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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-07-06 Hearing Transcript - Kathryn Tydlacka Amend SPP 14-172WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 6, 2017 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of KATHRYN TYDLACKA (Amend SPP 14-172) was called to order at 10:31 a.m. in the County of Hawaii Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman Gregory Henkel presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gregory Henkel, Donald Ikeda, Myles Miyasato, and Thomas Raffipiy. ABSENT & EXCUSED: Joe Clarkson, Donn Dela Cruz. ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Malia Ho Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Shancy Watanabe (Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 2 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: KATHRYN TYDLACKA (Amend SPP 14-172) Request to amend Special Permit No. 14-172 to increase permitted enrollment at the Ka`u Learning Academy public charter school from 65 students to 100 students and to allow for related facility improvements to accommodate the increase in enrollment. Special Permit No. 14-172 was originally approved to allow the establishment of a public charter school and related uses with a maximum enrollment of 65 students within the former Discovery Harbour Golf Course clubhouse which is situated on 3.69 acres of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at 94-1581 Kaulua Circle, Discovery Harbour Subdivision, Unit I, Ka'u, Hawaii, TMK: 9-4-001:019. HENKEL: Thank you, Number 4 on the agenda is next if everybody's good to go. It's Kathryn Tydlacka, SPP 14-172, and who's going to give the presenShancy, all right. WATANABE: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. The landowner is the South Point Investment Group. The Applicant and executive director of the Ka`u Learning Academy is Kathryn Tydlacka. The application is for an amendment to a Special Permit application. This is the vicinity map. For orientation, Kamaoa Road runs in the east to southwest direction to the, from the Mamalahoa Highway which goes through Na`alehu Town. For reference, here is the Discovery Harbour Subdivision, the Green Sands Subdivision. The subject property is highlighted in the bright blue right there. The Applicant is requesting an amendment to their existing Special Permit originally approved in 2014, to increase the permitted enrollment at the Ka`u Learning Academy Public Charter School I0V1111.11 11 from 65 students to a hundred students in grades 3 through 8, a maximum of ten employees, and to allow for related facility improvements to accommodate the enrollment increase on 3.693 acres of land. The Ka`u Learning Academy has received approval to become a public charter school by the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission on May 8, 2014. For the upcoming 2017-2018 school year, KLA has stated that their current occupancy in the existing building will allow up to a hundred people which will meet their present enrollment of 92 students and 8 staff members. This is the location and zoning map. The property is highlighted in blue, and the property itself is zoned Open. The surrounding properties here are Ag -la, Agriculturally zoned. The State Land Use Boundary Map shows that the property is in the State Land Use Agricultural District, and the property is highlighted in red. This is the General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map and shows that the property is in the Rural designation shown in the mustard color here. Here are two aerial photos of the subject property. We have Kahiki Street and the Kaulua Circle fronting the subject property. This is a closer view of the subject property. So, this shown here is the location of the existing school which was formerly the Golf Clubhouse that has been converted to the school. The expansion will take place in this existing building here. Here are the site plans provided by the Applicant with the original Special Permit application. For orientation, Kaulua Circle is located here. It's a little hard to see on here, but we have the school clubhouse, that's in the clubhouse here, there's the existing parking. They have the swimming pool and the tennis courts and the existing entry walkway from Kahiki Street on this side. So, this site photo is from Kaulua Circle looking at the existing clubhouse facility. This site photo is on Kaulua Street looking towards Kahiki Street. And, this photo is on Kaulau Street looking towards Kaulua Circle, with the subject property on the right across the intersection and Kahiki Street running across the map. The Planning Director recommends approval with conditions for the amendment of the Special Permit. This morning, you would have received an additional letter submitted by the Ka`u Learning Academy executive director, Kathryn Tydlacka, dated June 28, 2017. This concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions that the Planning Commission may have. Thank you. HENKEL: Thanks, Shancy. Any questions. Would the Applicant and their, and/or their representative please come forward? Would you raise your right hands, please? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth in this matter before the Windward Planning Commission? TYDLACKA/IACUZZO: Yes. EXHIBIT D 2 HENKEL: Okay, and have you gotten a copy of the Director's recommendations and conditions? TYDLACKA: Yes. HENKEL: And you're okay with them? TYDLACKA: Mm-hmm. HENKEL: Okay, thank you. Please state your name and where you're from and proceed. TYDLACKA: Okay, I'm Kathryn Tydlacka, and I'm the director of the school, also the founder, and I want to thank you guys first of all for just allowing our school to exist. I started the school or we started the school. When I first moved there, I worked for the local school for a couple of years. I taught there, and the schools in that area have traditionally been the lowest achieving in the State of Hawaii, and there was absolutely room for change, I think. While I was there, I realized that the kids were extremely bright, and they