Camp H M Smith

My niece just started here and so far her parents and our village of supporters did not leave our first PTA with great enthusiasm. Very disappointed with one of the PTA committee members derogatory remarks towards military families. Her mom shut that comment down when the member continued speaking shady over military families and their kids. I personally did not appreciate it but hoping for better outcome for this school semester.

Lots of SEL focused activities, great school culture, and they really focus on the whole child. My son has made so many gains during his time there and developed more confidence. The teachers and staff do a great job with communication, but also encouraging the students to be responsible for their own learning before they get to middle school.

If you’re a parent or guardian looking for a school, this one particular school is not for your child. I will be listing one flaw (or more) of each grade to tell you why this is not the right school. Preschool does not have any flaws. It has great teachers there who really give a head-start in parenting because they teach how to brush your teeth, how to use the bathroom, etc.Kindergarten is the same as Preschool; it has a great teacher who enforces good behavior through a sort of reward system.Now this is where it starts to deteriorate.The 1st grade teacher doesn’t have full control of the class, so the students take advantage of that. I have seen one always punching or aggressively hugging the 6th graders. The 2nd grade has a similar problem with 1st grade, having them break the dress code and typical rules stated in our handbook.The 3rd grade teacher used to be pretty mean. However, I believe that they has turned over a new leaf and now very seldom is mean to the current 3rd graders.4th grade has no flaws in my opinion. The teacher puts the fun in learning by engaging the students to learn with relatable topics. They are always available to speak to students about anything personal. They are currently one of my favorite teachers.Now here is 5th grade. The 5th grade teacher is truly unreliable. From what I have observed, she has took control of some teachers and the way they teach their students. Her methods of teaching are very dumb and can affect the student’s mental health. I am a victim of her acts. She’d make me cry because I felt so embarrassed. She made me think that I was stupid, dumb, and not worth it for this world. She makes me put on this mask that prevents me from being my true self when she was around. Sometimes, I would just fake being sick in order to avoid her class. What really annoyed me was how she treated her students. I saw how she treated this one particular student badly. She’d treat them as if they were their grades. Favoritism. That was what she did. She also feels embarrassed that students that graduated from her grade weren’t doing so well in the next grade. Though, whenever she says that, I always think this: “Why are you embarrassed? You never taught us about anything. You always rant on about your children becoming successful! You know, we should feel embarrassed that we even had you as a teacher! You always say that ‘I care about your future’ but you do you care about mental health? NO!” (TBC)

Absolutely love HKS. There are only positive reviews of this school on fb groups, surprised to see couple neg reviews here. Yes, the school isn't brand new and fancy, but my 5yo thrived in HKS. There was no bullying (unlike public schools in HI, where white kids are bullied a lot), teachers are amazing and there is so much communication between the school and parents. School sends out weekly updates amd reminders, extra reminders when some event is happening. At the beginning of the year I printed out the yearly calendar and it was easy to follow which days are off, as everything is in the calendar. It doesn't matter which school your kid goes, sometimes half days happen (someone here commented saying they didn't know when those days happen until a day before), that is absolute lie, that parent just didn't read their emails properly. And HKS also has an app where that you can easily use to sign up for after school care. 90% families do seem to be military families. Parents can volunteer a lot ildurongbfun events aswell. And they have tuition assistance for thise in need, you just need to ask and apply.