SPRECKELSVILLE – Prudence Ota remembers writing the alphabet "over and over" in her penmanship tablet, and Bill Bates has fond memories of playing tag, jacks, marbles and milk covers near the large monkeypod trees.
With about 60 former classmates, their spouses and friends, Ota and Bates reminisced about their old Kaunoa "English standard" School days on Saturday while taking part in the 50th reunion of the Kaunoa Class of 1957.The former students were part of the last graduating "English standard" school class at Kaunoa. The group met Saturday for a dinner and program on the old campus, now the Kaunoa Senior Center in Spreckelsville. The golden reunion wrapped up Sunday with a tour, barbecue lunch and entertainment at the David T. Fleming Arboretum in Kanaio.
The class on Saturday also donated a plaque commemorating the English standard dard school, which held classes from 1926 to 1957 for students in the 1st through 8th grades. Kaunoa was Maui’s only English standard school. An oral English entrance exam was administered to incoming students until the 1957 school year. The school closed in 1964.
Now living in places as diverse as Oahu, Washington state, Texas and Illinois, former classmates were all smiles as each wore a lei and a name tag that had his or her black-and-white school photo.
The class of 1957 produced its share of noteworthy graduates, including Shirley Kodani Cavanaugh, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel; Doug Susu-Mago, a professional opera singer and opera coach; and Mayor Charmaine Tavares.
"This is great," Tavares said while attending Saturday’s event.
Tavares said the class has held several reunions in the past in places such as Las Vegas and Oregon.
"We stayed in touch with each other," she said.
Classmate Sandy Yoshioka Urata of Honolulu greeted Tavares, who she hadn’t seen for years.
"So successful," Urata told Tavares, while adding that she tells everyone the mayor was her classmate at Kaunoa.
Robert "Bunky" Gannon of Kula, another 1957 graduate, said the teachers were strict about proper English.
"I after e except after c," he said with a laugh.
Gannon said that although it was an English standard school, he didn’t think it was any different from other schools.
"To me, it was just another school. It was just the school we went to," he said.
Gannon said his mother, Jean Savage, was a 1927 graduate of Kaunoa.
Gannon operated Maui Disposal Co. for many years. Now, he assists as vice president and general manager of his son’s company, Empire Disposal, which is based in Makawao.
Gannon joked that he spoke well at school but when he got home he spoke pidgin English.
Bates remembered that there were good teachers at Kaunoa, ones that even acted out books like "The Yearling."
"We had some outstanding teachers," he said.
Bates also recalled that there was "harmony" at the school. He said students from all over Maui were bused in or brought to school by train.
Bates said the old campus’ 5th-grade classroom remains at the Kaunoa Senior Center, but many of the buildings and trees are gone.
Two of the school’s teachers, William "Bill" Tavares (Charmaine Tavares’ cousin) and Pat Federcell attended the event. Bill Tavares, a 1935 graduate of Kaunoa, said he suspects a monkeypod tree that still provides shade at Kaunoa was one that he planted during Arbor Day in 1933.
Federcell, who taught 5th grade at the school, said she enjoyed attending the event and recalled how the children she taught were well mannered and disciplined.
Although Ota remembers practicing her penmanship at school, she clearly remembers the fun times she had playing volleyball and baseball in the school fields.
"I used to like the sports," she said.
Ota also liked making crafts and brought to the reunion some of her old crafts that she made at Kaunoa as a 2nd-grader.
With 68 students, the class of 1957 was the largest class to graduate from Kaunoa.
The English standard schools were similar to today’s charter schools in that they allowed a choice of an educational environment within the public school system.
The standard schools cropped up in Hawaii in the 1920s, about the time that many children of immigrant laborers were entering the school system and speaking English as a second language. A 1920 federal survey reported that only 2 percent or 3 percent of children ages 6 and 7 could speak English upon entering the public schools.
A petition by 400 parents to the Department of Instruction of the Territory of Hawaii in 1920 helped lead to the creation of English standard schools.
Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
