Middle School Theme Week transforms all of Hawaiʻi Island into a classroom
Week of 10/21/22
What's Happening at HPA This Week?
School Bulletins for the Week of 10/21/22
Lower School
Each week, Lower School Principal Dora Kwong writes a message to K-5 families highlighting joyful moments and meaningful lessons and offering a glimpse into what students and parents can plan for in the weeks ahead.
From the desk of your Division Principal, Dora Kwong
Aloha Lower School families,
I hope you enjoyed meeting with your child(ren)’s teachers during our conference days. It is wonderful to have families in our learning spaces and reconnect face-to-face. Parent-teacher conferences are an important part of our home-school partnership and meeting together about your child’s learning and goals, and how we support our keiki in these early years of growing. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us! Our
conferences next semester will be held Thursday, March 9, and Friday, March 10, and those will be student-led.
It has been a busy time here at the Lower School! We started off the week with our Lower School assembly, focusing on our core value of integrity. What does it mean, and what does it look like? Students shared thinking aloud and we agreed it is: doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. We talked about how this can be difficult, and that it is a muscle one exercises — the more you flex it by listening to the voice inside your head telling you what the right choice is, the easier it will be to make those good decisions. From seemingly small choices like adhering to a “no photographing” sign or turning an item in to the lost and found, to big ones like admitting to your parents the truth about an action you shouldn’t have taken or following safety guidelines out of sight of a teacher — having integrity is living with moral courage and owning up to your choices. We feel confident that our Lower Schoolers can live up to the challenge of upholding integrity in all forms because we see it every day! Our assembly continued on with third grader, India A., sharing her talents on the piano, as we watched in wonder her pursuit of excellence in playing the theme song from Top Gun! Well done, India. Thank you for sharing with us! We then got to hear from our Community Spotlight of the week, Mrs. Julia Noe, our newest Lower School grade level teacher, as she shared a bit about herself, her favorite tree (redwoods!), and gave us some sage advice:
Stay grounded.
Remember your roots.
Go out on a limb.
Branch out.
Turn over a new leaf.
Reach for the sky.
Stand tall and proud.
Enjoy the view!
Thank you, Mrs. Noe!
Next week, on Friday, October 28, from 3:15 to 5:00pm, please come join us for our Village Campus Fall Festival. We will have an open-mic led by the Middle School, pumpkin decorating, used books giveaway, and even a tractor ride for our keiki. Feel free to bring a dish for the potluck, a blanket to sit on, and enjoy the music and aloha. It will be a great kickoff to Lower School Spirit Week, which begins on Monday, October 31. Mahalo to our wonderful ‘Ohana Association for organizing the Fall Festival event for us! Our winter term enrichment classes for our Lower School After School Program starts on Monday, October 31, and runs through Friday, February 3, 2023. Registration is open and the deadline to sign-up is Thursday, October 27, at 3:00 pm. Sign up for After School enrichment classes by completing this online form Lower School (K-5): After School Program Signup Form. For more information, please review this email from October 19.
Finally, a reminder that if you need to pick up your child(ren) early from school for any reason, please be sure to email your grade level teacher ahead of time, and copy lkakugawa@hpa.edu and dgaughen@hpa.edu in the office.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Warmly,

Dora Kwong
Lower School Principal
Schedule
Our K-5 classes continue with in-person instruction on our Village Campus on Monday, October 24.
We encourage all families to check the School Calendar in myHPA for the most up-to-date information. In addition, a list of Key Dates (school opening and closures) can also be located on the Lower School Family Resources tile located in myHPA.
Coming Up
- Friday, October 28, 3:15 to 5:00 pm: Village Campus Fall Festival
- Monday, October 31: Spirit Week begins!
- Friday, November 4: K-12 Faculty Work Day, no classes
Student Support
Ms. Baydo (K-8 School Counselor) rbaydo@hpa.edu and Mr. Ludes (K-8 Learning Specialist) jludes@hpa.edu are available to discuss and support social-emotional and academic concerns for your child(ren). Please connect with them via email.
