It's a system that automatically comes to us and it really it really has been a game-changer for us. We've been doing that for about a year and a half now. AAA again is one that's a continued success. Um We are getting ready to take our next one at the end of February, beginning of March. We're going to go to the Fun Factory. So, our kids that have made the requirements to attend will go to the Fun Factory. They just have to go for the month of February meeting the criteria. The first one we did Dairy Queen, which is huge huge success. And then the last one we did a magician where a magician came in and then we had the concession stand open. So, those have been really good successes for us. Attendance, [clears throat] we've also hit student attendance rate of 95%. Um We do a lot with meetings where we bring kids in because most of it's just they don't have the information they need about how the excused absences work versus unexcused.
Our FFA team competed in the sectional LDE contest and delivered great performances. We had eight students place in the top five of various events and they received awards for their category and certificates for placing in the top five. They continue to work each day and we are proud of all their accomplishments. Our leadership class has been working very hard and we have had great events since you last heard from us. We have been decorating the gym and have made numerous posters for our for our sporting events to support our players. Last week was our winter homecoming and the theme was Avatar. During the week, we had spirit days to correlate with Avatar, games and music during lunch, and a great rally to bring it all together. Each grade level decorated a corner of the gym with our topic of Avatar. Freshman were water, sophomores were air, juniors were forest, and seniors were fire.
So, how do we talk about it without doing a motion? >> You have to have a motion. >> Well, we make a motion in a second, but it doesn't mean we have to do a roll call. Okay. I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Okay. So discussion >> can we talk about the number one PE teacher because we are we do have schools they're very very concerned parents are very concerned about eliminating that particular position at OCI because of retirement. Um can we talk about the possibility of at a later time back filling that position? Yeah. Um we talked about this in previous meetings that of course um if um if money's come in that we were not anticipating um we're still we'll hear a little bit about the governor's workshop and of course you know the May revise is still down the road and monies come in that we were not anticipating and we want to look at using some of those funds for reinstating any of these position.
Carol. He's going to talk a little bit about goal one and we'll hand it over to him. >> All right. Good evening. So goal one is to ensure a safe and productive learning environment that promotes the wellness and positive school culture for all students. So based on our data dashboard from last year, I know that we've already reviewed this, but um with the board, but we did see a decrease in our suspension rate um and then we also saw a decrease in our chronically absenteeism rate. So looking at some of the metrics we uh use to determine if we're being effective in our approach um include our attendance rates. So our baseline data shows that we were at 95.1% and as of right now this year we're at 98.04%. Our conic uh absenteeism rates again baseline was 16.2% 2% overall and as of right now this year we're at 6.96%.
>> That's a good question. I I'm not aware of a of a state match endowment fund. I haven't seen that. It may exist, but I I haven't seen that in other places yet. >> So, of the other um because I know you guys have partnered with um some of the Hawaii restaurants and stuff. those funds that you guys raise, are those funds also used or or we possibly use for matching funds as well or are those separate? Because I know >> talked a lot about nutrition for um the players and so forth. >> You guys looking at some of those funds as well to be part of the fundraising. >> If I understand the bill, the bill said we had to raise matching funds explicitly for NIL for this endowment. that if if that's able to be changed then obviously I would be very happy to look at other endowments that could be used to match this.
Hearing none members any questions? >> Question for DOE. Thank you. So I have two questions. Number one would be um how will DOE personnel be selected to um administer the meds and um how how will students currently needing medication um during the day be given the medication? >> Okay, thank you for the question, Senator. Um these uh this provision protects volunteers. So people would volunteer to do this. Currently we do have staff like the um school health attendant as well as nurses, but sometimes there's not enough personnel and we'd like our kids to be able to participate in all activities. So volunteers um can be trained to provide that daily medication if needed. >> So but every school will have someone. >> Yes. Hopefully. Thank you. Um um I don't know they're not here. Hawaii Association for Justice and Comments. You might just sit there.
And now here is Bluefield again. Granados a little bit too anti. Still up four is Clifton. And now cut down to two. >> Royster knocks it down. So again approaching 135. No fouls yet either side. No team fouls of course. 130 here left to go in the first half with Farrell. Farrell >> looking for a shot and comes up short. Where is it? That was David Leon on the rebound. Clifton needs to hustle back. Nice pass inside. No, too strong. And again, I'm trying to find 50's number. I can't find her on the score sheet and I apologize for that cuz she is on the floor. And the ball comes back out to Clifton. Here is Granados. One minute now left to go. Granados for three. No, too strong. Rebound. Where is it? Comes back out to Bloomfield. Score 2119 in favor of Clifton. Oh, Granados.
