Hawaii Technology Academy

Super duper, my child goes to the 1^st grade class with Mrs. Dunnuck. She is the best and the whole staff at the HTA headquarters are really cool too. HTA /​K12 rocks. My kid loves it. Me too. I’m a cool learning coach. The classes are super fun for my kid. Nothing cheesy, corny. Just good fun, smart, hip people at HTA. Yay.

HTA is a public charter school tailored for parents and students who have concerns about public school. Students do the bulk of their work online via the k12 online curriculum and go in once or twice a week for classes. They also have a variety of extra-​curricular type activities (ukulele etc) that students can participate in. Their’s no tuition (hence public charter) and the students take the HSA just like their public school counterparts. The parent and the student need to be motivated and organized because they are responsible for completing a certain amount of curriculum by the end of the year. It’s easy to get behind if you’re not disciplined.
The good: the core of their curriculum and model is pretty good. They follow the state standards and do enough testing to get a good picture of where you’re student is at. They also can differentiate. My daughter is able to take 2^nd grade reading and math but 1^st grade science and social studies. The teachers we’ve encountered are friendly and know their stuff, and are willing to help you with the other craziness that comes with the school (see the bad).
The bad: administration seems lost and over their head. Communication is the worst I’ve seen for a school with unclear messages and really late information being disseminated to parents. Events seem poorly planned/​organized as they don’t seem to be able to predict the number of people that are going to come and rarely have enough seats etc. They seem to have a lot of «tech» problems during events… not a good sign for a school that dubs itself a «tech» academy. And the location is not good… middle of Waipahu with limited parking.
To be fair, they seem to have A LOT of turnover. Plenty of parents join but realize that it’s a huge time commitment for the parent or that it’s not right for their kid so they quit. I’m sure ever year in the beginning they get a huge influx of students so it’s hard to manage.
Overall, the good parts though are the important parts so it’s worth keeping our kids there.