Past Email Communications
All past email communications can be accessed by visiting the Lower School Family Resources tile on myHPA and scrolling down to Past Parent Email Communications, 2022-2023.
myHPA
In addition to Seesaw, many important resources can be located on our community portal, myHPA. Check the Lower School Family Resources tile for the most up-to-date information.
Middle School
Each week, Middle School Principal Glenn Chickering pens a note to 6-8 families reflecting on the activities and accomplishments of the week and previewing what students and parents can look forward to in the coming days.
From the desk of your Division Principal, Glenn Chickering
Aloha Middle School families,
We truly hope that you enjoyed your conferences with teachers these past few days. Students thrive when teachers and parents are working together to help them be their best and these conferences are a key element of our Open Window to Learning, giving you a chance to see your child’s classrooms and hear straight from their teachers about what they’re seeing in class and how you can best support their learning from home. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.
Today, at the Schools of the Future Conference on Oʻahu, two of our current 9th grade students, Pemma Norbu and Tiffany Ravaglia gave a presentation entitled The Art of Choice: Sharing Student Perspectives Through Student-Led Projects. Both students created exemplary projects for their 8th-grade Capstone last year and are excited to share their journeys through the Capstone experience with an audience of educators and students. A big congratulations to Pemma and Tiffany and big mahalo to Erin Kawakami and K-8 Capstone Coordinator Dagan Bernstein, for coaching them on their Capstone journeys and encouraging them to share with a wider audience.
We were thrilled to welcome Dr. Bill Wiecking to our afterschool First Lego League Research team this week. Among countless other amazing things, Dr. Bill heads our Saalfeld Energy Lab on the Upper Campus. He came down to talk to our students about Design Thinking. This year’s First Lego League “problem” is energy, and our team’s specific problem is jet fuel usage and climate change. They had many questions for Dr. Bill, as they are hoping to create an ECO Jet.
Next Friday, October 28, marks the beginning of Middle School’s Spirit Week this year with Pajama Day. We are excited for our Fall Fest after school on Friday, October 28, from 3:15 to 5:00 pm. This will include a pot-luck picnic, open-mic, pumpkin decorating, used book giveaway and fun. Please bring a dish, bring a blanket and come enjoy the music and festivities.
We’ll pick things back up on Monday, October 31, with Halloween Costume day to be followed by the return of Trunk-or-Treat from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. Our Middle School students will be going through the Trunk-or-Treat during our normal Study Hall/Office Hours time, 1:40 to 3:10 pm. We’ll cap off the festivities with a Middle School Halloween Costume Contest, using the trusty applause-o-meter as a judge. Categories include: Best Homemade, Best Group Costume, Funniest, and Character. Tacky Tourist Tuesday, Anything but a Backpack Wednesday, and Famous Person/Athlete Thursday round out the Spirit Week themes this year.
It was fun to get back into classrooms this week as we settled back in after Theme Week. This week’s Flys on the Wall give a peek into ourHandbells Elective and Grade 7 Science. Handbells were kind enough to let me chime in on a ‘Linus and Lucy’ and attempt to keep up. While I try to be a musician, it would have been hard for anybody to catch up to this crew on the first try, as Ms. DiBartolo has them synced up like a well- oiled machine. We’ll look forward to hearing them at our Middle School Performing Arts Showcase on Friday, December 2.
Meanwhile, in Grade 7 Science, students were presenting their Ecosystems Creations. For this project, students were able to create fictional ecosystems full of fictional creatures and plants. They then created a food web and a trophic pyramid and picked one of their creatures to focus on to explain why the population of that species is either increasing or decreasing, and highlighting potential problems with the ecosystem’s balance.
As a reminder, our winter term enrichment classes for our Middle School After School Program starts on Monday, October 31, and runs through Friday, February 3, 2023. Registration is open and the deadline to sign-up is Thursday, October 27, at 3:00 pm. Sign up for After School enrichment classes by completing this online form Middle School: After School Program Signup Form. For more information, please review this email from October 19.
