Lower School Teachers

Please click on name to access email.

Name: Sue Boyum
Title: Performing Arts K-12

Profile

Since moving to Kona six years ago Sue has been very involved in the arts community. She started the award winning Performing Arts at Innovations Public Charter School where she introduced their FAME (Fine Arts Mentorship Experience) program which most recently produced "The Music Man Jr" at the Aloha Theatre. In the community she works with the Kona Music Society co-directing the Youth Chorus as well as preparing West Hawaii vocal students for All State Honor Choir. You've also likely seen Sue on the stage or her work behind the scenes with the Aloha Performing Arts Company. Most recently Sue directed "Alice in Wonderland, Jr.". Sue is very excited to share her knowledge and passion for the arts with the students of Hualalai Academy. She will be working closely with the elementary teachers and plans to incorporate their units of study into song, dance and drama for deeper meaning and to help her students see how everything is connected. In addition she'll work along with Holly Baker developing a theatre program for the middle and high school students culminating in a main stage show!

Name:
Title: Kindergarten/K-5 Coordinator
Website

Profile

Linda is from New Jersey with an Early Childhood Degree from Glassboro State College and a professional certificate from the University of Hawaii. She has thirty-eight years of teaching experience on the Big Island, thirty-two in Kindergarten. Linda was awarded "Teacher of the Year" by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. She is Chairman of grades K-5 and a member of the professional organization, Delta Kappa Gamma.

Name:
Title: Physical Education K-5
Website

Profile

Sally is originally from the East Coast but spent sixteen years teaching in Canada and five years in California before making Kona her permanent home over eight years ago. She did her undergraduate work at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and received her Masters in Comparative Literature from University of California at Berkeley.

Name:
Title: First Grade
Website

Profile

Sarah graduated cum laude from the University of California, Irvine. She also has a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from U.C. Irvine and is in the process of acquiring her Masters of Arts in Teaching. She has experience teaching at the First Grade level and taught most recently at the Edison McNair Academy in Palo Alto, California.

Name: Jennifer Petersen
Title: Second Grade

Profile

Jennifer Peterson joins Hualalai Academy as their Second Grade Teacher. Jennifer graduated from California State University with a multiple subject teaching credential. She has recently been teaching at Sierra Vista Elementary School in Southern California where she taught 1st, 3rd, and 6th grades. Jennifer was the lead teacher in professional development in the areas of math, technology, and a special teaching strategy called GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Development). She was also chosen as the only teacher at her school to receive the "Classroom of the Future," title, with her technology based classroom. During the summer, Jennifer worked at a hands on, science based summer camp where she learned innovative new science ideas to bring into her classroom.

Being chosen as a teacher at Hualalai Academy is an honor for Jennifer. She is ecstatic about sharing her excitement and passion for learning with her students.

Name:
Title: Fourth Grade/Webmaster
Website

Profile

Pat has been a professional educator for over 30 years in Washington and Hawaii. She received her B.A and Masters from the University of Washington. She earned her Administrative Credentials from Western Washington University. Pat has an extensive technology background and was an Apple Classroom of Tomorrow educator. She also collaborated on and received a TLCF Grant and a SmartBoard Grant. She moved to Kona with her family in 1997. Pat designed the original Hualalai Academy web sites, is our webmaster, and was in charge of the creation of our new Hualalai Academy web site.

Name:
Title: Third Grade
Website

Profile

Dan is originally from Cleveland, Ohio with a life credential in Elementary Education from S.F. State University. Dan received his B.A. from the College of Wooster, Ohio. He has over thirty-three years of teaching experience, fifteen of them on the Big Island. He was an Apple Classroom of Tomorrow teacher. Dan is one of our resident computer and high tech specialists. He teaches the Hawaiian Studies Program to third graders, and is in charge of the school garden. His interests are reading, baseball, nature and reading about baseball and nature.

Name:
Title: 4-12 Spanish and Social Studies
Website

Profile

Nastia graduated with a BA in Sociology from the University of Nanterre in Paris, France. She has been teaching French and Spanish since 1993 on the mainland and the Big Island.

Name:
Title: Fifth Grade
Website

Profile

Matt is an experienced, certified teacher from California, where he taught at Edison McNair Academy in East Palo Alto since 2001. From 2001-2007, he taught in a self-contained fifth grade classroom. In 2007-2008 he was the lead teacher on a sixth grade team. Matt has been a long-time member of the Hualalai Ohana - he is the son of Founding Head of School Felicity Johnson. In fact, he started his educational career at Hualalai Academy in 1994 as a math and PE teacher. He also coaches competitive soccer.