2012-12-06 Windward Transcript Connections

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GOMES: No, he lives in Oakland, California. AU: Okay, moving on Carol Zimmerman, and please state your name and where you reside; and you have three minutes. ZIMMERMAN: Is this thing turned on? AU: Yeah. ZIMMERMAN: My name is Carol Zimmerman. I live at 94 Laimana Street in Hilo. And I’m asking, thank you by the way for allowing us to testify. And I’m asking the Commission to consider a continuance of this request for the Kaumana Connections site. I would like, request that, so that all voices and other voices can be heard, the voice of our children. And the voices of our children of Hawai‘i, if they can be heard too. I would like all voices to be heard, including the children. I am a parent of a child that attends Connections High School, I mean Connections School; and I’m one of three, not two as Mr. Thatcher said, one of three families that has chosen to leave my home every week to travel to Hilo on Sunday and come to this school at great expense to my family. All three, all three of these families, we rent homes here in Hilo in order to do that, to go to this school in Hilo. And then on the weekends, I travel back, we all three travel back to our, to the rest of our family that lives in Kau because we don’t have an alternative, a good alternative to education in Kau. We’ve chosen to come here at that expense, our out-of-pocket expense, because an education is very important to our children. And I can list off the top of my head dozens, maybe dozens more families that would like to do the same thing if they had an opportunity to better their educational chances for their children. I have written something that, it was in an email. You probably have it now. I’ll just read this to you now. I understand that there are concerns about having a school in the Kaumana neighborhood. Fear is concomitant with change. But, we cannot make decisions for the future of our children, the future leaders of this community, this country, based on fear. I want what every parent wants for her child, the best education possible, an education where my child, he, is challenged at all levels, from creativity to critical thinking. I want a school that is willing to go beyond just teaching to the “Test”, for that is not an education. I want a school that he looks forward to attending every day, because his innate desire for the love of learning, and his love of learning is supported, and not snuffed out. And, finally, it is very important that the school provides a safe environment so that learning can occur. I believe, based on my personal experiences with Connections School, that the Kaumana site will allow all of these aspects of education to be addressed, from Environmental, Energy Design, Agriculture, Business and Marketing hands-on experiences. The school can impact not but a few, but thousands of Hawaii's children. And all of the children of Hawai‘i deserve this kind of education. 17 EXHIBIT D