Students send out ‘SOS’ with bake sale

Hualalai Academy students on Friday hosted a bake sale to raise funds in an effort to save their school from closure at the end of the academic year.

The fourth-grade students at the private, independent school planned and hosted the after-school bake sale offering various goodies to help keep the K-12 Hualalai Academy open beyond May 31. To raise awareness of the sale, the students created signs, including one inscribed with the message: “SOS — Save our School.”

Among the offerings were juice, cookies, cupcakes and brownies. In just 35 minutes, the students managed to raise $183.25, said Felicity Johnson, Hualalai Academy’s founding head of school.

“They’re very excited and hoping to do it every Friday,” she told West Hawaii Today, adding that some students have also contributed their change and lunch money. “Their goal is to raise $1,000 to help their school.”

Hualalai Academy will close its doors at the end of this school year, Head of School John Colson said earlier this week. The school carries a debt load of $2 million, and unless that debt can be eliminated, the school will cease operations May 31.

The bake sale was held one week after a letter from its board of directors notified parents that the Kailua-Kona school would close its doors at the end of the academic year — or sooner. By Sunday, Colson said members of the school’s ohana had come forth with approximately $300,000 in bridge loans and more than $25,000 in direct gifts to keep the school open through the end of this academic year.

The impending closure of Hualalai Academy builds upon a November announcement by the school that it would cease high school operations at the end of this school year.

Hualalai Academy was founded in 1996, although it was started in 1985 as a satellite campus of Hawaii Preparatory Academy, according to its website. Colson said 110 students currently attend the school.