Academy of the Pacific to close

The Academy of the Pacific is shutting down due to financial struggles and dwindling enrollment at its Alewa Heights campus, following more than 50 years of educating "out-of-the-box learners," school officials said Monday.

"Due to declining enrollment and increased financial pressures on families leading to greater need for tuition assistance, the school can no longer financially sustain itself nor continue to offer our students the very best in 21st-century education," board Chairman Barron Guss said in a statement.

The closure will be effective for the upcoming 2013-14 school year.

The 52-year-old nondenominational school, which served students in grades six through 12, had seen its enrollment drop steadily in recent years, said Head of School Lou Young.

Academy of the Pacific previously enjoyed enrollment of 100 to 150 students, but ended this school year with 63 students. The year before, it had 85 students.

Thirty-two percent of families received financial assistance for the 2012-13 school year, with awards ranging from $2,000 to $13,300, according to the school’s website.

"Admissions have become more challenging for all schools, but unfortunately, when we’re talking about small schools, any change in the number of students is more difficult," Young said.

He’s been working one-on-one with the families of the school’s current 30 students "to help them find soft landings."

"I called every single family over the weekend and talked to them individually about what schools they might consider," he said. "I’d also asked faculty for school suggestions for each student."

He’s also trying to help the school’s 12 faculty members find other employment. He’s called schools with relevant job openings and asked them to consider his former teachers. Some have already secured positions, he said.

Young said that while he’s sad and disappointed, he’s confident the displaced students will have successful futures.

"It’s sad on the one hand because of the kids we were serving, but all of these kids will be successful because we’ve done a good job with them," he said. "We have done some wonderful things here."

He noted as an example the school’s designation in 2009 by the Hawaii Community Foundation as one of 16 "Schools of the Future" — an initiative that recognizes local schools as role models of 21st-century learning.

Young said the private school was designed for "students who either knew right away or quickly discovered they are best served in a small school in order to meet their potential." It charged tuition of $17,700.

Guss, who graduated from the school, said the school "is proud of the role we have played in helping generations of students reach their potential" since its founding in 1961.

Young said the school’s board of trustees has commissioned studies to determine next steps for the campus. That could include selling the 4-acre hilltop site.

"The board could choose to open up a school again with maybe a different mission, or the same mission but done a different way," Young said. "This school started because there were unmet needs on Oahu. The board wants to see what other unmet needs there are and see if this school — or profits from the school if they have to sell the property — will be able help the needs of those kids."