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PATRICIA HAMAMOTO
Superintendent
Hawaii State Department of Education

The Board of Education appointed Patricia Hamamoto as superintendent in December 2001. She previously served as interim superintendent from October 2001, and as deputy superintendent from February 1999. Before entering state administration, she was principal of McKinley High School for seven years.

As superintendent, Hamamoto oversees a unified statewide school system of more than 172,000 students and 259 schools with an annual operating budget of more than $2.4 billion -- the nation's tenth largest public school system. Under her leadership, the Department of Education is aggressively adopting standards-based education while implementing significant reform measures under the state's Reinventing Education Act of 2004 and the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. She is the DOE's chief advocate on matters pertaining to the quality and financial needs of Hawaii's public schools.

Hamamoto is a career educator with more than 34 years of teaching and administrative experience in the DOE. She began teaching in October 1975 at Highlands Intermediate, and also taught at Ilima Intermediate and Pearl City High. She entered school administration as vice principal at Maui High in September 1983, and also served as vice principal at Nanakuli High & Intermediate. Her first principalship was at Pearl City Highlands Elementary in January 1987. She was a contract administration specialist in the state personnel office from July 1989 to December 1991. Hamamoto returned to the school level as principal of Likelike Elementary in December 1991, and became McKinley High principal in April 1992.

The superintendent is active with many educational organizations. Her affiliations include: Council of Chief State School Officers (member), Hawaii Teacher Standards Board (board member), Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (board director), Teacher Education Coordinating Committee (co-chairperson), Joint Venture Education Forum (co-chairperson), University of Hawaii College of Education Advisory Council (member), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (member), and American Association of School Administrators (member).

Hamamoto has a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa , and a bachelor's degree from California State University, Long Beach. She is a graduate of Maryknoll High School.

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