Saint Louis head of school Walter Kirimitsu in front of the new Clarence T.C. Ching Learning and Technology Center. (HCH photo | Patrick Downes)
You might say the stars have aligned for Walter Kirimitsu, creating a “good time” for him to retire as Saint Louis’ head of school. The “stars” would include a former pop singer and a present football luminary. More about them later.
Kirimitsu will leave a significant mark on Hawaii’s oldest Catholic school after nine years as its head administrator when he leaves his office at the end of next month.
He will step away from his 24/7 job at the school into a more relaxed routine of community work using his skills as a lawyer and former judge. That, he said, and golf.
He talked to the Hawaii Catholic Herald this month about being the school’s first lay president. His small office, tucked away on the second floor of a small secondary campus building, is crammed with autographed photos of former students and football players and other memorabilia. Included is a photo of his grandson, a sixth grader at the school.
The interview was on a Thursday, the day of the week when one tradition of the tradition-steeped school returns and everyone wears a tie.
A trim and energetic 74, Kirimitsu, his tie in the school colors of red and blue, spoke enthusiastically about the present and future of Saint Louis.
Making school history
Kirimitsu had “several different careers” — as an attorney, a judge on the state intermediate court of appeals, and general counsel for the University of Hawaii — before coming to Saint Louis in 2006 at age 64.
As the first lay person in the top job, his appointment made school history. His predecessors were all Marianist brothers or priests.
His initial five-year term later grew to eight years.
Last year the board of trustees changed the school leadership model from president/principal to a single head of school. They asked Kirimitsu if he would postpone his planned retirement to serve one year as head of school while they searched for his replacement. He agreed.
On April 22, with the appointment of Glenn Medeiros as the new Saint Louis president and Sione Thompson as principal, the board restored the two administrator model.
“So no more head of school,” Kirimitsu said with a laugh. “I am the last head of school, the first and last.”
He believes the board returned to the “tandem” positions because of the difficulty of one person handling both the internal and external operations of a school.
“The other thing that prompted it — this was a blessing — was Marcus Mariota,” he said.
Saint Louis 2011 graduate Mariota’s rise to fame this year as a Heisman trophy winner and NFL inductee helped spike enrollment applications 30-35 percent, Kirimitsu said.
With such favorable numbers, “this is the right time for a younger leadership team to take over,” he said.
Medeiros, who has a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California, most recently worked as an assistant professor at Chaminade University of Honolulu and vice principal at Maryknoll School.
The Kauai-born educator is also an accomplished musician with a number of international pop hits in the 1980s and ’90s.
Thompson is a Saint Louis graduate with a long career at the school as a social sciences teacher, dean of students, vice principal and director of advancement before taking his present position as assistant head of school.
Kirimitsu called “Dr. Medeiros” a “great” choice.
“It’s good to have young leadership with experience in business, music and education,” he said.
He also praised Medeiros’ selection of Thompson.
“Sione is very well liked by the faculty, with a lot of progressive, creative ideas,” the head of school said. “I think they will make a great team.”
Triumvirate of values
When he was hired nine years ago, Saint Louis still was perceived as a “football school,” Kirimitsu said.
He set a goal to reestablish his alma mater as a strong academic college prep school — “to balance academics and athletics and character as a triumvirate,” he said.
The president started with academics. Looking for “a really strong educational leader,” he hired as principal Pat Hamamoto, who had recently retired as superintendent of the state Department of Education.
“She brought a whole new dimension to academic improvement,” he said, which included laptop computers for every student.
The school also sought to reestablish the native Hawaiian cultural program founded by the late John Lake. Saint Louis’ revitalized halau has won hula competitions two years running.
The school has seen growth in its art, music and drama programs, including its bands whose membership has jumped from 20 to about 100 musicians since Kirimitsu’s arrival.
The “hallmark” of the school’s academic improvement is the $12 million Clarence T.C. Ching Learning and Technology Center built three years ago.
The 27,000 square-foot, three-story building is the first new classroom structure Saint Louis has built in more than 80 years. It houses classrooms, meeting rooms and labs for technology, fine arts, music, photography, Hawaiian studies and more.
The new building “was intended to send a message” that academics came first, Kirimitsu said.
Athletics came next with a three-phase $15 million plan to enhance the school’s sports facilities.
