so it's those two accounts that are going up due to their anticipated higher energy costs does that also account for the um contractual increase in our um energy contract for the lights is that in there as well or is that yeah the energy performance contract is actually one category up in Support Services Under Capital audience Support Services okay yeah so that's 38 162 is that increase okay and the reason it's budgeted separately is because that thirty eight thousand one sixty two has to do with payments we make on the contract we have with ameresco so it's not directly a utility cost okay all right um are there any other questions or comments from the finance committee members all right um seeing none I guess uh we'll take a vote on the um uh motion that's uh before us which is to approve a a budget of 85 million 872 591 which is a uh an increase of 5 million two hundred eight thousand one hundred seventy one dollars um over last year's approved budget um all in favor is unanimous okay fantastic um so that well what we're going to do now is we've passed our motion so now the finance committee will adjourn and then that motion will pass now to the full board for consideration and then there will be the board as a whole so why are we not just that right unfortunate the motion just passed so I can't we were told because we were told that only the finance committee was asking questions during this meeting no that was never stated it's just like all the other fine-speed meetings anybody can ask questions it was stated so I'm sure my home but I was told maybe my knee I may have been mistaken on that I apologize Ian for that um but we did just pass the motion and now what I'm going to do is adjourn the finance committee so that that motion will now pass to the full board and then all board members will have the ability to ask any questions they wish per the Chairman's Direction um so um that being said um I will move ask for a motion to adjourn uh the finance committee so moves there's second great all in favor all right Finance committees adjourn at 7 20.
Members, are there any questions? Senator Kim, Mr. Yashi, um tax foundation avoiding notes that this fund is entirely unnecessary and probably violates special fund and trust fund criteria and chapters HRS chapter 37. What's your response to that? Thank you very much for the question, Senator K. Uh very basically we we disagree with that termination that it's inconsistent with state law. There is an incredible amount of transparency for non-general funds as required by chapter 37. Um one of the concerns was was a lack of transparency. But but clearly chapter 3747 and the annual non-general fund reports that are posted on our site as well as on DNS website and submitted to to the legislature every year would detail out revenues, expenditures, um all kinds of information about these funds. Yeah. But who rarely who always read it and see those? Well, I think certainly the fiscal committees and and they're charged with with reviewing our budget requests.
so I wouldn't to say that we are you know this is um to hold many of these expenses at the same level as this year if they um it's not I I I don't like it but um I'll go back to my original or refer back to my original point but the fact of the matter is um we do well by our students and I think we even at a 000 reduction from this and and again I'm I would look for more if it were up to me because I still think it's a big ask for our town but um I think our students are going to be okay so then or uh doctor are there any grants that we know of or we've applied for or in the hopper that might help to offset any of the increase between now and because we you know I think the public needs to understand like we're right now trying to foreshadow what the budget's going to look like from July 1st through the next year so I mean is there anything that's open now any of the Esther money I mean I see a lot of these have Sunset um but anything to do with learning loss or energy costs or anything of the district might be going after that's in the harbor now or well I'll let then also build on this response because I imagine you know we can talk about HVAC at the very least but um our our philosophy has historically been to use grants to supplement the budget provision um I think you know as I kind of Illustrated when we received the Esther money I tried to stay away from creating fiscal cliffs and I think we can get ourselves in trouble when we supplant budget things that should be budgeted with grant money because in the subsequent year it creates a much deeper hole when we're trying to dig out of that when the grant money runs out so you know as recently as Friday Kevin um issued a grant request for thirty thousand dollars for El Services um that would be supplemental to the services that we would provide provide professional development for our staff and how to support English language Learners um our second language Learners or dual language Learners excuse me so I mean that's kind of been the philosophy philosophy we've approached this with to not create fiscal cliffs for ourselves but then if you want to talk about HVAC or anything else or anything in addition sure uh good evening everyone the there's no operating budget grants other than the ones that we have in in the revenue in the state and and Federal grant programs the we do have grant opportunities certainly as Dr solimento at the HVAC grant school security Grant but those are going to affect our Capital Investments so there's nothing um Mr Martellus that I I know of now that would help the operating budget that we're talking about and we are anticipating carrying and using the remaining 50 of the rfesser grant in 23-24 and that's carrying several positions and some professional development Consulting costs so you know we don't have to worry about that for 23.24 so that's coming up that'll be 24.25 and 24 25 right okay not budget you know to the extent we've had you know positions in the our peso Grant well those funds are no longer available so a decision has to be made what do we do with that so and there's no need to make a decision on that for the 23-24 budget because we'll carry it okay thank you yes Sam yeah I just want to make some a point sort of more generally about um the reasons that our budget is increasing over last year um are are not all bad okay so we are growing as a community which means we have higher student enrollment coming in that I'm we've already seen that the past couple of years and it's just increasing exponentially almost so to think that we don't need more staff more teachers more materials is you know we need to think in the way that we need to support population that's coming into our schools um I'm trying to remember the other two big parts of the reasons why our our budget is increasing um we have a teacher contractual growth along you know adding right because we have one more specialized medical benefits and you know natural resource costs so I just wanted to make you know we're growing and these some of this is Growing Pains but the town is also growing so that's the point I wanted to make thanks Andrew Jeff our elementary school population right now 2100.
