But I cannot try to undermine um or be negative about it because I mean I could I have freedom of expression but I'm going to come back to this table with my committee members and I'm going to come back with great ideas that I want my colleagues to support at some point in the future. Right? How much support am I going to get? Probably not a lot if I'm not a if I don't play well in the sandbox, so to speak. Um I guess that's the politician part of local politics um that we all have to work at. Yes. >> So jumping back a little bit. So letter to the editor oped is okay. Freedom of expression >> same content on Facebook or Twitter. Questionable qu >> be cautious. So, I guess my just question is >> what if you write the letter to the editor and then tweet out just the link to that letter to the editor?
>> Yeah, I think more of what I'm talking about with the stop-loss is the actual vendor and looking to see if we're going to stick stick with CT Prime or another vendor like Sigma also offers it um versus the deductible. We've done an analysis of the deductible before to see what what's favorable and 175 seems to be the sweet spot. Um I know Matt, you have brought up before in the budget discussion like is there a mandate? Do you have to have stop-loss? And the answer is no. There's no legal mandate about stop-loss and having it. It's just a general practice that we've seen in municipalities and school districts. I can't think of one that doesn't have it if they're self-insured. Um but it's not a legal mandate. >> Yeah. So I guess my point just to reiterate what I would tried to convey in the budget um is I don't see myself probably ever supporting going to zero where there's no stop-loss.
Next up, Senate Bill 2374 relating to a blue economy. Uh, it establishes the blue economy working group to study how to develop and support marine-based economic activities that align with the state's decarbonization and restorative food production goals. It requires a report to the legislature. We are going to pass it with with an SD1 by defecting the date to July 1st, 20150. Uh, note A and pass Senate Bill 2374 with the same SD1 on Wednesday, February 18, 2026.
It was the day of the board meeting and so we couldn't add on another action item. So we are in February approving them. They have not been coming to school. They've been graduated. So um >> so I guess we better let them. >> Yes. The recommendation is to approve these two students. And that's again another one of those technicalities. They're graduated. >> Any comments, questions, or concerns on this?
>> So, >> I'm not I'm not on Twitter. I'm just obnoxious. >> I'm not It's something else now, too. It's not Twitter anymore. Um, it's X. You can tell I'm not on it either. Uh, there's a blue sky now, too. I I have grandchildren. I'd rather spend time with them. The Attorney General's office tells us to proceed with caution. Yes, we never give up the right to free speech. We might want to be talk and and even if we're talking about it as Liz Leond resident, we're still seen first as Liz Lefon member of the school committee. Um, and I know sometimes um I've gotten upset, annoyed, passionate about things. Um, and I've gone home and taken a deep breath and I say, "Well, we're just going to have to come back to fight this another day. Do I want to spread it on social media?" Not today, Liz.
>> But as you said previously you've looked at that number that 175. What's the cost at 50? What's the cost at 250? >> Yeah. >> Do you have an idea? Maybe Jeff I don't know like when's the last time you looked at that? >> There was a presentation last year. I can go pull it. It was actually um Vin had it last year. I can't remember when that was presented, but I can I can pull >> It was only a year ago is the point. That's that's totally fine. That's recent enough. I don't recall that, but Okay. Thank you. >> Y >> anyone else? >> Miss Fitzgerald. >> Yes. Thank you. Um your the insurance advisory group study group. Um I recall, you know, meetings ago we talked about there's like a state level medical potential plan that right now doesn't make sense but might make sense in the future.
Members, any discussion? Seeing none, vice chair will kai for the vote. Chair goes I. >> I vote yes. Senator Fukunady. >> Senator Kim >> I. >> Senator Favlla >> I. >> Cherry recommendations adopted. >> Thank you. Short recess. Sorry members, I uh skipped over one of the bills. Uh Senate Bill 2698 relating to transportation. Um or there's been some challenges on this bill. Uh, we're going to pass this with an SD1 by taking into consideration part of the attorney general's recommendations. Questions that were raised by general fund contributions in section five, we will not address. We will make changes on page two, line six, deleting these words, appropriations made by legislature for deposit into the fund that will be deleted from the bill. We will also take DOT's recommended amendments. Um this bill was also passed early on uh [clears throat] in transportation with the exact same language.
