Guiding principles

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on almost every facet of our lives.

Our plan to deliver in-person learning, while we continue to move forward living with COVID-19, is guided by three principles:

1. We will be keiki-centered in our approaches.
2. We will provide world-class education.
3. We will follow enterprise health and safety requirements.

These principles help to provide clarity in decision-making and action to ensure we operate our campuses safely, with the health and well-being of our entire community in mind.

Values matter, especially during crisis. Kamehameha Schools’ set of core values guides our behavior as we attempt to create effective solutions for complex challenges associated with opening school in the midst of a pandemic.

Our core values are:

Aloha — To have compassion and empathy

‘Imi Na‘auao — To seek wisdom

Mālama — To care for and protect

‘Ike Pono — To know and do what is right

Kuleana — To take responsibility

Ho‘omau — To persevere and perpetuate

Ha‘aha‘a — To be humble

Our commitment is to maintain the emotional and physical well-being and safety of every member of our campus ‘ohana.

We also believe that our success as a school to safely reopen relies on our collective promises to each other as members of the Kamehameha Schools ‘ohana.

1. We will all adhere to campus safety guidelines and protocols.
2. We will all strive to maintain a healthy environment, in and out of the classroom.
3. We will all mālama each other and ourselves to minimize risk of virus spread.

While our learning models may vary instruction and approach, one constant that will not change is Kamehameha’s commitment to the health and safety of our preschool community.

Guiding Principle 3 (“We will follow enterprise health and safety requirements”) underscores the importance of health and safety protocols, policy and practice. We hope that the information shared here continues to demonstrate our commitment to that as well as our overall approach to safety which is grounded in :

• Health screening and preventive hygiene
• Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting
• Communication, training and coordination

Each of these critical areas helps shape our approach to ensuring our policies and protocols provide the necessary conditions on the ground to mitigate risk of exposure to COVID-19. We identified these pillars through ongoing study of the growing literature on COVID-19, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hawai‘i Department of Health, Hawai‘i State Department of Human Services, Hawai‘i Association of Independent Schools, Hawai‘i State Department of Education, World Health Organization, American Academy of Pediatrics, and from our local county and State of Hawai‘i emergency orders and proclamations. We also recognize the guidance on COVID-19 continues to evolve and our health and safety approaches must be flexible and may need to shift quickly to ensure we can incorporate any new best practices into our daily school environments.