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Kim Kaopuiki knocked on the door and called the girl’s name in a voice friendly but firm. It took a couple of tries before anyone answered. At other houses nearby, teachers were doing the same thing: knocking on doors, calling out names, waiting until the child came to the door ready for school.

This is not a story about the children. Most of them want to go to school.

This is not about the parents. Who can know the issues and burdens behind a closed door?

This is a story about teachers and the things some will do for the kids in their care. We talk about teachers buying their own classroom supplies, bringing food for hungry students, making sure the kids have a clean T-shirt to wear. At Kaewai Elementary in Kalihi, a public school with 310 students from pre-K through fifth grade, teachers walk to their students’ homes in the morning and wake them up for school.

They do this every day.

The teachers meet in front of the office at 7:10 a.m. and head to the Kamehameha IV public housing complex up the street. On the way, they greet groups of students already walking to campus. The teachers seem to know everyone’s name.

One morning last week, third-grade teacher Maria Seu, counselor Janet Okabe and Vice Principal Jill Yoshimoto headed up the hill with Kaopuiki as a light Kalihi rain swept down from the mountains. Once across the busy road and into the housing complex, they fanned out to different buildings to rouse their students.

Kaopuiki knocked on the door of a house where a kindergartner lives with her extended family. Before these daily house calls, the little girl had been absent from school for two whole months. Kaopuiki called the girl’s name until she came to the door, sleepy-eyed and grumpy.

“Come on! Time for school!” Kaopuiki said brightly. The girl whined and disappeared into the dark apartment. Kaopuiki waited. She made conversation with the girl’s mother. She waited some more.

“This is how it always is,” she said. “I’ll wait until she’s ready.”

After 10 minutes, the kindergartner emerged, showered and dressed in a sparkly T-shirt and denim shorts, ready, willing, though not exactly thrilled, to walk to school. Kaopuiki encouraged her the whole way. “You’re going to enjoy school today,” she said. “Come have some breakfast. Your brain needs food.”

The other faculty members gathered up students from their respective houses for the walk to campus, and even kids who haven’t had a problem with absenteeism joined in the group. Sometimes teachers just come along to visit their students and walk with them to school. Some of the kids who join the group are former students who now attend Dole Middle School farther down the road. The Kaewai teachers seem to remember all of their names, too.

Kaopuiki used to work in community policing, so she has experience walking through neighborhoods knocking on doors. She’s fearless and matter-of-fact. She’ll blow her whistle to wake people up if she has to. She’ll call the cops for backup if she has to. She hasn’t had to.

Laurie Lum, the school’s student services coordinator, started the program two months ago. It was modeled after the “Walking School Bus” program in other states where students and adult chaperones walk together to school.

“It’s Walking School Bus, but Walking School Bus does not go pounding on doors,” Kaopuiki said.

Over 90% of Kaewai’s students are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch, which is an indicator of poverty in the community. Kaewai is also a school with a large number of geographic exemptions. The teachers say alumni want their children to go to their alma mater because they have relatives who live nearby or because they have fond memories of their own time at the school.

Second-grade teacher Britney Sabado understands the importance of coming to school, specifically coming to this school. She grew up right across the street from Kaewai in a complicated home where she basically raised her siblings and made sure they all got to school. Some of her colleagues on the faculty were her teachers when she was a Kaewai student. She stands as proof of what is possible for all of these kids.

“They don’t believe it when I tell them,” Sabado said. “And then I tell them that I know their family, so go home and ask. They know me. I grew up here.”

Attendance at the school has gone up with this and other incentives. If a student is present all quarter, they get an award. If a student has perfect attendance all year, they’re invited to a waterslide party before summer break. Last year, about 100 kids had perfect attendance. The statewide standard is 95% attendance and Kaewai has been at 93% and climbing.

The Walking School Bus group parted company at the cafeteria, where the children got breakfast — Portuguese sausage and rice or cereal with toast. From there, a teacher leads students in warmup exercises before classes start at 8 a.m.

“They may not say it, but the parents are grateful for this,” Kaopuiki said. “These days, we go to the houses and the kids are already waiting for us.”

Kaewai is not the only school where this happens. The teachers say they’ve heard from other schools on the island where the faculty does the same thing — walk to their students’ homes every morning to make sure the kids get to school.

“We will do everything we can think of for the students,” Seu said. “Everything under the sun.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.