Usually, it's just a no call no show. So, we really give them the educational piece. We pick up kids all the time if they need a ride. So, they know that they have communication that if they just missed the bus, they can get a hold of us and we'll make that arrangement to get them. Last thing is staff recruitment and retention. Again, the TBRI support for staff. David's done a really good job as far as meeting staff needs for through TBRI support. And he can talk about that. The other one is we've done a food truck. We've done free spirit wear. All drink carts, regulation fidget tools, snacks. We are constantly doing everything with through PTO has been a huge help with Susie as well. Just to Susie Glasgow does a great job with our PTO as far as coordinating special things for our staff.
We had teachers come and judge each corner, and the seniors ended up winning. Uh later that night, we had an awesome dance that over 250 students attended. Along with homecoming, our leadership class was planning eighth grade invasion day. We had over 230 eighth graders come to our school to tour the campus, look at clubs and activities offered at West Valley and join us in our homecoming rally. They were able to get a small glimpse of what high school life looked like, and the whole day was so fun. We are now planning senior nights for our sports teams and making posters for each senior. We are excited for future events and plan to make the rest of the school year a blast. After some very stressful and busy weeks, our students are very excited for this upcoming February break. I, as well as all the other students, would like to thank you all for your support and help in our school district.
positions. That's certainly something that can be discussed and considered. >> Good. That's that's the hopeful position that we would like to have. >> I mean, we do not want to >> eliminate any positions that we need. >> If we're if we're having that conversation, we're all going to be very happy because that means that there's more money, right? >> But keeping in mind that any additional funds that have been talked about are one time. So it could be, you know, a couple years sort of thing depending on, you know, our enrollment. Maybe it could be longer. Other programs could change, but just keeping that in mind if if that discussion comes up and the funds are um onetime funds, you know, having to plan ahead for that. >> Yeah. So if additional funds come before us, we will be transparent about those types of funds whether they are ongoing or not.
For our Hispanic students in chronic absenteeism um we're down from 34.7 to 15.68 and for African-American students we're down from 30.2% to 14.77%. So very significant gains in in those areas. We also look at our suspension rate. Um our baseline showed that we were at 1.6% 6% of students suspended and we are currently at 0.19% of our students suspended. Um, our Hispanic rate has dropped from 3.5 to 0.5, socioeconomically disadvantaged from 3.4 to 0.3, English language learners from 1.1 to 0.25, and our African-Americans have dropped from 10.5 to zero. And we currently have zero students who have been recommended for expulsion this year. I'll get into a little bit more of this on the next slide. So, this kind of just breaks down uh by ethnicity, how many students have been suspended within each demographic group. So, if we look at where we started in the 23 24 school year, again, we've seen a significant decrease overall.
>> Okay. Thank you. Thank you J. >> Uh other colleges any of them use state funding for NIL? >> So this is again I think the way public many public universities are functioning right now is that they either the university the state whatever their concept is is helping them put together the budget for NIL. But we've seen a wide range of schools commit to the cap of the NIL funding, which is the $20 million you can go all the way up to even with a stable budget, even with a a balanced or a budget that had losses. So what we will wait to see because their question is very fair is how does that play out at the end of this year? Nobody has done this before. This is our first year. >> The question is, are you aware of any school that is using state dollars?
Uh, one of the things they said in here, and maybe you can opine on this, is that the department and its employees and agents who act in accordance with the requirements of this section shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability arising from these acts except where the person's conduct could constitute gross negligence, willful, and wanted misconduct or intentional misconduct. So that um I don't know if that's on the bill right now. It might not be. I think it is in there. >> Okay. and they >> and therefore at the very least school employees who render aid under this bill should also be immune unless their acts constitute gross negligence or want acts. Okay, just want to make sure. >> Yes, thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Um there is people outside that wanted to testify. Okay, next we're going to move on. No other questions.