thank you Mr grippo and thank you finance committee for moving that forward to the full board for consideration our full board meetings schedule start in about eight minutes so we're going to take a quick break just in case folks need to show up or have any other questions uh cleaned up for us so we will resume in about seven minutes thank you
So why is this why is this necessary? Um um for the reasons explained by superintendent and going beyond an existing trust fund but for what purposes? I mean what is it that we're you're not able to do now that this fund will allow you to do? Inspiration for this fund included things like the Corvalis or Oregon Corvalis public schools that have foundations um the University of Hawaii's Foundation where they have more externally operated um fiscal support to support the the governmental functions. So it's it's to it's to house resources perhaps outside the state treasury managed by third party administrators to then support where is right now we have schools that may be doing some of this work on their own or maybe doing it with the PTSA that may from year to year you know transition in capacity. So this is to try to create a separate entity that can can house and manage that and provide continuity and and manage risk as well as being transparent based on the requirements of state.
I'm just thinking of this I'm just thinking of the school modernizations go up to 2605 or so years yeah so the the actual Vin has always been better at quoting exact numbers than me so I'm gonna pull it right from our budget book our projected enrollment K through six next year is 2240 it's currently 21.67. all right so we're 2100 2200 and then the subsequent Year 2272. all right so five years out we're at 2500.
I know that Fington has the Fington Foundation, McKinley has one. I think Lani not I mean I think they have their own. So how would that relate to to this fund? I think it would provide an option for those that don't have that capacity of a large school especially a large urban school um to provide that kind of continuity and support. I think it's it's it's a highly technical thing to manage resources. I would expect the county tax fund and in the fund you would delineate any kind of donation or resources that might be given to a particular school and you're going to keep track of all of this. That that's in large part why we're looking at a third party administrator as well as a fund manager. What kind of cost does that essentially require multiple accounts within a larger fund that would roll up into a larger fund?
approximately all right so we're looking at a 300 or in the next five years or 300 or so increase just something just another way I'm thinking about this that wasn't no that wasn't my point at all I did hear you say that it was like I don't know if it's exponential but it's big I was like 300 300 divided by 5 is 60 right 60 just using 20 as a simple number to keep them that simple as an extra three teachers a year for the next five years just generally speaking at the elementary school level now there's dot in the high school in it as well but the growth is happening and I do feel it's important to also have that in mind when we're talking about you know keeping positions just we we just did school we just approved school modernization so the expectation is that's going to happen I want I want the the voters to also have that in mind that these positions are going to be growing there's I mean I mean unless there's a board of ed that chooses to say all right it's not 20 it's 30 kids first class I don't see that happening anytime soon but um just as a general thought we're probably increasing about three Elementary School teachers a year for the next five years and then it's gonna I think it I think we actually the increase goes out more than five years anyway but that's just to keep it relatively close in time that's all Samantha yes yeah I just I agree yes growth is happening but we also don't want to lose sight back with growth comes the diversity with the diversity comes need we don't know the demographics of our growth and therefore we do have to prepare in advance so to speak of you know maybe of the 12 increase for next year half of them may be special needs children that we have to consider those services for too so I just you know we're looking at numbers I really don't want us to just look at the numbers I want us to also those numbers come with faces and needs as well too foreign if there are no further comments I'll try to say a few things so uh I want to act again it's not over but there's more comments we'll continue on um but I do want to say again I want to thank everyone for the input into this budget which I know we almost started well before January and just remind folks I think we talked about it last time you know about the sewing uh and the entire team you know I guess the original request when it came in were was much more than 5 million I think it was up around 8 million and change and that was just about the time when finance committee and planning were meeting ahead of time too to try pair for this year so by no means this is this budget anything that just uh popped up uh three weeks ago and we finally got to it so there's been a lot of work to get it to where it is uh and honestly without just someone presented I uh by no means do I think he patted anything nor did I think uh he has any audacity to try to hide stuff I know that was mentioned earlier that's not the case and we know better um so a lot of work went into this and you know again I I I get it I've been here for a long time I understand the details we're an interesting situation uh we haven't been accustomed to which was when we're in growth mode up until about a year or so ago we weren't in growth mode we were in the although that's going to argue that the budget still maintains but we are growing the schools the population some of the program you know we're not investing a lot into program with this budget I suspect future budgets will change to invest into