We're going through a renaissance, but the school was neglected for a long time. Technology has arrived at city schools at the same pace as their suburban counterparts. At Farrington, officials are trying to get the aged structure wired for the 21st century. Dole Intermediate School, which also serves one of the poorest pockets in the city, used a combination of state and private aid to become one of the first schools in the state to get connected to the Internet. Poverty is not uncommon in this tourist mecca.
Many people have multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
It looks prettier than it does in other places. Although educators are faced with the poverty of their students every day, especially in those schools that serve Honolulu's federal housing projects, the city appears to be better off than most. Some 12 percent of children in the city and the state live in poverty, well below the 18 percent nationally and the lowest among the nation's 50 largest cities. Some 13 percent of students are eligible for free lunches under the federally subsidized program, just a fraction of those in most urban districts. But the existence of enclaves of enormous wealth in Hawaii tends to skew the numbers, officials say.