Assets Center for Learning Opens on Maui

Student Taj Manning with tutor Gabby Roback at the Assets Center for Learning in Kahului.

The Assets Center for Learning has opened a center in Kahului on Maui, catering to the needs of students who learn differently.

Facility directors say the goal of the Maui center is to help students from kindergarten to 12th grade with learning differences, as well as their families and teachers who interact with them.

Assets Center for Learning – Maui currently offers informal assessments, academic remediation, parent support groups, and will soon offer teacher education.

School administrators say the center aspires to be a “one stop shop” where a multitude of services such as social skills training, school counseling, educational testing, speech and language therapy, and parent workshops are offered.

The center is a program of Assets School, which was established in 1955, and also has a Learning Center in Māʻili on Oʻahu, and an upper and lower campus in Honolulu.

Patti Almirez with Assets School said that the focus of the Māʻili center is different from that of the Maui center, with the Oʻahu Center focusing more as a teacher training center, and the Maui facility focused more on tutoring students.

According to Almirez, current enrollment at the Oʻahu school is 325 students, including 193 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and 132 students in the high school.

Harriet Lefton, the director of the Maui center said the facility has already started assisting students and is conducting ongoing enrollment, with instruction offered year-round.  Financial assistance is also available to help children from low-income families.

The Maui Assets Center for Learning – Maui is centrally located in Kahului at 33 Lono Avenue, Suite 305.

Paul Singer, Assets Head of School said he believes that Assets Center for Learning belongs on all islands. In a press release announcement, Singer said, “Children throughout Hawaiʻi who happen to learn differently are falling through the cracks in both public and private schools.  By bringing Assets’ unique way of assisting these learners, we will be serving both students and society.”

Singer noted that the dropout rates for the types of students the program serves is “frighteningly high.” He said, “by providing our students with the skills they need to transition through the educational maze and on to college, we are ultimately increasing the number of productive members of society.”

School administrators say that depending on the needs of each student, weekly group tutoring sessions as well as hourly one-on-one instruction is available.  The facility also utilizes creative and unconventional teaching methods with a multi-sensory approach to support their learning programs.

More information is available by calling (808) 726-6017, or by visiting Assets School online.