Kamehameha Schools acknowledges admission of non-Hawaiian student

In a letter published by Kamehameha Schools, the Board of Trustees has acknowledged the admission of a non-Hawaiian student this session.  Over the summer, the school invited approximately 45 students from a waitpool consisting of students in grades 10-12.  One of those invited to attend is not of Hawaiian decent. 

The school did not specify which of its three campuses admitted the student, but school officials say they followed its admissions preference policy, inviting students of Native Hawaiian ancestry first before extending the invitation to all others. Non-Hawaiian applicants who meet the admissions criteria can be admitted if vacancies exist after the preference is applied.

In the public letter, the Board of Trustees said, “We continually refine and adjust our procedures to serve the mission, and this year on Maui we applied additional vacancies to other grade levels.”

There were five additional spaces in the 11th and 12th grades after all of the waitpooled applicants were admitted.  This allowed the school to extend invitations to attend KS Maui to an additional five Native Hawaiian applicants in the sophomore wait pool.

“While we are pleased to be able to increase the size of our sophomore class, we will be looking for ways to encourage every Hawaiian student who wants to apply to do so,” the letter stated.

It further said, “We will continue to offer admissions preference to Hawaiians because it is the most direct way to fulfill our mission of improving the capability and well-being of Hawaiians through education.”

The Kamehameha school year starts in early August with 800 new students joining three campus programs.