2010-02-26 TPARKERSCHOOL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lyon. Could you raise your right hand, please? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the HawaiÒi County Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. HOUSEL: Thank you. Could each of you, using the microphone, please state your name and address? CULFF: My name is Gillian Culff and my mailing address, which I put on there, is P. O. Box 444, Kamuela. FORISSIER: My name is Kareen Forissier. My mailing address is P. O. Box 437354 in Kamuela. LYON: IÓm Theresa Lyon and my residence is on Kawaihae Road in K 1742. WILLE: Margaret Wille, 65-1316 Lihipali Road, Waimea. HOUSEL: Thank you. Would you like to start, please? CULFF: Sure. My name is Gillian Culff and IÓm a teacher at Park is my sixth year teaching there. My husband has been teaching at Parker School for 15 years and heÓs seen tremendous changes there Î really positive, wonderful growth. Both of our children attend Parker School; we have a son in the middle school and one in the high school. I just wanted to briefly address two things: First is the issue of traffic that has come up and that I think the school has worked hard to help alleviate any potential difficulties in that regard. Our family has been getting to Parker School in what I feel are environmentally responsible ways all along. My husband is that guy with the ponytail who rides up Kawaihae Road everyday on his bicycle; heÓs been riding his bike to school for 15 years. I drive to school, carpool with the neighbors, and our kids also use the free shuttle. And IÓd like to just point out that Parker School was a key player in helping get that free shuttle for Waimea, and itÓs used by a lot of people. We really appreciate it. And it helps for times when we are not all going home at the same time. Even though Parker is a private school, we provide a lot of financial aid; we give financial aid to, I understand to be 40 percent of our students. And I think that helps to make it an option for a lot of people in the community. We also have much lower tuition tha want to say that we are a very important player in the community. And the last thing I want to say is that we are one of a very few private schools that doesnÓt have a gym. And itÓs really hard sometimes to schedule use of Thelma Parker Gym Î I know this because as a student counsel advisor I have to schedule our faculty-student basketball games each year Î and it can sometimes be hard to, for our athletic director, to get the use of the gym when we need it. Our children in middle school have nowhere to change in their PE classes. They change in the bathroom, so the bathroom, the middle school has three stalls, and it gets really jammed, full of sweaty bodies trying to change. They tried changing in the theater for a 19 EXHIBIT A