«You’re sending your daughter where!!!» was the reaction I got when I told my friends that I had to move her to King Intermediate. We had moved out of Kaimuki to Kaneohe and for a while, my daughter was doing the commute. But waking a growing child at 4:30 am grew to be a ridiculous chore. «Do I hafta go to school?» «Five more minutes…» became the usual responses from her. So she transfered to King Intermediate. The campus itself is really beautiful. You have great views of Kaneohe Bar and Koolau mountain range. The buildings aren’t overwhelming tall, so you don’t feel like you’re in prison. Which is an important thing when you are in those puberty years. I love how much open sky there is, especially in rainy Kaneohe. Because when it’s a pleasant day, the school looks gorgeous. The buildings are in linear fashion, going off Frank Lloyd Wright’s theory, but this isn’t an architecture class on modernism. Moving along… The front office staff are actually very friendly. I didn’t feel like I was back in school, I actually felt like one of the community. The counselor and registrar where equally friendly, reassuring me that they are there to help my daughter excel. That’s really important that there are adults at your school who want your child to excel. I would hate to have her go to a school where it is just a job and the staff could care less how your child does. So I did not feel like I was leaving my child to a bunch of strangers, but people who wanted to become part of my family. Also, I’ve noticed that most of the teachers do live in the Kaneohe area. The reason I say this because the other schools my daughter attended, there were a bunch of teachers who did not live in the district, so it becomes hard for the teacher and student to relate when things happen in the area. First hand accounts are more credible than second hand accounts. But the reason my friends freaked out about my daughter going to King Intermediate is not the campus or the staff, but the students. Back in my day(omg I sound old) King Intermediate was known as a tough school; daily fights, bullies, kids flunking, etc. Just look at the demographics of Kaneohe. The people in Kaneohe are not super rich like those in Kahala. Some kids aren’t well off, some are okey, but none are extremely rich.(note: the extremely rich kids are in some private school on the other side of the mountain!) So of course you will have kids having to look after themselves. Kids are kids, they will pick on the ones who are different. So if some kid has something brand new, the one without it will want it to and will torment the other until it is given up. Well, that’s the old mentality. Now with families living with their parents and what not, the kids are acting better. Kids are better supervised now than before. Yes, there are still fights, but not daily, or even weekly. Yes, there are still some kids who should be in high school but are still in intermediate, but you get that every where. The kids at King Intermediate are really humble and laid back. There’s drama, but not as much as the drama at my daughter’s old school. I’m confident that my daughter will do just fine at King Intermediate.
Clayton H.
Place rating: 4 Kaneohe, HI
Most beautiful campus, views of Koolaus and KBay. Nice teachers
Nicole K.
Place rating: 2 Waipahu, HI
I’m only giving this place 3 stars because i swear to God it’s haunted. When I played club ball, we’d practice here at night, and we’d also have tournaments all the time at this gym. parking was always an issue because the lot was pretty small, but you can always park on the side. but as for the haunted part… one night we had practice, and we always clean up the gym and lock up before we go. my friend and i walked across the gym to the other door so we could lock it. i know we locked it because we pushed on the door to double check. when we walked back to the front entrance, our coach yelled at us because we didn’t lock the far door. we turned around, and it was wide open. we didn’t think anything of it, and walked back again to lock it. we triple checked this time, and we even checked to see if there was a break in the door or the lock. so we walked back… again…to the front entrance. our coach came out of the storage and shook his head because he saw the door wide open again. it was super trippy. we handed him the key and ran outside to the rest of our team.
