Board of Education appoints members to charter schools panel

Two new members have been appointed to the state Charter Schools Commission, and a current member was appointed for a second term.

The commission’s nine members are appointed by the state Board of Education on an unpaid, volunteer basis to oversee the state’s 37 public charter schools, which serve about 12,000 students.

The BOE on Thursday approved the new Charter Schools Commission members, whose three-year terms start July 1 and run through June 30, 2025.

Jeremy “Kama” Hopkins is an educator, musician and political staffer who has worked as a trustee aide at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and also is a member of the Manoa Neighborhood Board.

The second new member, Carl T. Takamura, is a veteran business and government leader whose past roles include senior associate for external affairs for Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education and executive director of the Hawaii Business Roundtable. Takamura also served as chief of staff to then-U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono.

The pair will replace commission Chair John Kim and commissioner Mitch D’Olier, whose terms expire at the end of June.

Current commissioner Matthew Kodama was reappointed for his first full three-year term, which also will run through June 2025.

Kodama is an assistant project manager at Bowers & Kubota Consulting and has worked extensively in finance, real estate and land use planning.

The Commission Nominations Investigative Committee was headed by Board of Education member Kili Na- mau‘u as chair and included board members Bill Arakaki and Kaimana Barcarse.

The original deadline for people to submit applications was March 3, but when no applications were received, the committee extended the deadline to March 27. Of the five applications received, one was ineligible due to a conflict of interest.

Continuing commission members are Makalapua Alencastre (through June 2023), Jill Baldemor (through June 2023), Shannon Cleary (through June 2024), Alex Harris (through June 2024), Terry Holck (through June 2023) and Vice Chair Cathy Ikeda (through June 2024).