KAPOLEI — Twelve O‘ahu public schools have been recognized for creating a welcoming and safe environment for incoming military-dependent and transitioning students enrolling at their campuses.
The schools were awarded with the Purple Star NORBERT Hawai'i Award by the Joint Venture Education Forum (JVEF), a partnership between Hawaiʻi's military community, the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HIDOE) and other community organizations.
Instituted in 2006, the NORBERT Award represents a "stamp of excellence" for schools that meet the required award criteria. The origin of the name “NORBERT” is a combination of the names of the first two recognized schools' principals – Norman Minehira of Leilehua High, and Robert Stevens of Radford High. The Purple Star NORBERT Hawaiʻi Award now combines the NORBERT Award with the Purple Star School Program.
The Purple Star School Program is designed to assist and recognize schools that respond to the educational and social-emotional challenges faced by military-connected children during their transition to a new school and their work to keep these students on track to be college, workforce, and community-ready. The award criteria includes having student-led transition services for incoming and outgoing students, addressing key educational transition issues encountered by children of military families, participating and engaging in military partnerships, and having an effective parent and community network program.
The awardees are the first to be recognized as Purple Star NORBERT Hawai'i schools during JVEF’s annual meeting held Dec. 14:
- 1SG Samuel K. Solomon Elementary School
- Daniel K. Inouye Elementary School
- ‘Ewa Beach Elementary School
- Lt. Col. Horace Meek Hickam Elementary School
- Major Sheldon Wheeler Elementary School
- Mōkapu Elementary School
- Āliamanu Middle School
- ‘Ewa Makai Middle School
- Major Sheldon Wheeler Middle School
- Admiral Arthur W. Radford High School
- Kalāheo High School
- Leilehua High School
Hawaiʻi has approximately 12,000 military-dependent students, or 7% of the total student enrollment. Military families often encounter challenges due to frequent relocations during their service, often moving to new locations with different schools every two to three years. Most of these students attend 58 schools located on or near military installations in Oʻahu's Central, Leeward and Windward school districts.
The JVEF annual meeting was sponsored by the Hawaiʻi Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi Military Affairs Council. For more details on JVEF, Impact Aid and military-impacted schools in Hawaiʻi, visit HIDOE's Military Families website.
