now leading the nation in the least amount of in-person instruction available for children grades K-12, according to .

That’s right. Hawaii has now sunk below California for last place in school reopenings.

On its Hawaii DOE webpage, the Hawaii Department of Education states:

Forgive me, HIDOE, but after frequent check-ins for updates, I do not believe you anymore.

Clearly, federal agencies have given the go-ahead as school campuses are safely open here in the islands and throughout the continental United States. As far as state agencies are concerned, it is difficult to discern why the state of Hawaii is so far behind everywhere else on in-person schooling.

Hawaii has consistently been the state with the lowest COVID-19 rate throughout the pandemic. Hawaii is also the only state with one single district.

Some states grapple with different districts implementing different plans. Hawaii’s unique central district provided a path for statewide leadership on school re-openings.

Instead, Superintendent Kishimoto has resigned (effective this summer) with no replacement for at least a year. Moreover, the Board of Education is largely silent on the topic of school re-openings, despite their charge to “formulate statewide educational policy.”

Where Is The Hope?

According to their BOE COVID Information page, the latest COVID-19 action they took was in June 2020 in a document charging school communities to

Where is the hope, kindness and togetherness in schools that are obstinately still not welcoming back students full time?

Principals have been left to do more or less whatever they think is best. Apparently, absent any state leadership requiring the contrary, their best is to maintain the status quo.

Speaking of lack of leadership and communication, parents have begun reaching out to their children’s schools regarding the status of in-person schooling for 2021-2022. While school officials say that they hope school can be fully open and that they want the students back, they fall far short of actually saying the words that school will be fully open.

I empathize with the emotions of school officials, but if I am honest, after a full academic year away from school, I find myself craving concrete actions, rather than hopes and wants.

Tell me exactly what it will take for my children to be allowed back into their classrooms with their peers.

In-person instruction five days a week should be the default mode of instruction. The metrics that were made by the HIDOE a year ago need to be changed to reflect new information, such as teacher vaccinations and how the virus spreads.

Parents, teachers, students and taxpayers should demand evidence that Hawaii’s school campuses are demonstrably less safe than fully open mainland schools before another minute of in-person instruction is denied to a child living in Hawaii. If schools are unsafe, then steps should be taken immediately to make them safe.

If schools are unsafe, steps should be taken to make them safe.

Schools should consider creative solutions such as adjusting bell schedules or creating outdoor tented areas for cafeterias. The Hawaiian Islands have the world’s best weather. Mainland schools, with their enclosed hallways and forced air heating systems, would love to have the option to open windows year round and move classrooms outdoors.

I have always been a public school advocate; however, without assurance that my children’s schools will ever fully reopen again, I am finding this stance more difficult to defend every day.

Last October I wrote a piece lamenting that children were “Counting Down To One Hundred Days Out Of School.” Since then, over 200 school days later, my child has been allowed onto his school campus a total of 21 days.

Even though this is less-than-ideal synchronous/blended learning (when the teachers instruct both students at home and at school at the same time through a computer), he is incredibly happy on the days he is invited to be learning among other students with his teacher in the classroom.

If his school allowed him back to school full-time tomorrow, he would more than double the amount of days at school before summer break.

With only five weeks of school left, perhaps the HIDOE has given up on bringing more students back on campus for more days this year.

If that is true, then Hawaii will remain number one.