84 Pukihae St #806
Hilo, HI 96720

Hilo High is one awful institution. A new principal was installed a couple of years ago and the school which had a lot of problems to begin with took a further plunge. College counseling is non-existent at this school, not just that, counselors actively sabotage students' efforts to develop resumes colleges might find attractive. Beginning in 2023 the school is transitioning to a so called academy. It sounds nice in theory since it is supposed to offer kids some insight into careers they might be interested in exploring. In reality however the academies are stuffed with clueless teachers who have absolutely no training in the areas in which they are supposed to teach. One example is a gym teacher (whose speciality is volleyball instruction) is teaching Foundations of Computer Science class. For the second year in the row too. The school has the audacity to call that teacher a substitute, mentioning that she might be taking some training if she chooses to do so in the future. Just jaw dropping incompetence. When asked one of the school councilors about extremely limited AP class selections (just two as a matter of fact) the reasoning given was that the student body is not interested. How would they be? The kids are bombarded with messages of futility of college attendance by teachers themselves! To summarize, the school has some excellent students, a handful of good teachers and absolutely appalling management. Steer clear if you can.

I believe that the administrators - Heather Dansdill and Tyson Tomono are awesome! It's not easy running a school where students come from 6 or 7 feeder schools....AMAZING!! I hear employees praise them as well. Thank you Miss Dansdill and Mr. Tomono for believing in your Hilo Intermediate students and staff!!!

Worst school ever involved with. Bullying is not dealt with appropriately and instead a child who has a normal reaction to the chaos and bullying allowed at this school gets punished and ridiculed. There are also projections of personal issues from staff members dumped on the child and their families. The family is then left to carry the burden and trauma of the issues created at this school and then the school expects the child and family to just disappear with no accountability on the part of the school. Some teachers are demeaning, unprofessional, and often there is so much chaos in certain classrooms that makes it very hard for a child to feel safe, relaxed, and comfortable here. And it causes so much confusion for a child to have to deal with all of that and then be made to feel like it is all their fault. Children are not allowed to express themselves freely here which causes them to have to absorb all the negativity they encounter on a daily basis until they can no longer handle it. And then they are traumatized even more by being punished for needing to release it all. Staff members also have no respect for a child or families personal boundaries.

This school is great, clean, close by.

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