Several prominent Native Hawaiian women are raising concerns that a female was not among the three finalists for the Kamehameha Schools trustee opening.

Leo O Haumea, a group whose members include local business leaders, attorneys, scholars and political activists, is calling for a re-evaluation of the trustee selection process while "taking into consideration the need for gender equity."

"This is the second time since a vacancy has occurred for a trustee position that a woman did not make the final list," the group said in a May 7 letter to the Probate Court-appointed panel that selected the finalists. "We find this troubling."

Last month, the court-appointed trustee screening committee named state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Chairman Micah Kane, ex-DHHL Chairman Ray Soon and Hawaii Community Development Authority Executive Director Anthony Ching as finalists to replace retired Adm. Robert Kihune.

The three finalists were selected from a group of 68 candidates for the trustee position, which pays about $90,000 a year.

A previous search in 2007, in which First Hawaiian Bank executive Corbett Kalama was selected as trustee, did include a woman among the three finalists.

Local attorney Yuklin Aluli, a member of Leo O Haumea, said Kamehameha Schools five-member Board of Trustees includes just one woman, Diane Plotts.

That, she said, isn't representative of the trust's target audience. She said that 50.8 percent of Native Hawaiians that live in this state are women.

"In other words, the board of trustees for Kamehameha Schools should have at least two and possibly three women of its five members," Leo O Haumea's letter said.

Besides Aluli, Leo O Haumea includes attorney and activist Mililani Trask; Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, professor at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa; local businesswoman Momi Cazimero; Hawai'i Film Commissioner Donne Dawson, University of Hawai'i Prof. Manu Kaiama; attorney Esther Kia'aina; Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. Executive Director Mahealani Wendt; and Lulani Arquette, executive director at Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association.