Our school's Ho'okama'aina Committee is dedicated to incorporating Hawaiian ways of thinking and living into our school's culture and curriculum through DOE's HA: Na Hopena A'o values. As part of this incorporation and as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic to open more outdoor classroom, we would like to build a traditional Hawaiian Hale on our campus. The build itself would be in partnership with several non-profits in the Ko'olaupoko region our school is located in, like Paepae He'eia, Hika'alani, and Kauluakalana.

Our committee of teachers will be incorporating the hale build into their classroom curriculum. They will be doing lessons on sense of place, hale structures, types of materials used, gathering those materials, and the build itself. On our committee, we have a diverse group of teachers who make up fine arts, English, engineering, health, natural resources management, dance and culinary. Therefore, the curriculum developed around the hale build will be interdisciplinary. Not only will we be having students and staff members working on the hale build but we do plan to host a few community work days, where we invite outside community members to participate in the build with all COVID-19 safety procedures in place.

The intention and purpose for the hale is to establish more of a Hawaiian cultural presence on the campus as well as to give teachers and students a place to gather. This outdoor classroom would help give people more opportunities to do their learning in the natural environment.

We are planning for this to be a year long project. Once we gather all the necessary funding, we will begin the hale building timeline. This includes teaching students the history of hale building in Hawai'i, gathering materials from off site, prepping the materials, and building the structure itself.