Cristyn Tamashiro, District Educational Specialist for Project HI-AWARE at Windward District Office is a critical partner for our work with schools. Last school year we conducted a listening tour and visited 26 of our 30 schools across the district, and we began leading HĀ workshops for school staff. Cristyn provided funding for our July Circle Keeper training and helped us to host Grace Dearborn from Conscious Teaching to provide teachers across the district with training on Classroom Management and Teaching with Trauma in Mind.

Miki Tomita Okamoto & Hye Jung Kim Tano have worked with many of our Windward District Schools since the early days of Compassionate Koʻolaupoko. They helped us to bring our King Intermediate and Keolu Elementary students to the Hōʻakea event in February 2025 in Hawaiʻi Kai. Students got to board Hōkūleʻa and learn from Polynesian Voyaging Society crew members about life on the waʻa at sea. In April 2025, Miki & Hye Jung led a 1-day Foundations of Aloha workshop for us at KEY Project. They continue to support our work this school year with Kahaluʻu Elementary School and are critical partners in the Mohala Na Pua Project with the Baker Center for Children and Families.

In 2024-25, we had the opportunity to support our counselors in our Castle-Kahuku and Kailua-Kalāheo Professional Learning Communities, sharing the value of play and imagination as expressive arts tools to help our students give shape and form to their feelings. We followed up with providing art supply kits and additional strategies for interested counselors. In the summer, we also hosted an expressive arts experience for our district behavioral health therapists, where we played with movement, painting and poetry. We recognize the need to support the wellness of our counselors while also providing them with inspiration on ways to support their students.