SPRECKELSVILLE, Maui — Fifty years after graduating from Maui's only English-standard school, half of the members of Kaunoa School's class of 1957 returned to the site of their former campus this month to install a commemorative plaque.

The class of 34 girls and 34 boys, Kaunoa's largest, was the last group of students admitted to the public school based on an oral English exam and the last to complete all eight grades.

Class member Shirley Kodani Cavanaugh of Kane'ohe said the group shares a close bond and has held regular reunions over the years. This year's event attracted classmates from throughout Hawai'i and as far as Chicago, Houston, New Mexico, California and Washington state.

"Maybe it's because we knew that we were the last graduating class. And we're particularly proud of our class because so many have gone on to such high achievements," said Cavanaugh, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

Traveling the farthest for the reunion was Jim Bruce, who owns Aro'a Beachside Inn on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and has attended every class reunion. Melanie "Mel" Barnes Maish, a professional singer in Boulder, Colo., left Kaunoa after the third grade but still returns for the reunions. Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares is another class member.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

English-standard schools were established in Hawai'i in the 1920s at the behest of a group of Caucasian parents who complained about the quality of English spoken in the public schools, but couldn't afford to send their children to East Coast academies or private schools such as Punahou. In response, the Department of Public Instruction established schools based on English fluency, although the effect at first was racial segregation in the classroom.

By the time the class of 1957 enrolled at Kaunoa, the student body was racially diverse, but it still was dubbed "the haole school," Cavanaugh said.

Although the English-standard school program is criticized today by some who see it as an attempt to impose Western culture on Hawaiian- and pidgin-speaking youngsters, former Kaunoa students have a more tolerant view of the school's legacy and are thankful for their education there.

"The parents wanted a better education. It wasn't put-down or anything. They were looking for something to teach their children proper English for a better quality of life," Cavanaugh said. "We went home and spoke pidgin. We had the ability to go back and forth and be flexible."

PIDGIN NOT TARGETED

Classmate Gaylord Kubota, director of the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum on Maui, said he doesn't see English-standard schools as an attempt to stamp out pidgin. "They just wanted to preserve (proper English) among their own children," he said.

"I didn't fully realize at the time that it was a wonderful experience. We grew up together. We weren't conscious of race," said Kubota, whose parents were educators.

It was pure luck that Cavanaugh enrolled at Kaunoa. Her parents had moved to Maui from O'ahu and their neighbors sent children to the school. Her father owned Kodani Liquor Store in Wailuku and was a night auditor at the Maui Palms hotel, and her mother was a seamstress.

"Little did they know it would open doors for me by learning how to speak properly," said Cavanaugh, who became a speech major in college and earned a master's degree in communications.

Warren Shibuya of Kula said English-standard schools came into being during a transitional period in Hawai'i's linguistic history, as the Hawaiian language was fading and more pidgin-speaking Asian immigrants were joining the population. "It was a means to improve communication in our society and unite under one language," he said.

Shibuya's father was a mechanic for Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. and his mother was a clerk for Alexander & Baldwin. Enrolling at Kaunoa was "a chance to do something better for ourselves."

After a dozen years in the Air Force, Shibuya was a civilian employee at the Space & Missiles Systems Center in California and taught aerospace management at the University of Hawai'i.

Kaunoa School, originally named Maui Standard School, was started in 1920 for elementary and high school students. In 1926, elementary students attended the new Kaunoa School in Spreckelsville. After 1957, Spreckelsville School was closed and its students were sent to Kaunoa, which was shut down in 1964.

The former campus is now the site of the county's Kaunoa Senior Center.

Another notable alumna, although from a different class, was the late congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.