I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend!
Mahalo,

Glenn Chickering
Middle School Principal
Schedule
Our Middle School 2022-2023 Daily Schedule continues with in-person instruction on our Village Campus on Monday, November 21. We encourage all families to check the School Calendar in myHPA for the most up-to-date information. In addition, a list of Key Dates (school opening and closures) can also be located on the Middle School Family Resources tile located in myHPA.
Coming Up
- Friday, October 28: Start of Middle School Spirit Week!
- Friday, October 28, 3:15 to 5:00 pm: Village Campus Fall Festival
- Monday, October 31: Halloween Costume Day/Trunk-or-Treat
- Friday, November 4: K-12 Faculty Work Day, no classes
Student Support
Please remember that we will be outside as much as possible during lunch and recess, so a rain jacket for light rains and a pareo or small beach towel for picnicking will be great to have at school. Students should also bring a water bottle to school each day. Ms. Baydo (K-8 School Counselor) rbaydo@hpa.edu and Mr. Ludes (K-8 Learning Specialist) jludes@hpa.edu are available to discuss and support social-emotional and academic concerns for your child(ren). Please connect with them via email.
Past Email Communications
All past email communications can be accessed by visiting the Middle School Family Resource tile on myHPA and scrolling down to ‘Past Email Communications, 2022-2023’.
myHPA
myHPA is where you can find all the resources related to your child’s learning. Two key resource boards that we would like to draw your attention to are the Middle School Family Resources, and the Middle School Student Resources.
Upper School
From the desk of your Poʻo Kumu (Division Principal), Kaʻai Spencer
Aloha e nā ʻohana o ka makani!
I kani no ka pahu ʻolohaka o loko. This is a phrase that can be used to describe a person that knows very little about a particular topic, yet is the person who talks the most. Think of a can, which could be the pahu, that is barely filled with seeds. If it is shaken, it will make a lot of noise.However, if the can is packed full of seeds, it would not make as much noise. The seeds that I use in this example can be compared to knowledge. In many cultures, the keepers of knowledge are seldom the ones that are always talking. This could be because they want to protect the knowledge and ensure it is used properly, or they recognize their limited expertise of a topic and need more information, or because they do not want to appear as boastful.
There is value in speaking carefully, especially because uninformed speech and actions can lead to trouble. It is important to think things through and consider the consequences of anything we say and do. Recently, a number of our Upper School students have fallen victim to insults and harassment via cyberbullying. Social media is filled with many so-called experts. There are many social media experts out there that have the skill of packaging well-put-together tutorials that are flashy and attract attention, or click-bait. While this may sometimes be misleading or only bits of the whole truth, they are rarely aimed at being hurtful.
It is a very different situation when there are posts that are directed toward individuals in an antagonistic way. The students that were on the receiving end of these cyberbullying attacks are not only hurting, but they are also angry. As much as we can try to be empathetic and seek to understand the headspace of the person(s) responsible for the posts, it is hard to suppress the feeling of being attacked and not knowing where it is coming from. Perhaps the intent was to be funny or to stir up some inside-joke banter. If that were the case, it is a glaring sign of a lack of integrity, emotional awareness, empathy, and aloha.
At last week’s assembly, we showed this short video called Happiness is Helping Others. It features a man that does a series of helpful acts even though he may never benefit from it by way of resources or monetary value. Instead, he benefits from the joy that he gets from seeing others prosper as a result of the small acts of kindness he has offered. Please take a moment to watch the video because it is truly inspirational. It is also representative of the types of acts that members of our community should resonate with, aloha. This week’s assembly came on the heels of the news of a string of cyberbullying attacks and it had a much different tone.
I am hopeful that our students can learn from these hurtful acts and that the person(s) responsible receive the help they need. Let us all seek to understand and fill our pahu. In this example, our pahu is our heads and our minds which can be filled with knowledge and experience. The more our pahu becomes piha, or full, the more we can avoid acting in ways that are ʻolohaka, or empty. Aloha kākou kekahi i kekahi. In times of struggle, aloha always wins.