more programs as Samantha mentioned as the more diverse population of our school children and there's our schools I suspect programs will follow in future years um and that we're able to augment not maintain what we have today but also additional offerings so so for me it's not just planning for this year when I look at budgets it's looking out at least three years the best that I can of what's coming what we need to plan for and when I do look out that far um I think we'll be making continued Investments of this size or maybe greater in the next couple years in one year it may not be staff and a future year it could be additional programming at the elementary school but we are growing and we want to continue off in quality education and a quality experience I think so long as this board or any future board can articulate what's behind the numbers and how to add value I think we'll get through it I am concerned I usually how to say this not sounding uh I do take everyone's input into this process and how everyone's affected whether we have adults in town that have students in school system we're not retirees um you know I don't necessarily look at the final movie from the town when I make a decision because our focus is on education but we're all inclusive enough to keep that back of our minds as I just mentioned we just uh successfully passed you know 160 million dollar capital budget a capital project which will be start paying for in about a couple years we have this budget operating we have another capital budget that we're going to talk about soon for next fiscal year so I look at these things in total and look at where we need to be um I don't want to scare off our taxpayers I want the ease them into where we're going and I think this budget helps with that I will support Mr gripples reduced increase I would not go below that um for the reasons that we're we don't know what our medical balance is going to look like at the end of this fiscal year even with fingers crossed Anything Can Happen uh we're not done with the current school year so as much as I think we may have some encumbrances uh that maybe in past years the superintendent is able to expend during the summer for projects that may not be the case this year that may not be a buffer so I don't think the 514 000 is irresponsible I think it certainly challenges the superintendent a bit um but I also don't think that's going to be an end of it so I will support this um yeah I I can't really I have no arguments with any board member here we all share passion for what we're trying to do I I definitely you know I I understand and I I agree we're in some aspects you know I do appreciate the fact that you know we want to see details of where the reductions and the increase ultimately come from um but I do appreciate Mr grippo uh you thinking about the line items at least trying to quantify um the numbers I know in different Boards of Ed in years past we've had members just you know in some cases throw out numbers and not able to stand behind us I appreciate your reasoning but there's a lot more to come between now and in April and like I said you know we will wait to see what the town manager has to say about the budget and I'll be a Town Council I'm sure going to have much deeper discussions with the Town Council in room 207 when time comes on this and depending how things happen we could make a case to change it then too so uh so I will support this and you know Dr Solomon you know I do support you just because I don't support the other 500 14 000 it doesn't mean all not all Indian you know uh coming from so so I will support this amended motion that's where I stand but we can continue discussion if the board still chooses okay if I got my numbers right the amended motion on the table is to increase the fiscal 23 24 education operating budget by four million six hundred ninety three thousand seven hundred and one dollars for a total budget of 85 million 358 121 dollars which represents a 5.8187 increase over current budget am I close enough yes the percentages will throw me off but I know numbers are accurate yeah yeah I'm sorry I was trying to be you know finite finite like Mr grippo uh all those in favor please raise your hands and support yeah one two three four six all those opposed we have one opposed the motion passes [Music] so I again thank you everyone um in case somebody's looking I'm looking at our just dedicated Educators here so I appreciate we all appreciate time you spent these last few weeks uh I'm certain you'll come back once we have some more news from the town side so please don't go away anytime soon that being said I do want to thank the board for all your time and effort and questions and discussions and thank you for reaching out to Dr so in the last few days Dr Solomon team thank you for your sponsors I I know we put a lot on you um but we'll find a way to make this work uh that being said I asked for a motion to adjourn Mr grippo is there a second Tim all is in favor this meeting is adjourned thank you
I mean that's a nightmare how many schools you have. That's what we currently do with within our state system with our trust funds when we have donations gifts and donations for specific purposes. Uh and you are correct. It is it is a very challenging activity and who who manages it now? Uh a very small team of accountants as as well as each of the schools administrators who come and go and and with with the support of their school staff. what kind of cost this is going to require that's not that's not ex determined at this point how much that third party administrator may cost it would depend on the scope and the use so this is to start the conversation to start the fund and to start the work it's something that like again we go back to modeling after uh Foundation and and other entities that have created organizations like this well I I'm concerned because you know we we passed that assessment and we didn't know it was going to cost us a million dollars to go hire somebody else and get another entity.
