Mililani Mauka Elementary School

This school should be better.Despite fairly high test scores, the experience here falls far short of what families should expect. Hawaii’s schools rank in the bottom third nationally, and in our two years here, this “highly rated” school felt closer to a 3/10 compared to mainland standards. The main issue is poor leadership that prioritizes staff convenience over student experience. Most problems could be solved with stronger leadership and genuine care for families.There is no parent-teacher organization, leading to little accountability or transparency. Leadership resists parent input and improvement with endless excuses. The lack of facilities is unacceptable: no playground or equipment for 1st–5th graders, no multipurpose room for assemblies or plays, and no covered recess space. Children are taken to an empty field with no benches, tables, or shade, and recess ends when it drizzles.Quarterly awards are held in a hallway where parents views are blocked by pillars and under tarps. Some grades have only one recess, with no lunch playtime, and physical activity is sometimes withheld as punishment. Most students eat outside under tarps. There is no on-campus A+ afterschool program, leaving few options for working families.The curriculum is bare. No foreign language or music education is offered. Technology is underutilized, limited to standardized testing and drills rather than creative or project-based work. Homework is minimal and uninspiring, tests are returned weeks late, and the pace seems set for the slowest learners. Hawaiian studies lacked rigor—no graded work was returned, and a year of lessons consisted mostly of storytelling. Overall, children are not challenged with projects, teamwork, or creativity.Parental engagement is minimal. Parents are rarely welcomed to events, and only one was allowed when invited. Open house is reduced to teachers writing their names on the board rather than presenting their teaching style or curriculum. The school motto emphasizes behavior and conformity over curiosity and growth. Annual fundraising subsidizes field trips rather than addressing critical facility gaps. The campus is tiny yet holds 700+ students.On the positive side, classrooms have air conditioning, the children are generally well behaved, and the office staff are kind and helpful.Families deserve better. Leadership must shift from “doing the minimum” to creating an environment where children thrive academically, socially, and creatively.

Talk to your children daily about their experiences in school. Brought my concerns to principals about two different teachers and felt dismissed and situation was overlooked by administrators. A teacher should never yell or scream at children. My child began to throw up each day before school and wet the bed at night, that’s when I knew something was wrong at school, the teacher was slamming their desk, startling the students each day. Another teacher has made students face the corner for time out, made students watch others do the class activities and sit down to watch them, taken away their chair for the day causing them to kneel all day!! Unreal how administrators can’t or won’t allow student to receive a new teacher.

This will be out third year attending this school it's bigger and a lot of students. They do not try to individually assess each student, but make basic assumptions that something is wrong within the household. They prioritize attendance before the well being of the student 14 excused absences with doctors note prompted a meeting including a child services/children's court worker. Mind you my son got sick from school, he caught covid and also the flu within the same month.

Mililani Ike is such a friendly school. The teachers are great and the office staff are very helpful. The campus is beautiful and well maintained. The school encourages family involvement and my children enjoy going to school each day. People move to Mauka just to have their children attend this school.

This is a wonderful school. Even though I am not a Lutheran, I still feel welcomed here. Even though the math curriculum is not great, there are wonderful teachers to explain it. There are not many foreign language courses though, so that might be a downside. The teachers are all very friendly, and I enjoy talking with and learning from them. There are many events taking place during the year, including my personal favorite, May Day. I love this school, I feel at home here, and I will be sad to leave when I graduate this year.