• Founded in 1994 in partnership with NELHA as an off-campus school-within-a-school program of Konawaena High School
• WHEA is Hawaii’s 1st Charter High School. On May 5, 2000, under the New Century Schools Act of 1999, the Hawaii Board of Education approved the first four new "start-up charters" in Hawai`i: Connections, WHEA, Kanu o ka Aina, and Waters of Life.
• The program is an incubator Project Based Learning (PBL) curriculum laboratory school dedicated to developing innovative, hands-on educational methods. Our real-world science projects use NELHA as an unique learning environment, but the methodology is transferable and replicable in other educational settings.

For a general overview of WHEA, watch this video produced by the George Lucas Educational Foundation's EDUTOPIA Magazine:

In 1990, a team of AP Physics students from Konawaena High School designed, built and raced a solar-powered car 3,000km across the Australian Outback becoming the first high school team to finish the World Solar Challenge, the premier solar energy auto race in the world. They placed 18th overall out of 38 entrants, ahead of numerous corporate and university teams. That feat was the central event, however imprecisely portrayed, of the 1996 Jim Belushi/Halle Berry movie Race the Sun.

The following year, the 1991 Solar Car Team raced through Europe in the Tour Del Sol. And then, for 41 days in 1993, the team traversed the US mainland from California to Delaware, becoming the first solar car to cross North America.

Their teacher, Bill Woerner, a visionary veteran educator, realized that in the traditional classroom, deeply textured, hands-on learning was missing. In order to create it, he believed education had to move into real world, meaningful experiences. In 1993, he assembled a collegial team of educators, and along with detailed input from students, fashioned a project based curriculum which would operate out of the Natural Energy Laboratory-Hawaii facility at Keahole Point, Kona. On a hardscrabble lava field, the first West Hawaii Explorations Academy students began to construct their school-without-walls.

Over time, students and staff have installed project infrastructure piecemeal with virtually no facility support from the state. Student-driven ideas form the basis of the school’s curriculum. Students, parents, staff, mentors and community volunteers have poured cement, built a 3,000 square foot workshop pavilion, put up 6,000 square feet of shade cloth project space, constructed a 9,600 gallon reef simulation tank, a 14,000 gallon live shark display, built benches, assembled bleachers, painted, patched and pitched-in to fashion possibly the most unique, and surely one of the coolest schools on Planet Earth.

Intel and Scholastic Schools of Distinction

On October 6, 2005, WHEAPCS was among 20 outstanding schools recognized by Intel and Scholastic at a gala awards dinner at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The winning schools came from a national field of 3,300 and were chosen for exemplary educational practices. Blue Ribbon Schools selected WHEA to receive the high school Schools of Distinction Award for Science Achievement. Winning schools were presented $10,000 from the Intel Foundation as well as over $250,000 in donated prizes from Agilix, Blackboard, Dell, eInstruction, Future Kids, Microsoft, Pitsco, Primedia, Riverdeep, SAS, Scantron, School Net, Smart Technologies, Gateway, Intel, and Scholastic. In total, over $5,000,000 in prizes was shared among the winners.

Act 62 of the Legislature's Session Laws of 1999 included a visionary concept of student-centered "New Century Schools". The concept hoped to nurture ideals of autonomous and flexible decision-making at the local school level. Further, Act 62 sought to establish charter schools as models of local control free from statutory and regulatory requirements that tend to inhibit or restrict public educational responsiveness to students, parents and the school community.

Charter schools are PUBLIC schools duly authorized by the State of Hawai`i to operate independently of the Hawaii Department of Education, and exercise freedom and autonomy in operations, curricular approaches and governance. Charters are empowered to manage themselves apart from most, but not all, governmental red tape.

As public schools, charter schools do not charge tuition, and enrollment is open to all (schools use lotteries or other non-discriminatory enrollment methods to uphold equal opportunity laws; most charter schools have lengthy wait-lists).

Historically, charters have tended to arise in Hawai`i's more underserved communities. The largest proportion of charter schools (thirteen) is on Hawaii Island, six in rural Oahu, four on Kauai, one on Molokai, and one on Maui. There are only six charters in more populous urban and suburban Honolulu.

Recent studies of Hawaiian focused charter schools by Kamehameha Schools indicate that charter students statewide generally perform better than their district peers. According to Hawaii State Assessment scores, charter students appear to perform better on standardized tests also, benefiting from small school settings and hands-on methods.

Ongoing Challenges: Funding, Facilities and Autonomy
Hawaii law provides funding on a per capita basis, and charters are funded by the Legislature through a single budget category (EDN600) apart from DOE funding categories (EDN100, 150, 200, 300, 400 and 500). The Legislature's 2008 budget reduced charter schools' "per student" allotment by more than 12% to about $7000 per child, down from the 2007 budget allotment of $8149 per child. This is partly due to a 15% jump in projected enrollments. Charter enrollment has grown by over 400% since 2001, and the schools are in some ways victims of their own success.

To make matters more difficult, charters do not receive facilities funds, even though charter schools are public schools, and therefore constitutionally entitled to such support; they must pay lease and utility fees out of instructional monies.

A Word on the Politics of Hawaii Charter Schools:
Charters are sometimes viewed as a threat in certain upper levels of government. Recent public statements by BOE members have been particularly alarming, and efforts to regain control of charter schools and undermine the Charter School Review Panel resulted in the death of beneficial legislation on several occasions. Such long-term ambivalence toward charters has resulted in a charter school law grade of "D" from the National Center for Education Reform every year since 2003. The Center ranks Hawai`i charter legislation 7th from the bottom nationally.

Charter schools in Hawaii are too often politically perceived; it is important to note that WHEA (and every other charter school we know of) views its primary function as education of children, not politics.

--Curtis Muraoka, WHEA Co-Director

If you wish to explore the idea of charter school education being constitutionally supported, please visit Hawaiiconcon.org:

View my page on HawaiiConCon.org