Damien’s transition to coed is going well, president says

Question: Whatever happened to Damien Memorial School’s move to become coeducational?

Answer: Damien Memorial School in Kalihi will welcome sixth- through ninth-grade girls starting this fall for the first time in its 50-year history.

Damien President Bernard Ho said the transition is going well despite the school being unsure just how many girls will attend.

“We are projecting that we should get somewhere between 15 and 80 girls, but it’s a soft number until we actually get all the contracts back” by the April 15 deadline, he said.

In September, the school had 374 students enrolled in sixth through 12th grade.

Ho said the school received roughly 200 applications for new students this year, and about 40 percent (or 80) of those were girls — most of whom will be entering ninth grade.

The school will accept girls in only ninth grade each year, as a compromise for parents who enrolled their sons at the school under the proviso that it was all male, Ho said.

The school will most likely offer girls’ sports such as volleyball, basketball and soccer, as well as cheerleading, and is in the process of hiring coaches, he said. If there are not enough girls to form entire teams, student athletes will play on a Pac-Five team (which pools players from small schools in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu), he said.

One of the school’s four restrooms has been redone to accommodate female students, Ho said, and the second will be finished by July. He also said the school is working on amending one of its two locker rooms.

A few new teachers are being hired, faculty members have been undergoing in-service training and conversations have taken place with students to make sure everybody adjusts well to the change, Ho said.

The school’s student handbook and mission statement have also been modified to reflect the new student body.

“We think we’ve addressed all the things we need to,” Ho said.

Enrolling girls is only part of a slew of big changes that will soon take place on the Damien campus.

Ho said the school will break ground in the fall on a new athletic complex as part of a three- to five-year plan that also includes adding new music and student services centers and reconditioning and repositioning the practice football field.

“I think this is a new beginning for Damien, but going coed is only part of it,” he said.

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This update was written by Sarah Zoellick. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.