Background
“Connections” New Century Public Charter School (CPCS) began as the result of a joint effort between parents, community members and educators to create a school, for the children of the Mountain View, Volcano, Glenwood, South Kurtistown, and other communities surrounding the geographical area of Mountain View. Based on the highly successful school- within-a-school program at Mountain View Elementary School, Mountain View, Hawai`i, CPCS was established to move the school-within-a-school to its next logical level and to provide additional enhanced educational opportunities, community involvement and local decision making.
CPCS is a K-12 school serving the educational needs of students and families who select to enroll their children in an innovative, community-based school of choice. The school opened in August of 2000 for grades K-6 with 164 students located on the Mountain View Elementary campus. The following year, the school moved to the Kress Building in Hilo and expanded to a K-12 program. Inadequate fiscal support forced CPCS to reduce their program to a K-8 school for the 2002-2003 school year. The school expanded their middle school program during the 2004-2005 school year to include 9th graders. The purpose of CPCS has remained consistent throughout the years. The school provides options for families to be engaged in the overall educational program and to increase the capacity of the community to meet the varying needs of their students in the following ways:
- To establish a small school serving the full range students, explicitly designed to foster a high degree of personalized instruction aligned with the Hawai`i Content Standards and authentic pedagogy.
- To establish a school where ongoing learning and continuous improvement are the norm for the whole school – for adults as well as students.
- To create a small family of learners, an ʻOhana, where children stay together with their teachers and establish stable relationships.
Open to all students, who by parental choice wish to attend, CPCS focuses its resources and efforts on the refinement and management of the established and highly successful curricula developed by the Curriculum Research and Development Group (CRDG) at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Based on research and the successful practices of the current program, CPCS also addresses the different intelligences (Gardener’s Multiple Intellengences) and follows widely accepted research that curricula should be presented in many different forms to reach children who learn in many different ways.
Vision
To establish and sustain a community, business, and learning ‘ohana (family). Within this framework, inquiry and project-based curricula will stress independent thinking, development of the individual’s mind and talents, cooperative learning, sense of self within the neighborhood and the world-wide community with particular attention to the precious and unique environment of Hawaii, both as an island ecology and a place where ethnic diversity is the norm.
Mission
Our mission is to create an ‘ohana which is conducive to the recognition and development of individual talents. Thematic and experiential learning experiences are provided which focus on how students construct knowledge using creative and critical thinking. A forum for the development of the ability to recognize and differentiate a quality result or product is offered. Classroom experiences are connected to real life experiences so that students can grow in the understanding of themselves in relation to their community and the world.
School Goals
Outcomes/goals: Instruction is guided by five powerful student-centered goals. Students demonstrate mastery through exhibitions, successful projects, and demonstrations of content mastery. The focus is on fully informing and preparing students for their future, particularly in fostering careers that sustain the economy on this island.
- Goal 1 – Caring, Responsible Community Members: Students shall develop their abilities to become responsible members of a family, work group, or local/global community within the framework of democracy.
- Goal 2 - Creative, Critical Thinkers: Students will think creatively, critically, and strategically to make effective decisions, solve problems, and achieve goals in their academic, personal and social lives, in and out of school.
- Goal 3 - Effective Communicators: Students will write, speak and listen effectively in a variety of situations for a variety of audiences and purposes.
- Goal 4 - Users and Producers of Technology: Student will understand, use, and evaluate technologies as well as produce new innovative uses and applications in a variety of contexts for a variety of audiences and purposes including academic, personal and social.
- Goal 5 - Stewards of Hawaii’s Unique Environment: Students will understand a variety of eco-systems, natural energy flows and the natural environment in order to preserve and design systems to renew natural resources and habitats.