Commission investigates Kauai charter school, replaces governing board

The Charter School Commission has decided to appoint a new governing board for Kanuikapono Charter School in Anahola, Kauai, and investigate allegations of mismanagement.

Any spending by the school will have to be authorized by commission staff, who also will hold the school’s debit and credit cards until a new board is named.

The unanimous vote Thursday by the commission came after several Kanuikapono staff, parents and a former board chairwoman urged commissioners to take action to set things right at the school, which was founded in 2002 and had 194 students in kindergarten through 12th grade last year.

“I love Kanuikapono,” said Kainoa Wojak, a parent and school health aide, imploring the commission to intervene. “Our community, especially our keiki, deserve better.”

Anahola is a small, intertwined community, and the dispute over the school’s leadership has been emotional.

“Our school is a key part of our community, and you now have the opportunity to appoint people to save our school and I really am pushing for that,” said Denby Dawson, a parent for 11 years and the school administrative services assistant for the last two years.

The commission is investigating a range of possible wrongdoing, including violations of governance regulations, lack of internal financial controls, employment and admissions practices, and credit card use.

The school’s leadership has been in turmoil for months. On April 16, leaders of its affiliated nonprofit known as Kanu INC, which is a vendor to the school, improperly took over the school’s governing board, according to the commission. On June 15 several support staff were terminated, including Wojak, Dawson and administrative assistant Desirea Peterson — a move they see as retaliation for alerting authorities to wrongdoing on campus.

“The board as it stands now has abused their authority and disregarded the concerns of support staff as well as parents and the community,” Peterson told the commission.

But Kanuikapono Program Director Kathryn Smith told commissioners that day-to-day operations of the school are running smoothly, students are doing well academically and parents are engaged. She said the staff reductions were part of a restructuring.

“We made the decision to outsource some positions and save some money so that funds could be applied to the instruction of the students,” Smith said. “There has never been any malicious intent.”

Smith, a former dean of students, replaced founder and longtime Executive Director Ipo Torio-Kauhane, who stepped down June 15.

“It’s unfortunate the school’s current leadership is being challenged,” Torio-­Kauhane said after the commission meeting. “Our hope is that growth is going to emerge because of this.”

As a charter school, Kanuikapono is supposed to be governed by an independent board, but the commission found that too many board members had conflicts of interest because they were school employees or vendors.

Puna Dawson, the last board chairwoman recognized by the commission, testified that she went to the school and its bank in March after hearing about possible mismanagement and reviewed its records, employee contracts, accounts and bank statements. She then shared information with commission staff.

“I am not going to throw mud at anyone; it’s not the Hawaiian way,” she told commissioners Thursday. “The founding members that sit here at the table, they are good people, but everybody in life makes mistakes. To have a (bank) signatory that is 10 years old that doesn’t work at our school, and the only other signatory to be the director of our school, I knew that was wrong.”

Charter schools are public schools largely funded by the state that operate under contracts with the commission. On May 15 the commission issued a notice of concern citing possible contract violations and informed the school community that it might reconstitute the board if the issues were not resolved.

The commission will establish a transitional governing board of at least three members to keep the school running, as recommended by its chairman, John Kim. Commission staff will take applications until Aug. 2 for those slots.

“The aloha for your school is overwhelming,” commissioner Mitch D’Olier said. “This school really needs to be protected, and the commission wants to help in that, and that’s why we’ve done what we’ve done today.”