The end of the month will see a changing of the guard for a Big Isle school system complex that has seen more than its fair share of challenges lately.
The end of the month will see a changing of the guard for a Big Isle school system complex that has seen more than its fair share of challenges lately.
Mary Correa, the longtime Department of Education complex area superintendent for Ka‘u, Keaau and Pahoa, will retire Dec. 31 after 10 years in the position, and Keaau Elementary Principal Chad Keone Farias was tapped to fill her shoes.
The complex area has long struggled with socio-economic challenges associated with poverty, being the region with the highest number of students receiving free and reduced lunches in the state. Those barriers contributed to making area schools some of the state’s lowest performing in years past.
And recently, the complex had to switch gears last month and relocate hundreds of students from Pahoa to Keaau in preparation for possible impacts of the advancing June 27 lava flow.
However, Correa said Monday she is proud of her team’s ability to respond to those challenges, showing marked improvements in student and educator performance during her tenure, as well as orchestrating a relatively smooth transition for students and teachers during the move last month.
“During ‘Race to the Top,’ we were named a Zone of School Innovation,” she said. “We were able to accomplish what we needed to accomplish by building capacity. I think we made our goal, which was we gave our students and families hope for a better future by optimizing learning opportunities and strengthening communities.”
As for the lava flow, Correa said she wasn’t worried about its impacts going forward.
“Every year brings challenges,” she said. “There’s not any year when you don’t have challenges. … We just had to make a decision, move it, and get kids back on pace. … We don’t want to impact student learning, regardless of what happens.”
Farias said Monday he looks forward to the challenge of maintaining the school system’s efforts to improve student performance, despite the setback created by the lava.
“Those kids who had to pack up and move to a new school, and the teachers who had to move and start at a new school in the middle of the school year, sure, there will be an impact,” he said. “We’ll see what that means in terms of student achievement scores. But we make no excuses. It is what it is. It happened to us, and we’re just pushing forward to get back on track.”
Born and raised on the Big Island, Farias says his knowledge of the communities here, as well as his daughters — seventh-grader Keane and eighth-grader Cassidy — will help keep him focused on the students.
“It’s easy when you’re an elementary school principal to keep your focus on the kids every day. I will work hard to remember, through all the personnel stuff … to remember that it’s all about the kids,” he said.
The biggest challenge, Farias said, has been saying goodbye to his students at Keaau Elementary.
“Leaving the school, on Friday the kids gave me a big farewell assembly and I got 900 hugs,” he said. “Leaving Keaau Elementary … that’s the hardest part. But now, I have to have a bigger lens. I’ve been so laser focused on my 900 kids, now I have to broaden that focus to 5,500 kids.”
Correa’s retirement comes after 40 years with the DOE. She also served as an administrator at Hookena Elementary, Hilo Community School for Adults, Pahoa High and Intermediate, and Hilo Intermediate schools. Early in her career, she taught at Waiakeawaena Elementary, Laupahoehoe Elementary, Waimea Elementary and Intermediate, and Saint Joseph Elementary and Intermediate.
Farias, 43, has spent his entire career on Hawaii Island, where he has been principal at Keaau Elementary since 2008. Under his leadership, the school became one of the pioneers in Hawaii’s digital learning initiatives, as well as boosting student achievement and lowering chronic absenteeism.
Farias previously served as vice principal at Keonepoko Elementary and his alma mater, Hilo High, where he had his first teaching job. He will take the reins of the Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa complex area Jan. 1.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.