Commission votes to replace board of Ka Waihona charter school in Nanakuli

The Charter School Commission will reconstitute the governing board of Ka Waihona o ka Na‘auao, a charter school in Nanakuli, because of persistent concerns about its failure to manage school finances.

The commission voted unanimously to appoint new board members and is seeking applicants for those volunteer positions.

“Their task will be to look at the current problems that have been identified, to clean it up and get the school back on an even keel in terms of the regulations and all of the requirements,” said commission Chairman John Kim.

In a letter to parents on Aug. 31, the day of the vote, the commission said it took action “in the best interest of the school, its students and staff” after the “governing board failed to manage the financial performance of the school.”

The commission questioned “pay advances” totalling $83,000 to the school’s founder and head of school, Alvin Parker, and other administrators including his wife, Renette, that were made without withholding. It also pointed to $122,800 in “unknown expenses” in the last school year.

Parker told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that his school has passed its independent financial audits. He said he is owed about $200,000 in back pay because his salary has not changed since 2007 although he is a member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

“My position when queried about these things … is I don’t owe you the money, you owe me the money,” Parker said. “There’s money owed to one person, and that’s me. Everyone else got paid according to what they are supposed to get.”

The commission rated the school as “high risk” for its financial performance, specifically cash flow, at the end of the last fiscal, for the second year in a row. It said its ratio of current assets to liabilities also “called into question the fiscal solvency of the school.”

Ka Waihona, founded in 2002, is a Hawaiian culture-focused school with 644 students in grades kindergarten through 8. This year it created a new off-campus division that enrolled 100 students, most of them military dependents, as part of a financial sustainability plan, Parker said. The “blended learning” program combines online studies with five hours a week of face-to-face cultural programming.

Parker projects that the 100 new enrollees will give the school a balance of $400,000 at the end of the year, and he intends to double enrollment and the balance in the following year. Charter schools received about $7,355 per pupil in state funds in the last fiscal year, whether the kids come to campus or work mostly at home.

Charmaine Woodward, information technology manager at the school, said the governing board at Ka Waihona seemed out of the loop.

“I feel like a lot of times the board was very disconnected from our school and unaware and possibly unwilling to address the concerns that were grave,” she said. “We all love Mr. Parker, there’s no doubt about that. But I do believe there are good people that make wrong choices and we gotta be pono again.”

Lehua Abrigo, who headed the governance committee for Ka Waihona’s board before becoming chairwoman last month, told commissioners Friday that her biggest concern was the “lack of communication or transparency.”

“It seemed that decisions were being made by a few on behalf of the board but without, really, board input,” Abrigo said. “That was the hardest part, not knowing what was going on. … I do feel we really did fail in what we were supposed to do in providing oversight to the school.”

Ka Waihona is the second charter school in two months to face reconstitution of its board: Kanuikapono in Anahola, Kauai, was sanctioned in the same way in July.