NANAKULI — What was supposed to have been a public hearing on how best to fend off legal challenges to programs aimed at helping Native Hawaiians instead turned into a session where two of the largest of those institutions — the Kamehameha Schools and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs — were bashed for failing to address the needs of the Wai'anae Coast communities.

Kimo Kelii, a seventh-grade math teacher at Nanakuli High and Middle School, said he thought long and hard about whether he should join other Native Hawaiians in supporting Kamehameha when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling during the summer that said the school's Hawaiians-first admissions policy violates civil rights laws.

But then Kelii decided: "They go fight their own battle."

About 50 people attended the joint hearing of the state House and Senate Hawaiian affairs committees last night at the Nanakuli High School cafeteria. Six of the first nine public speakers were critical of Kamehameha.

Kelii said the school, founded by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop in the late 1800s, has "done a pathetic job in the education of all Native Hawaiian kids."

Kamehameha's trustees, he said, should consider shutting down the flagship Kapalama campus and instead funnel its vast resources into public schools where there are large numbers of Native Hawaiians such as Wai'anae, he said. Kelii also criticized OHA for not doing enough to help Native Hawaiian children get a better education.

Kapiolani "Dolly" Naiwi, a Wai'anae resident who is an educational assistant at Nanakuli High, said Kamehameha used to provide some resources for Wai'anae public schools but has not done so lately.

"Have another extension campus out here," she said. "We've got seven homesteads. I truly believe they're not trying hard enough."

The Kamehameha critics got empathy from state Rep. Michael Kahikina, D-44th (Honokai Hale, Nanakuli) who asked, "When is Kamehameha going to take over Nanakuli (High School)?"

Not everyone criticized Kamehameha. Alice U. Greenwood of Wai'anae urged lawmakers and state leaders to continue fighting the legal challenges against Hawaiian preference programs. She called Kamehameha "an invaluable part of the Hawaiian culture."

Ann Botticelli, a spokeswoman for Kamehameha, said before the public testimony that "it is difficult to serve all the Hawaiians that need to be served" but that trustees recognize the situation and have shifted its priority to reaching those communities that are least served as part of its 2000 strategic plan.

Kamehameha has set up a community learning center in Nanakuli which serves Hawaiians of all ages living in the area, Botticelli said.

The plan is "to reach out into the communities and provide educational opportunities outside of the campus programs," Botticelli said, noting that more concrete plans were approved by the trustees in June. "It is philosophically a plan that seeks to strengthen children from the very young stages, pre-natal to eighth (grade) and carry it all the way through to college through scholarships and so forth."

Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said that after a recent conversation with Kamehameha chief executive officer Dee Jay Mailer that the school intends to boost its presence in public schools with large numbers of Native Hawaiians such as Nanakuli.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.