by Andrew Walden
Heather Kanoe Ahuna, wife of OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna, has been ousted from another Hawaiian Charter School gig.
Ahuna took a leave of absence as Principal of Kanuikapono Public Charter School (KPCS) on April 24, 2025. A year later, June 26, 2026, the Board voted to select a new Principal for the Anahola, Kauai school.
Akamai readers will remember this Change.org petition launched last year by outraged KPCS parents:
We demand the immediate removal of Kanuikapono Public Charter School's current Executive Director/Principal Kanoe Ahuna. In her current roles, Ahuna is responsible for a five-year decline in K-12 enrollment and using school funds for improper personal expenses benefiting herself, her family, and associates. These issues became public at the KPCS Governing Board meeting on Wednesday, April 9, 2025….
Executive Director/Principal Kanoe Ahuna gave special treatment to her husband Dan Ahuna (OHA Trustee) when she failed to reprimand him for multiple instances of using foul and abusive language toward middle school students while he was a KPCS teacher during the 2024-25 school year.
Executive Director/Principal Kanoe Ahuna and Shane Cobb-Adams (Governing Board Chair) have targeted KPCS employees who they feel might be a threat to their personal and professional agendas. Teachers and staff members reportedly feel afraid to speak up because of potential consequences. Cobb-Adams also made several intimidating visits to campus during Ahuna's absence.
Executive Director/Principal Kanoe Ahuna has been forced to make restitution multiple times for using school credit cards for her personal travel expenses including purchasing airplane tickets and renting hotel rooms….
Executive Director/Principal Kanoe Ahuna used school funds to hire her sister Jennifer Gonsalves (Outreach & Implementation Specialist/Contentment Foundation) as consultant on the construction of an elementary outdoor playground at KPCS which was never built and there are no plans to do so. Ahuna also hired Gonsalves as consultant for the SEL program and KPCS master plan….
KPCS parents later added this complaint:
Kanoe Ahuna continues to take advantage of Kanuikapono PCS while on leave. From November 16-20 (2025) she was seen in New Zealand representing KPCS at the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE). Parents maintain that no KPCS students were invited on Kanoe's school-sponsored trip which was apparently arranged before she went on leave. Her presence at WIPCE 2025 was confirmed in (January, 2026) Ka Wai Ola….
Interestingly, KPCS was not Mrs. Ahuna’s first ride on the charter school merry-go-round.
In 2015, Halau Lokahi made history as the first Hawaii charter school to have its license revoked by the State Charter School Commission. Ahuna was the President of Elite Element, a Halau Lokahi contractor raking in thousands of dollars per month from Halau Lokahi. Ahuna was forced out of Elite Element, March 28, 2012, over allegations of theft and personal misconduct.
Hawai’i Free Press asked Ahuna if she feels her experience at Elite Element prepared her well to do such a similar job on Kanuikapono. We also asked her if she would be seeking a position at any other Hawaii charter school in an effort to go for a three-peat. She did not reply.
Meanwhile, we obtained court documents from Elite Element v Heather Kanoe Ahuna. Civ 12-1-1296-05. Accusers, including her sister Reydan Ahuna and Reydan’s spouse Gina Ahuna, alleged:
Defendant Ahuna had access to an Elite debit card, which was to be used for business purposes only. The Board of Directors determined that Defendant Ahuna had used the debit card for personal purposes, such as her chiropractic appointments and travel expenses….
While from all outward appearances it seemed she had accepted her removal gracefully, Defendant Ahuna was secretly taking steps to injure Elite Element Academy and to deprive it of future business. One such step by Defendant Ahuna was to terminate Elite's trade names….
At the same time she attempted to cancel Elite Element Academy's trade names, also on April 2, 2012, Defendant Ahuna filed Articles of Incorporation at the DCCA for Defendant EAOHawaii. The corporate name she chose, EAOHawaii, is identical to one of the trade names that Defendant Ahuna attempted to cancel. These actions were clearly calculated by Defendant Ahuna because Plaintiff learned that she had been soliciting commitments from institutions who had or were planning to provide money to Elite, such as Pacific American Foundation, to write "EAOHawaii" into their grant proposals. Thus, amidst acknowledging that she had been removed from Elite's Board and therefore had no authority to act for Elite, Defendant Ahuna cancelled Elite Element Academy's trade names and created Defendant EAOHawaii to enable her to take grant money that is intended to benefit Elite Element Academy. Further evidence of this intent to deprive Elite Element …
Defendant Ahuna has stolen Elite Element Academy's operating funds and has taken control over Elite Element Academy's bank accounts. By letter dated April 26, 2012, Bank of Hawaii informed Elite Element Academy that it had received a request to change the address of its accounts from the Waiakamilo Road business address to Defendant Ahuna's PO Box on Kauai. …On April 30, 2012, Defendant Ahuna wrote herself a check out of Elite Element Academy's checking account in the amount of $31,748.50. ….
Defendant Ahuna terminated Elite Element Academy's payroll service provider, ProService Hawaii, Inc., on or about April 30, 2012. At the same time, Defendant Ahuna told ProService Hawaii to credit back to the account the April payments that were supposed to be made to HMSA for health insurance coverage for May. As a result, Elite Element Academy's health insurance policy was terminated, and so none of Elite's employees including Gina Ahuna and Reydan Ahuna had health insurance coverage required by law. Terminating ProService Hawaii also benefitted Defendant Ahuna directly. Prior to her removal as director on March 28, 2012, Defendant Ahuna had accepted an advance on her wages from Elite Element Academy in the amount of $12,000 and authorized ProService Hawaii to take 23 deductions in the amount of $521.74 from her bi-weekly paychecks as repayment. At the time she terminated the contract with ProService Hawaii, Defendant Ahuna owed $8,347.82 as an outstanding balance of her salary advance. As a result of this, Elite Element Academy had to absorb the cost of the outstanding balance of Defendant Ahuna's salary advance….
On or about May 3, 2012, Defendant Ahuna sent a letter to Elite Element Academy's landlord's property manager advising them that they should cancel the commercial lease for the Waiakamilo Road property being used by Elite Element Academy. …
Not to be outdone, Kanoe’s husband Dan Ahuna has also been quite busy:
---30---
PDF: Elite Element v Heather Kanoe Ahuna Civ 12-1-1296-05