The new director of the state agency overseeing public charter schools says he brings with him a commitment to innovation and school choice.

Sione Thompson started Thursday as executive director of the state Public Charter School Commission, following a decade- long career as a private school administrator.

He spent 10 years with Saint Louis School, his alma mater, and worked as a social sciences teacher and dean of students before being named vice principal and later principal of the all-boys Catholic school. He most recently worked as project coordinator for the early-college, dual-enrollment program at the University of Hawaii West Oahu, which allows high school students to take college courses.

“I’m a strong proponent of innovation in education and schools of choice. I know and I believe that every child learns differently, so to have that choice is really important for our keiki,” Thompson, 36, said in an interview. “And working in the charter schools allows me to be in that space, in that environment.”

Designed to be laboratories for innovation in public education, the state’s 34 charter schools educate more than 10,600 students. Enrollment at charter schools has increased by more than 10 percent over the past five years and makes up 6 percent of Hawaii’s public school population.

Charter schools use public funds and offer a free education but are independently run by governing boards under charter contracts with the commission. The schools generally enjoy more autonomy than regular public schools in exchange for more accountability.

Thompson is joining the commission office during a critical time for the charter movement. The level of oversight imposed by the commission has long been a point of contention between the agency and some schools that maintain the commission office routinely infringes on their autonomy.

The discord came to a head last year and prompted the state Board of Education, which appoints volunteer members to the commission, to lead an informal listening tour that revealed a breakdown in the relationship between some schools and the commission and its staff.

The BOE is now working to draft rules that would allow for groups such as nonprofits and universities to approve and oversee public charter schools — a move that charter advocates say will help foster growth and improvement. The commission currently is the state’s only charter-authorizing body.

Thompson said he wasn’t dissuaded by the controversy and is looking forward to engaging with school leaders to help support areas of strengths and shore up any weaknesses.

“I really saw all of this as a real opportunity for change, for development, for real innovation, and I really do believe that relationships are going to be the first step in understanding,” he said. “I believe that the leaders of each community — they’re the experts, I want to learn from them, what they need to succeed, and then support that the best we can.”

He added, “I really value schools not just as a center or place for academia, but really a place of gathering, of community, to develop culture and relationships and to develop identity.”

A father of four, Thompson has a daughter in public school, a daughter in private school and two younger daughters.

Thompson replaces former Executive Director Tom Hutton, who announced in February that he would step down after three years on the job. Hutton had been the first director of the commission, which was established in 2012 as part of an overhaul of the state’s charter law to tighten oversight and accountability of charter schools.

The commission replaced the Charter School Review Panel, which had gone through six executive directors in nine years. Hutton’s three-year tenure was twice as long as the average of his predecessors at the panel.