Faculty, students, parents gather for the year-end awards ceremony. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
Students, families, faculty, alumni celebrate the last day of the Nuuanu school with pride, gratitude, tears
By Mary Adamski
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Cathedral Catholic Academy principal Michael Paekukui ceremonially closes the door of the Nuuanu school’s main building on its last day of classes, June 3. The school is shutting down after 80 years of Catholic education. (HCH photo | Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz)
June 3 was a time of awards, songs and hugs at Cathedral Catholic Academy as the doors were ceremonially closed on the last day of class forever at the 80-year-old Nuuanu school.
Students, faculty and parents have had since January to accept the economic reality that the dwindling enrollment of 62 could not sustain the school.
As the student body belted out the alma mater — “Guided by the Spirit … as one family, we press on to reach the prize in the race towards Jesus Christ, who calls us to responsibility. We come to share, we come to be, what Christ calls us to be” — actual reality struck and there were few dry eyes among the eight faculty and 30 parents and grandparents who came for the brief award ceremony.
The youngsters were kept busy with the rituals of report card distribution, final teachers’ words in classrooms and awards for academic achievement, conduct, overall improvement, with the ultimate applause for the “Footsteps of Jesus” winners.
Then they donned handcrafted kihei for a procession circling the building as teachers Gina Ahuna and Tasha Castro chanted an oli.
“We say goodbye to the building and give thanks for the history of the place, the Sisters of St. Francis, the Marianist brothers and all the teachers, and all the students that preceded you, and all parents through the years and all the people God allowed us to touch,” principal Michael Paekukui told them.
The dramatic finale ended with students stopped at the foot of the entrance stairway, piled with their backpacks, while the principal and two student kahili bearers walked inside and closed the sliding glass doors.
The silence was profound, but brief.
Then came the hugs, quiet or boisterous farewells and tears of the children and some past graduates who came back for the finale.
“Continue to grow into wonderful people,” the children were told by diocesan vicar general Father Gary Secor, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.
He said afterward that it was “a difficult decision to close the school. We didn’t want to raise the tuition” and the diocese was already subsidizing the school. He said that “anyone who wanted to get into a Catholic school did.”
The final festivities were held under a banner “Aloha Kekahi I Kekahi” — to love one another — the May Day theme.
The auditorium was part of the open-space first floor which felt like a clubhouse, cluttered with kindergartners’ cardboard box vehicles slated for removal by parents and forlorn glass cabinets full of trophies from a past time when there were enough students to form athletic teams for intramural competition.
Teacher Brigitte Bolos embraces a student. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
Rich and varied history
The cathedral parish school for boys was opened in 1933 near Chinatown and moved to the Nuuanu location in 1936 after completion of the two-story building at the site of the Samuel Damon home.
Marianist brothers were replaced in 1955 by Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, who turned the school co-ed. The nuns left in the 1980s.
At its peak, enrollment reached 420, according to the yearbook. Paekukui said enrollment was in the 200s when he came to the school as a teacher in 1997.
The diocese and the academy made a concerted effort to help parents place their children in other schools, hosting representatives from 22 schools at a January fair. Other Catholic schools waived application fees and testing requirements.
The Augustine Educational Foundation presented scholarship options.
Some parents and children chose Hawaii Buddhist Academy, a Nuuanu neighbor that partnered with academy students in projects, most notably a colorful graphic art mural, with the theme of forgiveness, that covers two sides of the Cathedral schcol building.
Faculty and parents acknowledged that their scholars face challenges in adapting to other schools since Cathedral Catholic Academy was the first school in the diocese to adopt a “project-based curriculum.” Rather than traditional separate classes in math, science, social studies, literature, the subjects were interwoven in broader study projects with team teaching.
The only books were for religion subjects; everything else was digital textbooks.
“Kids love to be on the computer all the time, and they didn’t have to haul textbooks,” said Dan Mawyer, who teaches middle school science, math and social studies.
“It gave a teacher feedback on the student progress; we could tell how long a student had been reading. In science each kid decided which system of the body to study, did research and presented reports, teaching the rest of the class. Some took extra courses in math, moving into a high school level. Their self-prescribed study moved far beyond what I assigned.
“Student engagement is a measure of how we’re succeeding,” Mawyer said.
He’s convinced the experience gave academy students grounding “to keep the sense of inquiry” strong when they move on.
Visual and tech savvy
The principal said “The students are very independent minded. If they want to read beyond the assignment, go for it. If they want to do more computer use, go for it. If you need to lay down when you read, go for it. They are very visual and tech savvy.”
Paekukui said the flexible curriculum brought out the best in students who had struggled in the traditional pattern.
“Some who were diagnosed with attention deficit are excelling now.”
He described how his eighth-grade literature class spread their wings with their study of Shakespeare’s “Othello.” The issue of racism in the classic tale stimulated discussion of historical racial bias.
Combining a multimedia class, the students undertook a film project using the “Othello” story line in a modern-day version, a play they wrote, edited, filmed and critiqued.
Teachers involved “were like the wind, nudging you in the right direction, leading you to the next question,” said Paekukui, also a full-time teacher.
He said “the teacher is not the be-all and end-all giver of information. We want students to figure out how to serve so they are productive in society. Human beings can work with the skills they have; they have confidence and discipline. To see a student want to give beyond themselves is affirming for a teacher.”
The principal lamented that the project-based curriculum only ran for 18 months.
But he and three other faculty members will help launch that model of teaching at Saint Louis School which is expanding to include kindergarten and lower elementary grades.
He acknowledged that the dwindling enrollment came, in part, from past teachers and parents not willing to support the changed teaching model.
Also contributing were factors like Damien Memorial School’s transition to co-ed, and a choice by parents to do “one stop shopping” — putting children into a 12-year school to begin with.
Hawaiian culture was part of the curriculum, with a cultural value highlighted each week.
The vibrant outdoor mural melds Hawaiian myth, a rainbow-colored waterfall symbolizing many ethnic and religious streams and a Catholic chalice, Buddhist singing bells and a pahu drum.
“Every child touched a brush” in making the graphic unveiled in 2014, said teacher Gina Ahuna.
Fit for a finale
Students didn’t wait until the last minute to arrive for the last day.
The Fitness Friday program began at 7 a.m., with adults and children strolling, skipping or dancing around the basketball court to the blast of pop music.
Valedictorian Christopher Teves revived the past tradition this year, with the lure of a raffle drawing for Jamba Juice gift cards as prizes.
Christopher, one of five in this year’s graduating class, was the lead in the Christmas pageant and, with that theatrical interest, is headed for Mid-Pacific Institute.
They also pulled out all the stops for this year’s May Day event, with food vendors and games and live music and a huge crowd, fitting for a finale.
Kindergarten and first grade teacher Tasha Castro substituted superhero capes cut from adult tee-shirts instead of kihei for kindergartners.
An alumna of the school, she choked back tears as she handed out awards to her kids: “Superheroes are beings with extraordinary powers who use power for good. Jesus is a superhero. You can all be superheroes.”
School alumnus Steve Teves, father of Christopher and Charla, a seventh grader, was there for the end.
“Half of my teachers were nuns,” said the 1978 graduate.
“In my day, there were 220 kids here in this same building; I still wonder how we all fit in here. My graduating class had 33; I stay in touch with 10 of my Cathedral classmates on social media.
“In my time the nuns instilled the idea of community service; they had a firm hand but they let you find your own way. It’s so sad it’s closing, it has a great family aspect.
“The spirit of the school, what they get here, they leave a better person than when they came in.”