Ke aloha nō,

Kaʻai Spencer
Upper School Poʻo Kumu
Schedule
Our Upper School 2022-2023 Daily Schedule will resume as a Mamo day with in person instruction on our Upper Campus on Monday, October 24.
We encourage all students and families to access the School Calendar in myHPA for the most up-to-date information. In addition, a list of Key Dates (school opening and closures) can also be located on the Upper School Family Resources tile located in myHPA.
Coming Up
- Friday, October 28: Halloween Haunted Walk
- Friday, November 4: K-12 Faculty Work Day, no classes
- Friday, November 19: Fall Ball, semi-formal dance
Student Support
Should your child need additional learning support, we encourage you to reach out to JoAn Canning, our Upper School Learning Support Center Director, by emailing jcanning@hpa.edu. In addition, our counselors are ready to assist any student who needs additional support to navigate these unusual and unprecedented times. Please feel free to reach out to the Upper Campus counseling team of Tiffany Freitas at 808-881-4038 or tfreitas@hpa.edu and Steve Furchner at 808-640-4441 or sfurchner@hpa.edu.
Ka Makani Athletics
Our fall athletic schedule has been updated. You can also access the athletics schedule on the myHPA calendar.
Student Life
Haunted Walk and Trunk-or-Treat: October 28
Take a walk around campus with us, but be warned scary things are amongst you at night… Our senior Class Reps are busy planning this year’s Haunted Walk!
This Halloween tradition is for all Upper School students to enjoy, but be warned things will go bump in the night! After the Haunted Walk the ʻOhana Association will host Trunk-or-Treat at the end of the Haunted Walk course. Students are invited to enjoy Halloween treats, games and music. Look for an email early next week with more information.
Halloween: October 31
Dress up in your favorite costume on Monday! Stop by Kennedy Square at lunch to enter in Student Council’s Halloween Costume Competition.This year we will have three categories:
• Funniest Costume
• Scariest Costume
• Most Creative Costume
Please note, any weapons that do not clearly resemble a toy will not be allowed, they should be brightly colored and resemble a toy. No one is allowed to touch, shoot at, or hit, another student. Student Council will also be hosting a Faculty Halloween Costume! All Upper School faculty are invited to dress up in their most creative costume and prove once and for all which department has the BEST COSTUME BRAGGING RIGHTS! All winners will be chosen by Student Council and announced at the assembly on Tuesday, November 1.
UPDATE: Ka Makani Travel
The itinerary for the planned Ka Makani Travel Spain trip has changed. Students now have the opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom, France, and Spain during the two weeks of Spring Break 2023. HPA is also offering a Japan tour.
The deadline to enroll in Spain or Japan is October 31, 2022. A $100 discount is being offered by the tour provider through September 30, 2022.
For additional information, contact Adrienne White at awhite@hpa.edu
Residential Life
As life continues to stay busy on campus with exciting events every weekend for the foreseeable future, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of our weekly residential curriculum. Each week, our residential students gather for about 45 minutes to discuss topics around Health and Wellness, DEIB, Living in Community, Cultural Competency, Sustainability, and others. These meetings can sometimes be as a whole residential community, by dorm, hall, or in small groups within their dormitory. We value this time and these lessons as an essential part of achieving our goals of educating the whole student.
This week, our residential community gathered together to engage in a discussion around ethical outdoor recreation, and the concept of Leave No Trace. The conversation starts from a fairly basic understanding of this concept- don’t damage a campsite or trail that you are using. But as we dig deeper into the idea, we can examine the impact that smaller things, like building rock cairns, or even taking pictures and posting them to social media, can have long term detrimental impacts on a place through cultural displacement and exploitation. Later in the year, we will return to this topic to discuss the importance of using the proper name of places, and how failure to do so can have serious long-term negative impacts on the host culture, both in Hawaiʻi and abroad.
