Business View Magazine | April/May 2022

130 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 licensed by HAIS – 98 of the 112 are members that pay dues to participate in HAIS workshops and events. And 47 of them are accredited by HAIS.” To be a Full Member, a school must be both accredited and licensed by HAIS. Affiliate Members are those licensed, but not accredited, by HAIS. “We also have Associate Members, which are non-K12 schools—preschools and universities— that simply want to benefit from the events we organize,” adds Bossert. Events run by HAIS include workshops and professional development opportunities, often led by trained educators with classroom and curriculum design experience. The Early Learning Wellness Series, which guides early learning program directors and leaders through a process of “Relief, Recovery & Reform” aimed at building wellness and resilience in the wake of COVID-19, is one of several available programs providing paying a small fortune to fly people in from California to do their accrediting.” Witt had the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which was the accrediting commission for Hawaii-based schools at the time, sign an agreement that would allow their schools to be accredited jointly by HAIS and WASC. He also convinced the state legislature to give the licensing of private schools to HAIS. “Since 1996, we’ve been licensing all private, independent, and parochial schools in Hawaii,” affirms Bossert. “That initial little group of around 15 schools has grown to the current number of 112 private schools in Hawaii that are Executive Director Phil Bossert