Pictures provided through the courtesy of Ken Chun, Miles Nakashima
Who Came: Cathy Coulter (Braun), Miles Nakashima, Carolyn Watanabe (Adler), Dayton Auyong, Ken Chun, Cheryl Ho (Olsen), Linda Mae Onomoto, Jade Young, Tahi Mottl (Reynolds), Roberta Aisaka, Sandra Aoki (Ohara).
What Happened:
Thomas Wolfe said “you can’t go home again” - he was wrong. On November 2, 2013, we went “home” when we visited the scene of our formative years. For some, they saw the buildings where they spent pre-school and elementary years and for others who started in the seventh grade, they saw the building where the seventh and eighth grade years were spent before crossing the parking lot (same small lot) to the two-story Building 3 where the rest of our UHS years were spent. The building where shop and arts and crafts is still in the same location; the cafeteria building is still there but no longer used for that purpose; “the barn” no longer exists - a basketball court, batting cages, and tennis court now stand in its place. The courtyard of Building 3 has trees and other fauna so the view from the second floor is very different. A multi-purpose building, completed in 1964 stands next to Building 3 on the side where our senior classrooms were located. The arch is still there at the intersection but College Inn, is no longer there.
Keoni Jeremiah, Class of ’89, the current principal of ULS, greeted us and presented a briefing about the school and then answered our questions. It was interesting to hear about topics such as the current school affiliation with the University of Hawaii and what it means to be a charter school. Classes are much smaller than when we attended - pre-school and elementary have 10 students and grades 7-12 only have 56 students in each grade level. Admission policy has also changed due to the small size of each class - however, it was good to learn that the school still strives to get a diversity of students similar to our makeup in the student body.
As with other things, the school encountered economic issues during the 1990’a to the degree that there was discussion of closing the school. However, a coalition of groups was able to keep the school open and the school today maintains support groups to assist with resources.
Two students - a sophomore and junior from the current student body were also present during the presentation by Keoni Jeremiah. We were able to ask them questions about the school - they said one of the reasons why they liked ULS was because every student was part of the school “family” and the opportunities offered by the school. I think we can be assured that the caliber of students has remained as high as when we attended in 1963.
After the presentation we toured the school grounds and searched for our Senior Class gift to the school. We couldn’t remember what the gift was but guessed that it was a bench because there were many benches with plaques indicating they were class gifts. We couldn’t find one that said it was from our class.
Building 3 looks the same except they have individual metal lockers outside the classrooms - the bathrooms haven’t changed and the desks look the same as what we had. Ken Chun discovered a metal triangle hanging outside Building 2 (our 7th & 8th grade building) so we assumed that was because the building didn’t have smoke alarms inside the building.
Dennis Sugihara discovered that the metal baseball backstop was the same one we had when we were in school - after 50 years it was still functional! The things we get excited about when 50 years have passed.
We went “home” on November 2, 2013...if only for a brief time.
The information below was copied from the ULS website.
University Laboratory School Official Name Change
On April 11, 2013, the Hawai‘i Public Charter School Commission approved our request to change the name of our school from The Education Laboratory: A Hawai‘i New Century Public Charter School, restoring our historic name, University Laboratory School. For more information, read Principal Keoni Jeremiah's recent letter to the community.
Charter School of the Year Award
Congratulations to the University Laboratory School teachers, staff, students and parents for receiving the Hawaii Charter School of the Year Award. For more information, read Principal Keoni Jeremiah's recent letter to the community.
U.S. News and World Report Bronze Medal
U.S. News & World Report recently published the 2013 Best High Schools rankings. The University Laboratory School is again recognized as a U.S. News and World Report Bronze Medal School. The Best High Schools rankings, which are available online only, are produced in conjunction with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. For more information, you can visit the U.S. News and World Report's website.
