Happy Presidents’ (Washington’s Birthday) Day y’all. I have the day off and am busy poke-ing it up in Hilo, but thought that this story would be a good read for those of you who are still checkin’ on in today.
My friend and classmate from high school (Roslyn Kanae) is the Tech Coordinator at Honowai Elementary School. She shared a story about some of her students, known as the Honowai Robotek Team, making a difference in their community. Check out their story and I’ll meetcha at the bottom:
Honowai Elementary School is located on Honowai Street in the Ewa end of Waipahu. It services 824 students, grades preschool through 6th. Many of our students walk to school due to working parents. Six years ago, our principal and vice-principal met with the Department of Transportation to resolve the issue of speeding cars in front of the school. (Honowai Street is a busy road that leads into Fort Weaver Road before it joins with H2.) This meeting resulted in having two bright yellow pedestrian signs posted at the crosswalks fronting the school.
For the past two years, students at Honowai Elementary School have studied the traffic patterns fronting Honowai Street. Students have clocked cars going 5-10 miles over the speed limit in front of Honowai before, after, and during school hours.
Students have also interviewed faculty and community members about the speeding issue. Some nearby residents have seen many near- misses between speeding cars and students. Speeding cars injured three students during the past five years. No residents can recall ever seeing a police car ticketing cars for speeding down this busy thoroughfare. There are currently no posted signs to remind drivers that an elementary school is present; only the signs for pedestrian crossings and one 25 miles per hour speed limit sign.
To help slow the traffic fronting Honowai Street, the Honowai Robotek Team proposes that the two lane road be restriped to visually narrow the road and posting signs with flashing lights to remind drivers that children are present. They are also recommending that police cars monitor Honowai Street more frequently during school hours.
The students have presented their suggestions to Councilman Nestor Garcia, Representative Henry Aquino, Senator Clarence Nishihara, the Waipahu Community Neighborhood Board, and forty families from Honowai Elementary School. On February 12, 2010, the student members of the Honowai Robotek Team presented their findings at the 2010 S.M.A.R.T. Youth Summit held at Leeward Community College. The Honowai Robotek Team is also currently drafting a resolution for the Waipahu Neighborhood Community Board to approve at the February 25th meeting. The resolution, like their presentation, is completely student written. This is the most comprehensive traffic safety project ever undertaken by students at Honowai Elementary.
The members of the Honowai Robotek Team are sixth graders: Francis Camama, Abigail Aguada, Ray Anne Galzote, Cyndie Rayoan, Breana Domingo, Crystopher Mendoza, Katherine Piniol, Lourdes Dela Cruz, and 5th grader Sherrie Gracie. The coaches are Kawika Davis, Grant Kiyabu, Roslyn Kanae, and Rainard Mineshima.
Pretty impressive yeah? Our young keiki making a difference! Congrats Honowai Elementary! Keep it up gang!
Post your words of encouragement below if you gotum! Have a great week y’all!
Tags: 2010 S.M.A.R.T. Youth Summit, Abigail Aguada, Breana Domingo, Clarence Nishihara, Crystopher Mendoza, Cyndie Rayoan, Fort Weaver Road, Francis Camama, Grant Kiyabu, Henry Aquino, Honowai Elementary School, Honowai Robotek Team, Honowai Street, Katherine Piniol, Kawika Davis, Leeward Community College, Lourdes Dela Cruz, Nestor Garcia, Rainard Mineshima, Ray Anne Galzote, Roslyn Kanae, Sherrie Gracie, waipahu, Waipahu Community Neighborhood Board, Waipahu Neighborhood Community Board, Waipahu Students Making a Difference
World Wide Ed 
February 15, 2010 at 7:44 am |
Way to go students! This is a great story and you are doing a great thing by being “Community Contributors.” Your passion is going to make a difference! I got into a car accident with my father in 1996 while driving across Honowai St. The other driver was speeding and NEVER stopped! This is so very important! Keep it up and make your voices heard! I also shared your story on my facebook page! I have lots of friends! Good Luck!
February 16, 2010 at 8:33 am |
The article was great. And that really proves that robotek is really great and has smart minds! Also Honowai has been actually having a hard time at the crosswalks because of speeding!! And 2 or about 1 year ago a six grader got hit and the car speeded and ran on so it is dangerous. Thank you for the comment of Honowai it really makes us look great.
February 16, 2010 at 8:35 am |
They are smart and brave to do all of this. Also that they are really nice that they are doing this. I also think that they are awesome and I hope they keep on doing these things.
February 16, 2010 at 8:35 am |
This is great because Honowai Elementary is getting noticed. I’ve heard that Waipahu is a town with gangs, graffiti, fighting, etc. This is a step-up to get Waipahu noticed for good reasons!:]
February 16, 2010 at 8:37 am |
You are the best writer and awesome blog plus making traffic slow down thanks.
February 16, 2010 at 8:39 am |
AWESOME job Honowai Robotech for doing an awesome job on keeping Honowai students safe!! Me and my partner are current students here at Honowai,and we want to say “Thank You” for letting people know that Honowai,Waipahu cares for our students:)
February 16, 2010 at 8:42 am |
I’ve noticed that the school Honowai has made some improvements since last year. I thought the Waipahu complex had many fights, graffiti, theft, gangs, and especially speeding.Now the Honowai robotics team has changed my mind.Now I think I might let my kids walk to school in the future.
February 16, 2010 at 8:44 am |
YAY!!!! I’m happy that the students of Honowai will make a difference on Honowai street because people go 5-10 miles over the speed limit in front of Honowai elementary and children are getting seriously hurt if nothing is done to resolve this solution. we are happy they are helping the community 🙂 ^-^ We wish for more students to be like them and help the community in various ways 🙂 YAY FOR HONOWAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^ 😀
February 16, 2010 at 8:45 am |
I think the robotics team is really great because they reach there goal
February 16, 2010 at 8:45 am |
Well, the thing is that the robotech team in Honowai is very smart, fun, and prepared for anything. Also they protect our school each and every day from speeding and they also approched a speed limit from a car that past by that was over 5-10 miles per hour. Finally the robotech team also currently drafting a resolution for the Waipahu Neighborhood Community Board to approve at the February 25th meeting.
February 16, 2010 at 8:49 am |
We feel threatened by the people passing by with cars.Me and my friends feel kind of safer with people participating to help slow down cars who are passing the speed limit.
February 16, 2010 at 8:50 am |
[Jonathan]I thought the traffic lights are a good idea for honowai so people could be safe.[Jonah] I thought that the traffic lights are a good idea.
February 16, 2010 at 8:51 am |
Cool! Awesome story! I’m really happy for the students of Honowai because they’ll be a lot safer with all the flashing school light zones and the police patrolling the area. Also, the team was really smart by seeing how the school can be safer.
February 16, 2010 at 8:52 am |
That’s good that they were thinking about the keikis and people so we can be safe. That was a good article because it said good stuff about them and how they are trying to help the comunity out by keeping everyone safe. It was good that they told the waipahu comunity neighborhood board.
February 17, 2010 at 3:58 pm |
good job kids im glad to see someone out there trying to make a difference for our kids. Mahalo plenty