Rising costs of energy, technology, teacher salaries and even hurricane and liability insurance are driving up tuition at Hawai'i's private schools, with some increasing student costs by about $1,000 this year.

"The major thing is salaries, but everything else is going up, too," said Damien Memorial School president Brother Greg O'Donnell. "Everything has just risen a lot more than the normal inflation. I just ordered some desks from the Mainland and the shipping costs were more than the desks."

Punahou School is charging $14,725 for the 2006-07 school year, an increase of $950. Mid-Pacific Institute and Iolani School are charging $13,950 and $13,100, respectively — increases of $980 and $900 over last year's tuition. Damien is keeping its increase to $475, with the yearly cost rising to $8,125.

The state's costliest private school, the Big Island's Hawai'i Preparatory Academy, will see its high school tuition hit $16,350 this year, up $1,350 over last year.

That's still below the average cost of a private school on the Mainland. Though tuition costs weren't yet available for this year, during the 2005-06 school year the average Mainland private school cost $17,145, according to the National Association of Independent Schools.

And that's still much less than the cost of private schools in some of the priciest Mainland markets. In Los Angeles, for instance, last year's median school tuition was $22,870, while in New York City it was $27,200, according to a Wall Street Journal survey.

The ranks of students enrolling in private schools edged upward from 2002 through 2004, with about 2,000 more students choosing private schools in that two-year stretch. The increase was propelled in part by increased capacity at several schools and a healthy economy.

"There's no question the good economy in the state has helped schools like ours," said O'Donnell, whose Damien operations have seen an enrollment spike of 53 percent in the past three years largely because of the addition of a new middle school.

Meanwhile, after several years of a downward slide, Saint Louis School in the past two years stopped the slide and is marking an enrollment increase, with a growth of 3 percent to 5 percent this year under the new presidency of Judge Walter Kirimitsu.

"Because we specialize in education of boys, we're filling a niche," Kirimitsu said. "The education of boys is becoming a primary focus nationally and that's having a carry-over effect in the state."

That focus prompted Cori Joseph and her family to select the school for her son Pono, a sixth-grader.

"We felt they were able to meet his needs with an all-boys' curriculum and the Christian values," Joseph said, noting that her family has been budgeting for several years to meet the cost.

"We'll do what we have to to make ends meet," she said. "If it comes to trims, there will be less traveling and less materialistic things for the family."

TEACHERS ARE PRIORITY

With the cost of keeping teachers' salaries competitive — and ahead of inflation — plus other expenses, private schools are tallying tuition increases this year at between 6 percent and 9 percent, compared with a range of about 3 percent to 6 percent a year ago.

That means they may be able to offer teachers annual increases of at least about 5 percent — a notch above the 4 percent inflation mark.

"Our faculty salaries are increasing an average of about 10.1 percent this year," said Phyllis Kanekuni, director of public relations for Hawai'i Preparatory Academy on the Big Island. "It (the tuition increase) is basically to keep salaries competitive."

Iolani teachers will see a 6 percent raise this year.

"Maintaining top-notch faculty and recruiting good faculty is a big priority of the school, and that takes about 70 percent of the budget," said communications director Cathy Lee Chong.

BETTER SERVICES

Along with higher tuition and growing enrollments, some private schools are offering improvements in facilities and services.

"We had significant upgrades in our IT (information technology) infrastructure and equipment," said John Field, Punahou vice president/treasurer. "We have more computers and more technology in the classroom. There's wireless in most of the school now and Smartboards for the teachers that download right to their computer."

Maryknoll president Mike Baker calls the technology needs at his school a "black hole."

"We've just put a lot of money into technology," Baker said. "It's a totally wireless environment and it will be an entirely laptop community."

Ninth- and 10th-graders are required to have laptops, and eventually all Maryknoll high school students will have personal laptops.

"Eventually, what we'll do is eliminate any computer labs and return that to teachable space," Baker said. "Computer labs are becoming obsolete."

LAPTOPS REQUIRED

Punahou is pushing the laptop requirement to an ever younger age. In sixth, seventh and eighth grades it is compulsory for students to have laptops, and the school charges students an extra $550 annually on top of tuition for a lease-to-own arrangement over three years.

In fourth and fifth grades, each child is issued a personal laptop, which is covered by tuition.

Le Jardin Academy in Kailua has a similar plan. Students in the high school are issued laptops, which cost them $750 a year. That's in addition to the $11,630 tuition, which increased by 6 percent this year.

While the schools are seeing costs rising, at least two are taking aim at ways to trim electrical usage, including installation of "ice plants" that use electricity during evening hours to make and store ice that is used to chill classrooms the next day.

Both Mid-Pac and Punahou have installed the new technology and are now watching electricity costs coming down, even though the schools are air conditioning additional buildings.

"During the day you blow chilled water across the ice and you circulate that chilled water into the building and an air handler," Mid-Pac president Joe Rice said.

"It's a great way to save electrical costs as it's a lot less expensive than normal air conditioning. And you get a tax credit. Hawaiian Electric has been helping us out on this in a big way."