Final Push for Parent School Quality Survey (SQS) - Due March 15, 2024
Your parent/guardian feedback about Waikiki School is important to us. This year, we respectfully request a few moments of your time to complete the School Quality Survey (SQS), which measures your perceptions of the safety and well-being of your child and your satisfaction and involvement/engagement with Waikiki School. Your responses will be kept confidential in order to gather candid information and will be used by schools for continuous improvement purposes. As a parent/guardian, this is an opportunity for your voice to be heard.
A parent/guardian may complete one survey per child. If you haven't done so already, you may complete the SQS online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2024SQSParent or by scanning the QR code.
Schools may have a computer with internet access available to complete the survey at the school site. The survey questions have been translated into 14 languages (Cebuano, Chinese simplified,
Chinese traditional, Chuukese, Hawaiian, Ilokano, Japanese, Korean, Marshallese, Samoan,Spanish,
Tagalog, Tongan, Vietnamese) and are available at http://arch.k12.hi.us/reports/sqs. Please click on the drop-down arrow for “School Year” and select 2023-2024; then click on the drop-down arrow “Filter by” and select Translations for your language; finally, click on the drop-down arrow “For” and select Parent Letter or Survey to obtain translated documents. If your language is not available, please call your school for assistance.
Please read the survey directions carefully and complete the online survey by the deadline of
March 15, 2024. Responses are due by the deadline in order to be included in the final report.
Should you have any questions about this survey, please contact us via email at SQS@k12.hi.us, or call (808) 307-3650 from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Neighbor island parents may call toll- free at (855) 276-5801.
Thank you for your support and for helping to improve our schools.
Waikiki School in the News! Schools are looking to serve up more local fare — with the community’s help
Check out his article that was recently featured on the HIDOE website!
WAIKĪKĪ — Waikīkī Elementary School teacher Eileen Carr is teaching her fourth-graders about the importance of having locally sourced foods in school cafeterias.
The first lesson: Look at the day’s school lunch.
On the menu that day was a chicken patty sandwich with lettuce, a tomato slice, oranges, chicken noodle soup, ketchup and milk. Of those items, only the lettuce and tomato were from local farms.
“They were shocked about what they found out,” Carr said. The students studied the school lunches, learned how to find the menus online and then set up interviews with the school’s cafeteria manager to learn more about where their food comes from.
“They’re just really wondering about why is it cheaper for our schools to serve food that’s imported from so far away,” she said.
Next, the students drafted op-eds, or opinion articles with a call to action. In groups of nine, her 22 students wrote pieces advocating for the use of more locally sourced foods in school cafeterias.
Then the students produced videos to go along with the written components. The final videos will be screened at the “We Grow Hawaii” youth food summit on Feb. 17 at Punahou School, and one of those videos will be featured in an episode of HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.
Jonathan Kissida, a sixth-grade teacher at Kīlauea Elementary on Kauai, did a similar project with his students and helped to develop the lesson plan with Carr as part of a teacher training program led by Koh Ming Wei of the Center for Getting Things Started. His students also interviewed their cafeteria manager and produced comics and infographics about locally sourced foods.
“The students have a better understanding of the cafeteria manager and how and why decisions are made. The hope is to send persuasive letters to the Board of Education and DOE with comics attached to have school lunches focused on local sources,” said Kissida.
The Hawai‘i State Department of Education is the state’s largest institutional consumer of food products, serving over 100,000 students a day. Its Farm to School Program aims to enhance food sustainability in Hawai‘i and aligns with Act 175, which focuses on improving the health of students while supporting local farmers.
“The Farm to School Program is the School Food Services Branch’s commitment to student health, protection for the environment, and advancement of the farm-to-school effort by purchasing fresh and local foods, reducing waste, and supporting school gardens and nutrition,” said Lindsay Rodrigues, HIDOE’s school food program administrator.
“The Department is working with a steady focus to achieve 10% local food purchases by 2025, and 30% local food purchases by 2030,” she said.
Current locally sourced items in schools statewide consist of ground beef, tomato, papaya and green onion. O‘ahu schools also have local cucumbers and Hawai‘i Island schools have local bananas. In an effort to increase local menu offerings to students, the Department most recently featured local ‘uala, (sweet potato) and poi made from local kalo in school lunches.
In November, the HIDOE put out a Request for Information (RFI) on locally produced and sourced foods and products that could be used to expand local offerings on school menus and received over 20 responses. Submissions came in from across the state and for a variety of fresh and processed local products ranging from avocados, bananas, taro and leafy greens to oils, salt and fruit and vegetable purees. The data and feedback will be used by our School Food Services Branch for the next phase of this effort in the spring – a formal Request for Proposals, which will be preceded by outreach and education efforts including vendor forums.
This story was also picked up by Hawaii News Now. Great job Waikikii School!
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2024/02/16/efforts-underway-bring-more-locally-source-foods-into-school-lunches/
EL News
Check out this published article "Lunchtime Laughter" by Bailey Lesdesma, our English Learner Coordinator at Waikiki. Her article starts on Page 17.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rA5naA3Yg5INB8tLZtFeNuVXPmqNJYHY/view?usp=sharing
Vote for the Honolulu Zoo - USA TODAY 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards
The Honolulu Zoo has been an amazing community partner organization with Waikiki School for several years. Waikiki students have worked to create authentic enrichment activities for several animals, made an "Instagrammable" koa butterfly mosaic near the reptile house, and an endangered animal "Wheel of Misfortune" in the Keiki Zoo.
For the FIRST time, the Honolulu Zoo has been nominated as one of the 20 zoos across the nation competing for USA TODAY 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards for BEST ZOO!
The voting period ends on March 4th at 6:59am HST and those voting can do so daily on multiple devices.
Help make our Honolulu Zoo #1 for the USA Today 10 Best Readers Choice Awards for Zoos in the nation!!! #votehonoluluzoo
https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-zoo-2024/honolulu-zoo-honolulu-hawaii/
About Us
Email: ryan@waikikischool.org
Website: waikikischool.org
Location: 3710 Leahi Avenue, Honolulu, HI, USA
Phone: (808) 971-6900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaikikiSchool
Twitter: @WaikikiSchool
