?'s about moving to the Big Island and the school system (Hilo: rentals, find a job)

[Shaunamarie1222]

Hello All,

My boyfriend, our 5 year old daughter, and I are planning to move from Minnesota to the Big Island in a little under a year. We're giving ourselves some time to save around 14K so that we can go out there, find a place to live(rent), and then find a job. Hopefully we'll have enough saved to move in and enjoy ourselves for a month or two before we have to get to work right away. We're planning on coming over there with as little of our personal possessions as possible since I've heard that that's pretty much the way to do it. Plus then we don't need to ship over things like couches, tables, etc. Is that a good idea, or is it best to bring our stuff with us. We also will be selling our cars and just buying some when we get there. (We have older cars with high miles so not really worth the $1000 to send them)

I've heard a lot of things about the school systems, that they are sub-par to everywhere else, is there any truth to these statements? I would prefer to hear from people who actually have first hand experience with the school system.

Also, we really want to stay on the Kona side (we have some friends there and love it!!!) but is it possible to rent a place for around $1000 a month. That's what we're hoping for. And we aren't looking for anything fancy just a shelter with the basics (hopefully furnished but we can always use craigslist to find stuff).

As far as jobs go how possible is it to find a job nowadays? We want to move there for a change of lifestyle and to enjoy the beauty that is Hawaii so we aren't planning to stay in our same field or anything. We really just want to get any jobs that pay the bills but allow us to enjoy Hawaii and everything it has to offer like surfing, hiking, and of course the people.

Please tell me anything you think will help aid us in this exciting adventure of a move. We are so excited but it's hard to find reliable information on the web. There are just SO MANY "moving to Hawaii" sites.

[surfagoody]

I don't think anyone could give you a good idea of jobs without knowing what type of work you or your spouses do. I don't live on the big island but know the islands and how important networking is to landing a decent job. Good jobs on the other hand are going to be hard to come by period.

As far as schools go I know something about them. I am a product of rural hawaiian edumacation. I went to the finest elementary hauula has to offer and dropped out of the best high school the state of hawaii will ever know Kahuku Red Raiders for life!!! All kidding aside both these schools exemplify mediocracy if not sub standard hawaiian education. So with that being said I am currently a senior at a real university obtaining a real degree in mathematics with, get this, a 3.96 GPA. I know who would of thought. Now I'm probably not what you would consider a typical example of what to expect out of your kids. That I am afraid rest purely on your shoulders. I am a firm believer of parental involvement in a child's education. So if your up to the challenge. You're kids will do just fine.

By the way I don't base this statement on merely my own experience but of numerous friends and family who were raised similarly, a number of fine educators, and my own children ages 3, 9, and 11. But who has the time to read my life story.
Good Luck.

[Shaunamarie1222]

Thanks surfagoody. My feeling has been that no matter where we move as long as we instill good educational values and are an active part of their learning they will be just fine. Not to mention living in Hawaii will create many other educational values such as learning about different landscapes, water inhabitants, and how to surf!!! I mean that's almost more important than they're education. HA!!

But seriously, thank you for your reply. I just really like to get first hand knowledge which can be kind of hard to find.

[surfagoody]

Originally Posted by Shaunamarie1222

T Not to mention living in Hawaii will create many other educational values

You Know there are a lot of people out there that will content that my laid back attitude or "island style" puts me at a disadvantage when compare to my highly industrial, multitasking, can't get there fast enough mainland counter part. And they would be true in a number of circumstances. But as for myself, I'm not trying to hurry up and die. Life is not a race for me. I don't feel I can really enjoy the here and now "you now the thing called my life" if all I am doing is worrying about what I could be, should be, or will be doing next.

This is hawaii's gift to me.
Maybe I should start a different post about it.

[hotzcatz]

Here's a link to the Kona district's newspaper, West Hawaii Today , so you will be able to see what sorts of jobs & rentals are listed in the newspapers. I haven't seen any "help wanted" signs in windows but there could be some on Craig's List.

[KonaKat]

My grandchildren are in public school here in Kona. We have had no problems. Let me talk a bit about this subject because it's common, and it's interesting when you really dissect it!
Similar to the school where I grew up in a rural, farming community in the Ozarks (back in the 60's and 70's) the schools here do not have a lot of extra "advantages" that larger systems might offer. My own children went some to Catholic schools (elementary) in Missouri, then public in Las Vegas and let me tell you bigger doesn't mean better by any stretch of the imagination.
Some of my classmates have become nurses, chemists, professors, conservation agents, teachers, mechanics, actors. There were 48 in my graduating class and we were almost all just farm kids. But our parents put a huge value on education. My parents had travelled some and were not native Ozarkians and I did have some advantages their lives afforded to me.
when I moved to Las Vegas I could no longer afford private Catholic school for my kids. It was public for us. The middle school near us was supposedly not a good one but I had no choice.
One thing that I always did was make myself so well known at my kids' schools that I had a very good communication and even casual friendship with teachers, coaches, administration. They knew I was 100% interested and involved in my children's education. Therefore, when there were the inevitable problems, they tended to call me first. when I went to them with a problem, they helped. I watched them carefully because some newer teachers never even took the time to read my one son's IEP so they soon learned that they were going to get by with nothing with this gal! We also enhanced our children's education (as all parents should) with lots of opportunities outside the classroom whether it was sports, the arts, nature and science, encouraging inquisitiveness.
I said all that to say this: Even a mediocre school will have little negative effect on a child if their parents simply do their own job (and yes, sometimes the teacher's job too).
2 weeks ago I took my daughter, daughter in law, 3 grandchildren and 2 other family members to the museum at our airport for a series of lectures about our galaxy. (it was free) The first 2 lectures were fine for the kids, the third one began to lose them, and the 4th speaker just about lost me! So I took the kids out to the museum and let them play while the other adults finished listening.

You take good care of your kids, and they'll be fine.

The job situation is the hard question because unemployment is up to record numbers here and only getting worse. But you might be able to swing it. You should also be able to find a rental for around $1000 if you don't mind simple and not too big. Best wishes.

[williammc954]

My Aunt was a school teacher on The Big Island. Hawaii schools are sub-standard. They are not even close to meeting national requirements.

[hotzcatz]

Personally, I think it is partly because we don't have many jobs here for educated folks so if the kids are educated to mainland standards they then leave and all our tax dollars were spent for a resource we no longer have. If we had a need for rocket scientists then we'd have a school for them more than likely. It would be nice to get the U of H Hilo to do more with medical research so we could have more at least medical students available.

However, KonaKat gave some excellent advice on the parents being directly responsible for overseeing their children's education. I don't know who came up with the idea that you just give your kid to the school system and they come back educated but that thought has sure damaged a lot of children's education. The parents MUST be involved if the education system is to work well.

[lovehawaii]

My kids attended Kahakai and our dear friends lived up mauka and attended Konawaena. Konawaena had a very good principal who met with us and tried very hard to help us get into
their school, but boundary laws were too set, so we attended Kahakai and it was fine, but if I could
have picked I would have lived in Kealakekua so my kids could have attended Konawaena (which I may be misspelling, sorry). Konawaena had airconditioning and the staff was very friendly for first and second impressions, Kahakai took some warming up, but still we were happy there. Kona is a wonderful place, you will love it. I personally did not see anything decent renting that cheap, but things may be lower now. good luck