HONOKA'A, Hawai'i — Honoka'a Elementary School focuses on reading and math, dedicating time and resources toward improving academic proficiency and stepping up classroom creativity.

Over the past several years strides have been made through programs such as Success for All, which tests and regroups students every eight weeks. The school also enlists volunteers who read to classes, thereby freeing up teachers to work one-on-one with students. Added to that is the Tri Level Intervention Program that separates students by need and offers help, such as small-group tutoring.

"People have really come together and a tremendous amount of school resources, both monetarily and personnelwise, have been poured into this" effort, said Katherine Tolentino, school principal. "It's a big commitment on the school's part. It drives our master schedule."

Armed with improving reading and math skills, children are taking advantage of innovative opportunities offered during and after school. For example, some students tapped into classroom technology to create a PowerPoint presentation for a project about meal worms, she said.

In addition, the school has offered a robotics class and has introduced Odyssey of the Mind, a creative program that challenges students to use various academic disciplines to solve problems, Tolentino said. Also, students will next year be able to participate in a Spanish language and a Pacific studies program, she said.

The school program that's grabbing the most attention among students, however, is the Comic Book Project, through which children write and illustrate their own comic books. Finished works will eventually be published, Tolentino said.

"We're very fortunate that we have a number of very creative people in our community who are willing to support us in these kinds of activities," she said.

Some 45 minutes out of Hilo and 1 1/2 hours from Kona, the rural campus may be far from town but it attracts alumni back to its classrooms — a point of pride for the school, Tolentino said.

Parent participation has lagged at times during the school's history, but an effort to change that includes cultivating partnerships with employers. "We're a bit challenged because a number of our parents work at the hotels and have to drive," Tolentino said. But Maunalani Hotel, for example, is helping out by allowing the school to set up displays and adjusting work schedules so that parents may take part in various school activities, she said.

The Hawai'i County prosecuting attorney's office is also partnering with the school. It has awarded a grant to implement Positive Alternative Thinking Strategies or PATHS, a bullying prevention program that aims to teach children life skills, character development and positive behavior, Tolentino said.