are just as capable as any other kids, but they didn't quite fit into the traditional maybe pattern of education. So, I knew that if I was able to start a school there and get the right teachers and people that really cared and, and would work hard, we could help those kids improve in reading and math and science. I'm nervous, you can tell. But, I just want to tell you that we have been in operation now for two years. In the first year, we saw incredible growth in our kids for reading, math, and in science. And, this year, though, all the scores aren't finalized in everything, because every year they take a State test and that shows whether they grow in reading and math. Our kids from Ka`u have again been traditionally the lowest achieving in the State, and this year, it looks like our kids are going to surpass the State average in all three—in reading, math, and science—and we're so excited about that. So, I could tell individual stories all day long, but I know that we don't want to be here all day long, so but, Joe would like to share. He's the managing director, and there is one story that he would to share that's just representative of all the kids in our school. IACUZZO: Excuse me, I'm Joe Iacuzzo, the managing director of the school. And, again, I want to reiterate what Kathryn said and thank you because I think sometimes up here, you don't always see the impact that your decisions can make on a community. And, we had a young girl who came to us last year as a sixth grader. She was cutting herself. Her father hung himself the first couple weeks of school, and she was also special education, which is, some of you may know, kind of puts a stigma on a child. We talked to her. We talked to mom. And, we took her out of special education. We didn't tell our teachers this. She was just another student to them. She improved from the—the four categories are well below, approaching, meets and exceeds; meets and then exceeds. And, that's how the State testing works. Last year, she went from well below, which she had always been her entire academy career for up through into 6th grade. And; she approached this year, for the first time in her life, she passed the State test. And, it was because she knew our expectations for her. She knew we believed in her. She gave Kathryn a letter at the end of this year asking, telling her that she'd been a great student and asking if we EXHIBIT D 3 had any summer work for her. So, we are having her go through the books in our library and rate them as to grade appropriate level for reading. And—and, that's again, that's just one story. We've got 90 of them. What we're asking today is because we use a blended learning model, we never have all of our students on campus, and but, we want to ensure that we are meeting all the appropriate permit requirements because more would like to come. We often times have to prevent that so we don't exceed numbers, but, and that's the reason for this request. We have so many kids who want to go to our school. So many who are just thriving at our school in a campus where they're supported. They feel safe. We were the first school in the nation as a first-year school to offer completely free meals to all of our students. And, we feed a lot of their families who come in the morning to drop the kids off `cause, I mean, we pay for that out of our pocket. But, so it's really been, for all the frustrations we feel as educators and as administrators especially, all we gotta do is walk out on campus and watch the kids come up to us, and that's what we get. Thanks. HENKEL: Thank you, both. Are there any questions from the Commission? RAFFIPIY: I do have a question. HENKEL: Yes, Tom. RAFFIPIY: I read this thing. I couldn't, couldn't grasp it, but can you just the request is to increase the student population to 100? Okay, so 100 students and eight to ten staff IACUZZO: Can Ican I address that real quick? It's not to increase the student population because we have about that many enrolled, and there's a distinction between enrollment and the number of students actually on campus, because we use what's called "blended learning." That means that they don't have to be on campus, but five hours a week. And, to accommodate that last year, because we had more kids who wanted to be on campus, we had an afterschool program for three hours a day. RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. HENKEL: Any other questions? I just have a comment. I'm a great supporter of charter schools because they have the flexibility to, you know, address individual student needs and to change the programs around, you know, to suit the community, so, you know TYDLACKA: —Thank you HENKEL: I wish you all the best. TYDLACKA: Thank you. EXHIBIT D 4 HENKEL: If there's any more—if there's no more questions, then we can have discussion and a motion for action. MIYASATO: Chair, is there any public testimony? HENKEL: I'm sorry. Thank you, Myles. No, there is no public testimony, so let's have a motion to close that. MIYASATO: I make a motion to close public testimony. IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: It's been moved and seconded to close public testimony. All in favor say, "aye?" COMMISSIONERS: Aye. HENKEL: Opposed? All right, public testimony is closed. Now, discussion and a motion for action, please. MIYASATO: Chair, I'll make a motion. I move that the application to amend Special Permit SPP 14-172 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed conditions which shall be adopted. IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: It's been moved by Commissioner Miyasato and seconded by—who's that? Commissioner Ikeda. And, we'll do a roll call vote, Shancy. WATANABE: Thank you. Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. WATANABE: And, Chair Henkel. HENKEL: Aye. WATANABE: The motion carries with four, zero. Thank you. EXHIBIT D 5 HENKEL: And, you'll be notified in writing of the decision. IACUZZO: Thank you. TYDLACKA: Thank you so much. HENKEL: Thank you, too. The discussion ended at 10:45 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT D 6