And so here we are embarking on a whole new fund. We're not sure what the cost might be and then we may be looking at more than what what you know resources we probably can even bring in. Who knows, right? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? Yeah. Senator um may want to sit back now. Ju just so to follow up on this trust is the intent to have u tax exempt rephrase that um tax credit to the donation into the trust. Is that the idea? Because I've worked on universities that have these foundations and trusts where it's a true I know it's not a 51c3 necessarily but so there's a tax benefit to the donor. Is that what the intent is? No, that wouldn't be one of the the intents. Yes. Okay. And then as far as I I hear what you're saying about the management to be determined a little bit later.
Um but also the other side of that um this would be administered by the state on a per school basis or is it managed by the state for the whole school system? The reason I asked that question is if you have someone in, you know, my district, district 4, someone in North Hawaii donates something with the expectation the funds are going to go into the schools in that district, but then it gets diverted to another side. So I think that's a concern. Our expectations it would be would be both. It would be like the low United Way where you have a generic general fund as well as specific funds that you could donate to. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Senator Camp. So right now when somebody makes a donation to the way it is, do they get a tax credit tax rate or donations to Hawaii public school system or tax?
Okay. So you don't need this one to to give them a tax credit that question. Um Brian, you keep trying to run away. The more you stand up, the more we'll ask you questions. Um so my question is if you're going to um spread the money out to various schools for those schools um as discussed whether it's McKinley or Barington that already have something you know going are they expected to put that money now into this trust fund? That's that's not part of the expectation at this point. No. Okay. And so if they have um those separate funds, will they be excluded from receiving um any money that goes into this this trust fund? No. And I think we'd like it to be as an option to to join the fund if if they see fit to do so. Okay. Thank you. Other questions? One last question.
I promise. Um, according to the tax foundation, it says the proposed fund does not appear to meet the criteria for a trust fund. No student, for example, can say he or she has invested beneficial interest or ownership in any of the monies in the fund. It probably is more accurate to classify the proposed fund as a special fund. I think the beneficiary of this fund would be the public school system and those that it serves. Yeah. But apparently what a trust fund is defined as one in which designated persons or classes of person have a vested and beneficial interest and equitable ownership of which was created or established by a gift grant and contribution etc. I think it's the the class the class is what we're talking about of individuals not not an individual student necessarily and whereas special funds are okay we'll take that up in in decision making thank you any further questions yeah just so you said not it's not for the individual uh student you think correct the only reason why is as the V says um support the programs and benefits of students of the Hawaii public school system.
That's I wouldn't expect the donor would say I want to give money to to Johnny and and then we would managing that money on behalf of Johnny for for kids students education. I think it would be for classes of students. So, so the plane is for what what I'm saying is that when we had um went to the other schools around the state and some of the rural schools that's 100 years old and um need a lot of help, but having this trust fund and then how you guys are going to um allocate it and you guys that's going to be a fair way of distributing around across the board. You see what I'm saying? Because you're saying it's going to be helping strengthen schools. Um some of the show has spread the funds of the department of education to improve education support programs and benefit student of Hawaii public schools.
