| The Quiet Before the Storm
| | Dear readers of the What's New, | We’re between significant wave sets at PBA: school camp behind us, 10 study abroad students from sister schools of the Ryukoku Sogo Gakuen returned to Japan, the big push for Peace Day completed, the end of Cycle 1 and report cards submitted to families ... and now the Lighting Our Way Banquet is on the a-little-more-than-a-week horizon. So I have been able to turn my attention to more prosaic concerns. Our chemistry teacher Michael McPherson needs the gas turned on for chem lab next week. I will be imposing a “gum embargo” on the school because of a recent troubling uptick of chewed gum not making it to the rubbish. I am conferring with Advancement Director Megan Lee on the finer details of banquet program and tables layout. I helped Admissions Director Blanche Yarnell with a parent mixer for our Dragon Parents Ohana. And the poufs, a few Moroccan cushions I brought in for students to chill on have flattened and need restuffing. These are the daily attentions of the small school administrator, and if there are readers among you who wonder whether my time wouldn’t be better spent lunching with the power brokers who will make our school’s future, I rejoin that there will be time for those | 
| occasions as well, and I have always believed that it is the small moments that define us, the matters of our dailiness. There is a presentation I have taken to giving at the start of each new school cycle, when two new advisories take responsibility for after school cleaning. (PBA students do light custodial work at the end of every school day.) Because I grew up in a janitor’s family – my father launched a carpet cleaning business in my hometown in southern Oregon – I have had a lot of time to think about the theory and practice of cleaning in my life. So my presentation includes bits of storytelling about growing up, but it also explains why students clean at PBA (not because we can’t afford janitors), how responsibility for the space is everyone’s kuleana, what, specifically, students are to clean, how students should clean, and the laws, mysteries, philosophy, poetics, and ethical import of the tasks that face the PBA Sangha at the end of each and every school day. I discuss elbow grease, how gravity is our friend (so move from top to bottom), how to dance with a dust mop, how taking care of gear is taking care of self, how cleaning is a form of erasure enabling our continuing good work, how many hands make light work, all the while demonstrating folding rags, extolling the virtues of our ozonated water cleaning system, and the aforementioned figure 8 with the mop head. I don’t know how much the students take away from my presentation, but overhearing them the days following, it’s clear they know I take the tasks seriously. It is for this I am reasonably certain that the lecture that will accompany my announcement of the gum embargo will end the scourge of gum abandoned inappropriately by its chewers. Yes, I revel in all these minutiae, always have, for which I give thanks. Just now I am facing the rather large pile of papers I need to sort through for my desk to look like a professional space again, and a student conference before the day is done. The big show of the 2023 Lighting Our Way Banquet is just around the corner, and we will be ready. Meanwhile, I will enjoy my time with students and colleagues, and look forward to meeting many of you again very soon. | | Warmly,
Josh Hernandez Morse
Head of School | | Verena Mellein Participates in a History Training for Humanities Teachers Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities in Williamsburg, Virginia During the 2023 Summer Holiday
| | Ms. Verena was one of sixty teachers from around the U.S. chosen to participate in the “Hidden Histories of the Founding Era,” a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks workshop. The Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture (OI) in partnership with the William & Mary Bray School Lab held two week-long sessions that brought participants to four key sites in the Williamsburg area. Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church, one of the oldest African American churches in the United States, occupied a series of buildings. Teachers were introduced both | 
| to the archaeological dig taking place in Colonial Williamsburg to understand the original structure and visited the current home of the thriving community. Participants attended lectures by scholars, curators, and researchers, and traveled to a number of sites. William & Mary’s Brafferton Building, one of the first Georgian structures built in Virginia, was the former home of an “Indian School.” The building reveals both Anglophile aspirations of wealthy Anglo-Virginians and the aspirations of the region’s indigenous residents, who viewed literacy as a tool for survival within the British empire. “It has been an eye-opening experience to see history being re-written right before my eyes. After all this time we are finally making it a priority to tell the stories of those who had been silenced for so long,” said Ms. Verena. “It was wonderful to meet with people whose passion it is to uncover those stories to make our understanding of the founding era much more complete.” “Building paths that will help the cutting-edge scholarship we support reach our nation’s classrooms has been an amazing experience for the OI’s staff and me personally," said OI Executive Director Catherine E. Kelly, co-director of the workshop. "The energy, engagement, and creativity of our teacher participants has been deeply inspirational for all of us. I cannot wait to see how they will apply their experiences with us in their classrooms and communities!” The week-long workshop ended with a trip to Fort Monroe, in Hampton, Virginia. The Fort was an important site during the Civil War as well as home of Point Comfort, the landing place for the first enslaved Africans in America over 400 years ago. The OI, an independent research institute established in 1943 and sponsored by William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg, hopes to sponsor future NEH institutes. To learn more, sign up for the OI e-newsletter, published 20 times a year. | | Dragons Speech and Debate Competitors Bring Home Two Superior Performance Awards from the Kahuku High School Speech Tournament on September 30, 2023
| | Riho Umitani, Rintaro Kawai, Alexandra Keating (L-R) posed after the September 30 Kahuku Speech Tournament of the Hawaii Speech League at Kahuku High School. Riho and Alexandra both earned Superior Performance awards for the competition. Riho earned first place marks from four of six judges and the highest average score for her Original Oratory speech on the problem of mass incarceration in the U.S. Alexandra earned first place marks from two of six judges and the highest average score of 15 competitors in the Impromptu Speaking event. The honor was Alexandra's first such award; Riho has earned the distinction numerous times. | 
| Mahalo for your contributions to Give Aloha!
| Can you believe it’s already October? Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our school through Foodland's Give Aloha 2023 program. Your generosity and support mean the world to us, and we are thrilled to report that PBA was once again a top 100 finisher in this incredible community fundraiser. This year, we raised $3,499 to support peace education! Participating in the Give Aloha program has become a tradition here at our school, and we are incredibly proud of the impact we've been able to make over the years. Since our first participation in 2013, we have consistently demonstrated our commitment to peace education and community involvement by raising a total of $56,069 through this fundraiser. This remarkable achievement speaks volumes about the dedication and generosity of our school community. The excitement doesn't stop here. We’re eagerly awaiting news about Foodland and the Western Union Foundation's matching gift program for this year. Every year, these organizations generously match a portion of the donations made during the Give Aloha campaign, amplifying the impact of your contributions. In the meantime, let's continue to work together to make our school community a beacon of peace and understanding. Your contributions make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students, and we couldn't be more grateful. | | Office Hours
7:30am - 5:00pm | | |