These links are to pages on the ULS website you might find interesting:
Who Came: Cathy Coulter (Braun), Miles Nakashima, Carolyn Watanabe (Adler), Dayton Auyong, Ken Chun, Cheryl Ho (Olsen), Linda Mae Onomoto, Jade Young, Tahi Mottl (Reynolds), Roberta Aisaka, Sandra Aoki (Ohara).
What Happened:
Thomas Wolfe said “you can’t go home again” - he was wrong. On November 2, 2013, we went “home” when we visited the scene of our formative years. For some, they saw the buildings where they spent pre-school and elementary years and for others who started in the seventh grade, they saw the building where the seventh and eighth grade years were spent before crossing the parking lot (same small lot) to the two-story Building 3 where the rest of our UHS years were spent. The building where shop and arts and crafts is still in the same location; the cafeteria building is still there but no longer used for that purpose; “the barn” no longer exists - a basketball court, batting cages, and tennis court now stand in its place. The courtyard of Building 3 has trees and other fauna so the view from the second floor is very different. A multi-purpose building, completed in 1964 stands next to Building 3 on the side where our senior classrooms were located. The arch is still there at the intersection but College Inn, is no longer there.
Keoni Jeremiah, Class of ’89, the current principal of ULS, greeted us and presented a briefing about the school and then answered our questions. It was interesting to hear about topics such as the current school affiliation with the University of Hawaii and what it means to be a charter school. Classes are much smaller than when we attended - pre-school and elementary have 10 students and grades 7-12 only have 56 students in each grade level. Admission policy has also changed due to the small size of each class - however, it was good to learn that the school still strives to get a diversity of students similar to our makeup in the student body.
As with other things, the school encountered economic issues during the 1990’a to the degree that there was discussion of closing the school. However, a coalition of groups was able to keep the school open and the school today maintains support groups to assist with resources.
Two students - a sophomore and junior from the current student body were also present during the presentation by Keoni Jeremiah. We were able to ask them questions about the school - they said one of the reasons why they liked ULS was because every student was part of the school “family” and the opportunities offered by the school. I think we can be assured that the caliber of students has remained as high as when we attended in 1963.
After the presentation we toured the school grounds and searched for our Senior Class gift to the school. We couldn’t remember what the gift was but guessed that it was a bench because there were many benches with plaques indicating they were class gifts. We couldn’t find one that said it was from our class.
Building 3 looks the same except they have individual metal lockers outside the classrooms - the bathrooms haven’t changed and the desks look the same as what we had. Ken Chun discovered a metal triangle hanging outside Building 2 (our 7th & 8th grade building) so we assumed that was because the building didn’t have smoke alarms inside the building.
Dennis Sugihara discovered that the metal baseball backstop was the same one we had when we were in school - after 50 years it was still functional! The things we get excited about when 50 years have passed.
We went “home” on November 2, 2013...if only for a brief time.
The information below was copied from the ULS website.
University Laboratory School Official Name Change
On April 11, 2013, the Hawai‘i Public Charter School Commission approved our request to change the name of our school from The Education Laboratory: A Hawai‘i New Century Public Charter School, restoring our historic name, University Laboratory School. For more information, read Principal Keoni Jeremiah's recent letter to the community.
Charter School of the Year Award
Congratulations to the University Laboratory School teachers, staff, students and parents for receiving the Hawaii Charter School of the Year Award. For more information, read Principal Keoni Jeremiah's recent letter to the community.
U.S. News and World Report Bronze Medal
U.S. News & World Report recently published the 2013 Best High Schools rankings. The University Laboratory School is again recognized as a U.S. News and World Report Bronze Medal School. The Best High Schools rankings, which are available online only, are produced in conjunction with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. For more information, you can visit the U.S. News and World Report's website.
These links are to pages on the ULS website you might find interesting:
- home page: http://universitylaboratoryschool.org/
- student life page http://universitylaboratoryschool.org/student-life/ulsmedia
- Support page: http://universitylaboratoryschool.org/support