So how you guys going to how you guys know you guys how you guys going to implement that in I think it'd be very speculative at this point for us to to to say exactly how it would be done. It'll depend on the terms of and conditions of the donors and for which they're giving the funds for. Um but I think we will try to create classes or general categories the same way similar to Aloha United Way and how they do it. Um as well as perhaps school by school, grade by grade if if absolutely necessary. But in in general, I think our preference would be at the higher level and support of a school or group of schools. Um it would just make administration of funds simpler um to have that kind of flexibility. But that'll have to be worked out as as we get donors and and and start moving forward with this program.
No, only reason why I say is some donors is going to contribute more for some areas and some parts of the community. How you guys going to allocate that knowing that the donor gave $100 million to Fington High School? Something like that. I mean, how you going to justify it and say, "Okay, we're not going to give $100 million to Fington High School because most of the amenities are there." Not saying that they don't need it, but everybody needs it. But then how you going to divert that money at this donor thinking that he's going to be the person that taking care of Farington High School? I think the simple answer is accounting and and keeping track in accounting ledgers, rows and columns of information by organization, by school level, by purposes, by you see the kind of stero maybe not going to have big donors up in K and those areas of how how are they going to get anything if there's no donors that want to give to those schools then now we're in the same predicament that we kind of are Now, in the allocating of the money, so if you say that I will give you $100,000 and then you're going to let the donor know, we cannot specify all of it is going to go to Fington High School.
We might have to spread it around. We give them an option if they want to give that money. See, because if you take the money and you're thinking that you can have them for Fington, find out you use some of that money to kill out with a with program have some funding. and the person that gave them would be feel like, hey, wow, you didn't have a sitting in a print when I would donate my money. Thank you, chair. Okay, I have a couple more. Sorry. So, who pays who's going to pay the fees for this entity to manage this fund and do all of this retail work? That's that's something we're going to have to work out the details on how much it's going to be. Is it going to come from the interest earnings of the fund is which what I would expect is it's what we'd be looking at because I know the uh Foundation they're asking for their their um ceiling to be increased and they get like 3 million and so if it's only in kind and it's not cash where is that cash going to come from if people are only giving in kind and not giving cash these are these are challenges that we'll have to work on as we and finally it says solicit public and private monies for the trust fund.
Does that mean that now you guys can go out and solicit all this money and stuff? And who's going to be doing the soliciting? Hopefully the third party administer with the support of the superintendent. I I believe that's what the bill includes. And is that going to compete against schools that have their own foundations? I'm not I'm not sure the nature of it. I don't think this thing was baked yet. Okay. Thank you, members. Further questions? If not, thank you. Moving on, Senate Bill 481 relating to education requires the board of education to develop a Hawaiian language medium education kindergarten entry assessment to be administered by the Department of Education beginning with the 2026 2027 school year. Requires the state public charter school commission to adopt the assessment. requires a kindergarten entry assessment be administered within 90 days of a child's ad admission to kindergarten provided that the child has not received any other kindergarten assessment within the past 180 days to testify superintendent please chair Kdani vice chair Kim members of the committee Keith Aayashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education.
While the department stands on its written testimony and support, I did want to make some clarifying comments on this measure. This measure was introduced as a result of discussions held at the December 15th, 2022 Hawaii State Board of Education meeting. During that discussion, it was clear that the board direction aligned with the departments and deciding that a kindergarten entry assessment should be required of all students to ensure that we are tracking the progress of our students. However, an English kindergarten entry assessment would not be appropriate for a public schools and so the board approved the department's plan to move forward with developing a Hawaiian language kindergarten entry assessment. This piece of legislation is a result of that discussion. I'd like to be clear that a kindergarten entry assessment is not is not going to deny any child the education that they want and deserve. No matter how how a child on the kindergarten entry assessment does, they will be allowed to attend a kaya school if they so choose.
The kindergarten entry assessment is simply a tool to determine their level as they enter kindergarten. It's a measure to understand where the child's starting point is and how best to support them to becoming their best selves. It is not going to deny any student entry into a Kaio school or any school for that matter. The department is in support of this bill but is asking for one amendment. Department is asking that the kindergarten entry assessment not be required for a student who has already received 90 or more days of kindergarten instruction elsewhere. As I stated before, the kindergarten entry assessment is a tool to determine where a child is prior to any formalized kindergarten education. And so, the tool will not be effective in assessing a student who has already had some kindergarten educational experiences.