For more information on this topic, I would like to direct you to two articles written by a former HPA teacher and parent, Ms. Jaime Johnson, whose work inspired these lessons. They are published by the Outdoor Project, and you can find them here and here.
College Counseling
Mahalo to all of you who were able to join Monday’s college financial aid presentation. Here are the links to the WUE Program as well as the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation Scholarship Program (opening on Tuesday, November 15) that we referenced in our presentation. In addition, here is the recording of our discussion. Please reach out with any questions. We are happy to support you.
College Visits, Monday, October 17, to Friday, October 21, 2022
Monday, October 24: Occidental
College (Los Angeles, CA) 11:15 to 11:45 am Tuesday, October 25: Davidson College (Davidson, NC) 11:15 to 11:45 am
Wednesday, October 26: Hawaii Pacific University (Honolulu, HI) 11:50 tp 12:20 pm
Thursday, October 27: Pacific University (Forest Grove, OR) 11:15 to 11:45 am
Thursday, October 27: Scripps College (Claremont, CA) 11:50 to 12:20 pm
Friday, October 28: Chapman University (Orange, CA) 11:15 to 11:45 am
Past Email Communications
All past email communications can be accessed by visiting the Upper School Family Resources tile on myHPA and scrolling down to ‘Past Email Communications, 2022-2023’.
myHPA
myHPA is where you can find all the resources related to your child’s learning. Two key resource boards that we would like to draw your attention to are the ‘Upper School Family Resources and the ‘Upper School Student Resources.
All-School
Need to know information for our entire Ka Makani ʻohana.
All-School News
Admissions and Financial Aid
For those HPA families who will be re-enrolling for the 2023-24 academic year and would like to apply for financial aid, scholarships and grants, our financial aid application is now available on the HPA website for your convenience. The deadline to apply for financial aid is Tuesday, November 1, 2022. The deadline to apply for scholarships is Sunday, January 15, 2023.
The admission application for the 2023-24 school year is now open! Spread the word and help us grow our Ka Makani ʻohana. You can also visit and share the link to our in person and virtual Admission events page. We are excited to work with siblings of current students and prospective families new to HPA!
Advancement & Alumni
Give your HIGH FIVE FOR THE FUND! Now through Wednesday, November 9 our goal is to encourage 100% of our families to join in to support our students and our school by making a gift to the HPA Fund. Every gift, any size, makes an impact. Even $5! By joining in you help make it possible for HPA to offer programs and experiences that challenge and nurture our children, inspiring them to do good work and to dream big.
Up high! Let’s make it happen!
Get your tickets for Alu Mai 2022! Saturday, November 19, marks the return of HPA’s annual fundraising gala and auction in support of financial aid.
We invite you to join in for a delightful evening of dinner and dancing under the stars in support of opportunity and access for future generations at HPA. Secure your spot today, purchase a table or an individual ticket. E alu mai
COVID-19 Policies & Information
While masks continue to be optional indoors and outdoors, there will be times when we will require everyone — students, families, guests, and employees — to wear masks. You will be notified in these instances. Everyone, regardless of age or vaccination status, must have a clean mask with them at all times should HPA officials determine they are necessary.
For a complete directory of all our health and safety protocols, please review our COVID-19 Policies & Information Resource Board on myHPA.
Health & Wellness
The 2022-2023 cold and flu season kicked off early this year–in September! We are seeing an increase in both respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses on both our Village and Upper Campuses. While there’s no need to panic, we do ask for your continued partnership and diligence in monitoring your children for symptoms of illness and keeping them home when sick. One of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of germs is proper handwashing.
Hawaii Poison Control Center has trained nurses, pharmacists, and toxicologists available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They offer free advice, and it is 100 % confidential. Their telephone number should be on everyone’s cell phone: 1-800-222-1222.
Hawaii CARES (formerly The Crisis Line of Hawaii) offers 24-hour a day, 7-days a week resources, including crisis and mental health resources and substance use treatment services. Call 9-8-8 or 1(800) 753-6879 or text ALOHA to 741741.
