Hawaiʻi’s first-ever charter preschool is slated to open in Kapolei next month, amid a push to utilize the charter system to increase access to early learning in the state. 

Parkway Village Preschool is located in an affordable housing complex that recently opened there and will eventually serve up to 80 3- and 4-year-olds.

The state estimates that it needs 337 more classrooms to meet its goal of providing universal access to preschool by 2032. Only a few charter schools operate preschool programs on their K-12 campuses, and the number of charter preschool seats has been stagnant since 2015.

To change that — and make use of funding set aside for charter preschool expansion that until recently had gone untouched — the Hawaiʻi State Charter School Commission is currently soliciting applications from early learning providers interested in starting a charter preschool. 

The goal is to open nine more charter preschool classrooms by August, said Deanne Goya, the director of the commission’s early learning programs. 

Most of Hawaiʻi’s public preschool programs operate on Department of Education campuses, often in unused classrooms at elementary schools. Over the past two years, the state has added 55 pre-kindergarten classrooms on DOE campuses and serves over 1,300 students in its public preschool program. Hawaiʻi has also expanded a preschool tuition subsidy program that serves more than 2,100 children. 

Some school leaders say the state would be able to reach its goals faster if it did more to support existing charter schools that want to add preschool programs but are unable to because of issues with funding and campus space.

A New Kind Of Charter School

While finding facilities for charter schools is typically a challenge, Parkway Village Preschool was able to secure space by tapping into Kapolei’s new housing development with the support of Kamehameha Schools.

The preschool’s four classrooms, nestled between homes in the Parkway Village complex, were developed with a $2 million investment from Kamehameha Schools. However, the preschool will accept all 3- and 4-year-olds and doesn’t give preference to students of Native Hawaiian descent, said Ben Naki, who serves as the school’s interim director.  

Kamehameha Schools declined requests for interviews, but spokesperson Sterling Wong said supporting Parkway Village Preschool is part of the school’s efforts to provide families more affordable options for early learning. 

The nonprofit operating the school, Parents And Children Together, currently runs federally funded early learning programs on Big Island and Oʻahu. PACT formally pitched its preschool plans to the charter school commission and received approval in early 2024. 

“It’s exciting because it’s something new,” said Naki, who also oversees PACT’s early learning programs.  

Parkway Village’s developer, the Kobayashi Group, is leasing the preschool’s property to Kamehameha Schools, Wong said. In turn, Kamehameha Schools will sublease the land to PACT.

The costs of PACT’s sublease has yet to be determined, Naki said. 

“This is the best use of the limited resources and limited land base that we have,” said Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who is leading the push to expand early learning across the state. She added that she hopes more affordable housing projects will host preschool campuses in the future.  

Even with outside support for facilities and construction, opening the preschool has taken longer than expected. PACT originally planned to open the preschool this month, but delays in finalizing leases and receiving a certificate of occupancy for the classrooms pushed back the opening date. 

Naki hopes the preschool can open next month. 

The mid-year opening may have deterred some families from applying to the preschool. Right now, Naki said, he has enough applicants to open at least one classroom and may open a second based on ongoing demand. Each classroom will serve 20 children. 

The school is still searching for some staff members, including a permanent director. 

Expanding Preschool Access

Even though Parkway Village Preschool has yet to open its doors, Goya of the charter commission is hopeful it will entice more private providers to apply to open a charter. 

Luke said the state has envisioned building a preschool-only charter school for years. Lawmakers appropriated roughly $5 million in 2023 to help charter preschools hire teachers and purchase supplies. 

Parkway Village Preschool will receive $684,000 to support its operations, but PACT was the only group that applied in 2023 to start a charter preschool. 

The commission opened a new application period in November and is hopeful that more groups will apply by the deadline next week.  

The agency is primarily targeting existing private preschools that may be interested in converting to charter schools. The preschools would shift from being tuition-based to receiving state funds, reporting to the commission and serving families for free.  

The commission hopes to open nine more classrooms in new preschool-only charter schools by August and will publicly review and approve providers’ applications by late April. Under this timeline, providers would have four months to convert their private preschools to charter schools.  

Deborah Zysman, executive director of Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network, said she supports converting some private preschools to charters because that would create more options for families.  

“We just need more options,” Zysman said.

Directors of existing charter schools say they could offer more preschool options for families if they had access to more space and funding. 

At Ka ʻUmeke Kāʻeo Charter School on the Big Island, director of operations Louisa Lee oversees two classrooms serving nearly 40 students ages 3 and 4. Demand for the preschool is high, she said, especially since it’s one of only a few schools on island offering a Hawaiian immersion education for young students.

Ka ʻUmeke Kāʻeo received some money from a federal grant Hawaiʻi received in 2015 that provided funds to charter schools interested in opening preschool programs. If the school hadn’t received the federal grant and found a nearby unused preschool to take over, Lee said, adding an early learning program would have been difficult. 

“There’s no way to do it if you’re not addressing the facilities issue,” Lee said. 

Few charters have extra classrooms that can be converted to preschools, Goya said. Even those with extra space don’t always qualify for the state funding set aside for expanding early learning access. 

Last year, lawmakers appropriated $100 million to the School Facilities Authority to build more preschools and early learning classrooms across the state. But the funds came in the form of general obligation bonds, Goya said, and can only support schools built on state property. 

It’s a roadblock for many charters, she said, which often hold classes on private property and rent space from shopping malls or old restaurants.    

Kanuikapono Public Charter School on Kauaʻi is one of a handful of schools that can benefit from the state’s preschool construction funds because its campus is on public land. Director Kanoe Ahuna said she’s currently working with the School Facilities Authority to build a new preschool with four classrooms.

If all goes well, Kanuikapono could open its preschool in the fall of 2027. Demand is high for preschool in the rural community, she said.

“We’re feeling very hopeful,” she said, “now that this is happening.” 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.