Parker School

4 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 PARKER SCHOOL extraordinary weather.” Operating out of a 100-year-old building known as Kahilu Hall, the school shares deep historical connections to the community of Waimea. “It was known as a community gathering place,” Dunn explains, “People would come to Kahilu Hall to hear the news of the day. It also served soldiers during their preparation and training in Waimea. The building has been a significant structure in the community for a very long time. We hope and expect that we are doing it proud by continuing to educate generations of Waimea residents.” With 90 percent of the student population living within 30 minutes of campus, Parker School truly is part of the small community of Waimea, which has 12,000 residents. Honoring a long-time commitment, the school strives to keep tuition costs low, providing an opportunity for as many students to attend as possible. This can have its challenges, as Dunn reports, “The mission of the school, the founding conversations, were to provide high quality alternative education at a low cost. The challenge is having intentions of high-quality education as cheap as possible, and being independently funded. You can see how those layers don’t necessarily work in concert with one another and often are at tension.” Parker School does provide tuition assistance to students in need, which is approximately 50 percent of its enrolment. Throughout the pandemic, protecting students and staff while continuing to provide quality education is a point of pride for the school. Aside from one emergency closure, and a two planned weeks of virtual learning for transitions, Parker School has remained open for in-person learning throughout 2021, and the first part of 2022. Dunn recounts, “Students wear masks, we have a vaccination requirement for employees and students, we do weekly testing, to make sure that there aren’t any cases in the community, and we isolate those as quickly as possible. Like other