Isaacs Art Center
Isaacs Art Center is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and on Saturdays by appointment. Gallery works for sale may also be viewed on our website. Be sure to also visit our Instagram and Facebook pages for highlights from ongoing exhibitions. Sales from gallery artwork have supported the HPA Financial Aid program since its opening in 2004.
Safety Protocols
Campus Access
During this time, campus access is limited to current students, employees, essential contractors, and approved guests — all of whom have completed a daily thermal/symptom check and a screening questionnaire. Guests to campus will have had their hosting faculty or staff member fill out the appropriate form and will have received permission from their supervisor.
Should a family member of a student need a meeting with a faculty, staff, or administrative team member, kindly contact them so that they can apply to have you come to campus. From that point, security team members will be alerted to your appointment date and time and let you onto campus.
At the Upper School, please do not park and walk onto campus without an appointment. Similarly, at the Village Campus, kindly call or email for an appointment so that arrangements can be made. Mahalo, for your understanding and respect for this process.
If you See Something, Say Something
We ask all families to join HPA in keeping our campus safe. While on the HPA campus, if you see anything out of the ordinary, we ask that you please report it to the school or local authorities immediately. This will help us maintain the safest campus for our students.
- Imminent threat to life or property: call 911 immediately and email Mark Noetzel at mnoetzel@hpa.edu
- Anything out of the ordinary: email Mark Noetzel at mnoetzel@hpa.edu
CrisisGo for Parents
It is important that all families are set up with CrisisGo, HPA’s school emergency communication tool. To set up CrisisGo SMS/Email subscription, please click on this invitation link and complete the form by adding your name, email, and cell number (this is an important step if you would like to receive an SMS message) and click on the Subscribe button. Should an emergency occur, you will be alerted by email and SMS messaging.
You can also locate these instructions by logging into myHPA, clicking on the resource tab, and selecting the CrisisGo Safe2SpeakUp tile.
Safe2SPeakUp for Middle and Upper Students
Similarly, Middle and Upper School students received instructions during orientation on how to upload the Safe2SpeakUp app. This is a companion app to CrisisGo. It will allow the school to alert students of emergencies that happen on or off campus and enable students to communicate with us about their safety status. They can also use the app to alert the school about any behaviors they are concerned about.
Students can also locate instructions on setting up Safe2SpeakUp in myHPA, and they were also emailed the video shown at orientation which walks them through the process of uploading the app and registering, step-by-step.
All students can also submit an Online Bully/Harassment report by clicking on this link, which can also be located on the CrisisGo Safe2SpeakUp tile on myHPA.
ʻOhana Association
K-8 Fall Festival: Friday, October 28, 3:15 to 5:00 pm
Save the date for our first Fall Fest at the Village Campus! Come enjoy live entertainment and games with K-8 students, a “spooky” potluck, and a Friends of the Library ‘Loved Book’ swap. Bring your ʻohana and a festive dish to share for an afternoon of family fun!
Haunted Walk and Trunk-or-Treat: Friday, October 28
The Upper School Student Council will be hosting a Haunted Walk for grades 9-12, followed by an ʻOhana Association sponsored Trunk-or-Treat. Space is limited. If you’d like to donate gently-used Halloween decorations for this event, please contact hawaiihodges@gmail.com.
Trunk-or-Treat: Monday, October 31
You won’t want to miss this HPA tradition where our K- 8 students trick-or-treat on the field from costumed cars decorated by parents, faculty, and staff. It’s a real thrill! Volunteers are needed! Please sign up your ʻohana or team up with a group of friends to host a fun-themed “trunk” for students to visit or provide treats for the kids to enjoy! Trunks will be set up on Halloween morning — Monday, October 31 — and students will trick-or-treat from 1:30 to 3:00 pm. It is sure to be SPOOKTACULAR fun!
We are always looking for volunteers, if you’d like to participate, please email ohana_president@hpa.edu