Wow. Jeez, that was a hard foul. All right, fouls called. Time will stop at 41.8 seconds. Give Granados credit. Playing hard on both sides of the floor. Knocked down a three. Came back hard on D. All right, so ball's going to be inbounds. First foul on Clifton. First personal foul on Granados. And inside again and that will tie the score as now Clifton. 35 seconds to go as Clifton will have to inbounds with Farrell. Gives it to Granados. Granados defended well there. Granados avoiding it. Granados looking for a teammate. Gronados. Who's there? A deep three. No, just short. And now it's score tied at 21 with 15 seconds left. Leon will look to push. Leon finds his teammate here. Deep shot. No. Rebound. Second chance. Short. Two seconds. No. And the horn will sound and that will end the first half with the score. Clipton 21.
We again, our goal is to have at least one monthly celebration or gift to give our staff every single month. That's just a goal for us. And then the other one is and continue to decrease the amount of students leaving school to go to nearby schools. I mean, like I just showed you earlier, we are really really happy with the progress on that goal this year. >> [clears throat] >> I'm just going to be blunt. We're not going to get it done in 14 and a half minutes because we have so many great things to share at the junior high. So, and I don't speak as quickly as that. Um my brain does not work that fast. But, >> [laughter] >> we do have a lot of great things taking place at the junior high. So, all of what Jordan just kind of encompassed I'm going to kind of share how all that works and and how we've made that happen not just from the three of us, but it includes student groups and so forth.
Are there any questions we have for you? >> Thank you. Nice driver. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Um, I am a teacher at North Valley High School. I'm the um, science teacher right now. And I would just like to say how much I enjoy working with both our staff at North Valley as well as our student population. It is rewarding each day whether I face challenges or make a huge breakthrough with our students. From starting this year, I can already see the commitment and motivation from our staff to improve our program. We are collectively great problem solvers and we have not only great school spirit but a continuous hope for a future success of our students. I say that because I'm Miss Hope, so I'm adding some more cheer to the school. Uh, one big change that we implemented most recently was the purchase of yonder pouches.
And then we will have conversations about what we want to do with that money. Of course, if it's onetime money, the discussion will involve the possibility of whatever we choose to use that money for could potentially need to be reduced at a later date when that money no longer exists, which is part of why we're in the the situation we're currently in. So, I had a question because um we talked about um limiting a physical education teacher, the school psychologist, a special ed a special ed full-time, where is it on here? Um special education program. there was a cut to the special education program and um we talked about potentially I was I was under the impression that we talked about not eliminating the school psychologist intern at this point >> but now it's on here. >> Yeah, I can explain that. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
Um, and in every or in most categories, we've we've decreased. So from Asians as from last year to this year have decreased from 5 to one. Hispanic students from we've maintained eight students. Our Filipinos we've increased by one student. African-American continues to be zero. Two or more races we decreased by one student. White students decreased by Z or decreased by one student. And we've decreased by five students overall as of this point in the year. Sure. >> So, this part of our presentation, we have to look at all of our action items and come up with an idea as far as what's been implemented fully, what needs support or what hasn't been implemented. And so, we went through the majority of our action items specifically aligned to uh goal number one. And this is a list of all of the action items that we feel have been fully implemented.
come to the state legislature and ask them for NIO money. >> I I I'm not I'm not aware of anybody else doing this proactively like the way we are. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Um, from what your president, President Hansel have said is that very few, there's not a whole lot of colleges that actually get the kind of state money that you that the University of Hawaii has that we give, and I would take her word for it because she's been in a number of um positions at different universities that we tend to give more money. So I can't imagine how those states or colleges would be given state monies for particularly NIL when they're not even giving it to the institutions. >> So um this is really the fact that we're taking state dollars. >> Yes. >> And using that money um to to help this.
We're moving on. Thank you. We'll have bill 2412 uh relating to the University of Hawaii appropriates monies to establish a bachelor's degree program in sign language and interpret sign language interpretation at the University of Hawaii Mano campus with a multi-year plan to include a master's degree program for interpreting tra interpreter training and we have see Sabrina Wilford That's [laughter] >> okay. >> So, you can testify because we have somebody on Zoom who can interpret for you. So, please feel free. >> Daisy Chicken interpret >> from Hawaii Interpreting Services. I stand on my written testimony. >> Thank you very much. >> And thank you for your service. >> Okay. Uh Christine Pagano. >> Aloha. Good afternoon. So, Sabina, you need to to be on the microphone. >> Yeah. Can you just >> Can you turn the microphone around? >> Good afternoon. >> This is um from DECAP and we are we stand on our testimony.