Community Outreach:
The Education Summit of 2004

Ho‘akea Communications was hired by the Department of Education to convene the Education Summit in March. The conference was announced by the Superintendent of Schools in a widely-publicized address to the State Legislature in January, as a first step to involve key stakeholders in the process to reinvent the public education system.  Ho‘akea Communications developed the conference content and agenda, trained the facilitators and recorders who led the break-out sessions, and prepared the proceedings. Over 400 people including the Governor, legislators, educators, parents, community and business leaders, and concerned citizens attended the Education Summit. Jim McCoy managed the extensive news media coverage before, during, and after the Summit, to keep the focus on program objectives.  Many of the recommendations from the Summit were incorporated into the landmark education reform law passed by the State Legislature in May 2004.