Six months ago, the school completed a state-of-the-art weight room. The athletic locker room will be expanded this summer, and construction of a gym and event center will begin in 2016, where the old Gerber Field House used to be.
The third part of Kirimitsu’s improvement “triumvirate” — character and spirituality — called for human resources.
“We created the mission integration team to make sure that the Catholic Marianist mission is integrated into our curriculum,” the head of school said.
In addition, the Marianists provided a priest chaplain-on-duty and the school named a director of campus ministry.
“They are all equally important — academics, athletics and the spiritual formation,” Kirimitsu said.
Challenge of enrollment
Although Kirimitsu’s work ends next month, he has set in motion a strategic planning process to address the perennial challenge of enrollment.
“We don’t expect the Mariota impact to last forever,” he said.
Regarding enrollment, Kirimitsu has some personal “dreams.”
“One idea that I support in a strong way,” he said, is the extension of the school all the way down to the kindergarten, and even pre-kindergarten, level.
Gone are the days when certain Oahu Catholic grade schools were Saint Louis feeder schools, he said. Having lower grades would eliminate the difficulty of recruiting students at grade six.
The school was attempting that expansion when Kirimitsu became president nine years ago and had already added grades five and four. But lack of available space ended the effort and the two elementary grades were allowed to phase out.
This year’s enrollment is 540. The projected numbers for next year is 600-620, a jump of 60 to 80 students. “Can you imagine if we had an elementary school,” he said.
Another Kirimitsu “dream” is a partnership of Saint Louis, Sacred Hearts Academy and Chaminade University.
Sacred Hearts Academy is a pre-K through 12, all-girls school a few blocks from Saint Louis. The co-ed, Marianist-run Chaminade University of Honolulu shares the Saint Louis campus.
Kirimitsu envisions the three entities sharing facilities, teachers and certain classes and programs. In his scenario, Saint Louis and Sacred Hearts would provide all-boy and all-girl educations respectively and Chaminade would facilitate the students’ entry into its undergraduate program, “ensuring a pre-K through college Catholic education.”
The three schools already work together in smaller ways. Kirimitsu realizes that the full scope of his vision will take a lot of planning, compromise and collaboration. Nevertheless, he hopes the idea receives serious consideration.
Kirimitsu, who entered Saint Louis a Buddhist and left a Catholic, would also like to increase the school’s faith formation “to encourage more students to know Jesus.” He said his exposure to a Marianist education lead to his conversion in his junior year.
In general, he would like to see more Catholics going to Catholic schools. He said the student population at Saint Louis now is “barely 50 percent Catholic.”
Plenty of room
Kirimitsu dismissed concerns that expansion efforts by both Chaminade and Saint Louis, who share the same Kalaepohaku slope above Waialae Avenue, would ever cause Saint Louis to move.
“There is still a lot of space on Kalaepohaku up above what we used to call the third road,” he said, and also on the Palolo side of the property. Chaminade has already developed some of that land.
“My guestimate is that about 20 percent of the land is not utilized,” he said.
“If there is real collaboration, there is really room for lots of expansion of Chaminade and St. Louis,” he said.
Whether the school would ever go coed, Kirimitsu does not see it, although he admits that the alumni resistance that shot down the idea when the school board proposed it 25 years ago has softened.
Research validates the educational benefits of all-boy and all-girl schools, he said. “The overriding goal is to enhance the Catholic education for our youth.”
Another Kirimitsu goal is to increase the school’s international student base from 20 to 100.
“We have prepared plans to expand existing ESL (English as a second language) programs with students especially from China, Korea and Japan,” he said. “It’s a big project.”
International students help the school financially. “Not only are they full-paying,” he said, “they pay premium to attend a school in the United States.”
The greatest joy
What will Kirimitsu miss most when he leaves Saint Louis? The students.
Walking around the campus, he has warm exchanges with everyone he meets, from students to weight room trainers to custodial workers.
“Interacting with our students gives me the greatest joy,” he said. “There is nothing that even comes close to that. That is what I am going to miss the most.”
“It’s what keeps me always thinking, ‘What do we have to do to better the lives of our students, to enhance their education,’” he said.
“To top it all off, to see someone like Marcus so successful and such a role model for character, in his respect for others” is very satisfying, he said.
“He’s exceptional. But you know, we have a lot of Marcuses at Saint Louis. They don’t get the same kind of headlines, but in terms of character, in terms of respect, when I see that happening, it gives me the greatest joy.”