>> Hearing none. May like to make a motion to approve our two graduates. >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Andrew. Second. >> I'll second. Thank you, Lisa. All in favor? I.
You know, post a picture of your grandchild or your dog. People will smile. That's my opinion. That's not everybody's opinion. I'm just trying to ask you to proceed with caution uh to keep yourself and others out of trouble. You know that open the open meeting law says that um the complaint first comes to you. You create a resolution. Sometimes it's easy to create a resolution. You provide the resolution to the attorney general's office. they agree with you and they figure you've got a straight path to clarifying this and they may say yes you did violate the open meeting law but you've got a clear path to fixing it thank you. Um on the other hand you may not have created a clear path to fix it and then you get the other letter which says yes you have violated and here's what you must do to fix it.
Is that I didn't see it like mentioned in the advisory group but I imagine you're thinking is that being discussed in there also? >> Yeah, so it hasn't I have not heard it come up in discussion yet since we haven't talked about medical but we are looking into the cost of the state partnership plan just in general. Um, it's pretty easy to connect with them and get quotes. Um, there's some additional information I needed that I'm waiting from from our benefits department to kind of run the numbers for both because they do dental and medical. Um, but they are able to provide a quote and it's something that we can evaluate, you know, as a board of ed. It doesn't necessarily have to go through the insurance advisory group. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that's still >> the state considered and thought about.
Members, any discussion? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote. Chair goes I. >> I vote yes. Senator Fukunaga. >> Senator Kim. >> Hi. >> Senator Favlla. >> Hi. >> Chair, your recommendations up. >> Thank you. And with that we are ajourned. Hello and welcome to the joint hearing with the Senate Committees on Economic Development, Tourism and Education. This is our 10:06 p.m. agenda. Um with us today is uh education uh chair and committee Senator Kim. Uh we're here for decision- making on Senate Bill 2816 relating to state enterprise zones. Never in my craziest mind would I think I would be actually making all these amendments, but uh here we go. Brace yourselves. Uh we will be passing this with an SD1 by one updating section 2 definitions in section 209E-2 HIS add the following new definition for an innovation enterprise. Innovation enterprise means an area located on property owned by the state of Hawaii that is intended to support or currently contains businesses primarily engaged in biomemed or life sciences research, clinical trials, medical technology development, pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace technology research and development, space domain awareness or information technology design and production services.
>> Any opposed? >> Perfect. >> All right. Next one is always a fun one. The first reading for board policy press issue 120. >> Your board packets were a little thicker than normal. And um I will be reviewing them with between now and the next meeting and I will send you my notes. Um a cursory review. They look like they're mostly just um reviews and updating the legal language. I've not seen anything. Has anybody looked at them deeper and seen anything of interest? >> Well, I will say that I read through them and there's three of them that I would recommend we look at a little bit more closely. 480, 660, and 7150. >> 480, 660, and >> 7150. >> Yep. >> I don't see 7150. >> It's a law enforcement act. >> Oh, it's at the bottom. Got it. I said that one's a rewritten one.
Right? So they so to a point um although I wouldn't want that spread in the newspaper about me um you get a pass from there until you continue to violate right because they always say here's what you have to do to fix the violation and you have to get training at a certain point um the attorney general's office has the ability to um although It doesn't happen often, but if you knowingly violate the open meeting law, there can be monetary consequences attached to that for an individual and for a committee. I'd be more afraid of having my name in the paper multiple times, but not everybody is. Um, anybody belong to the MASC list, sir? You don't mind if I get my water? So, I belong to the MASC school committee list serve. Um, and I belong to the MASC executive assistance list serve. And I I Tracy Novik and I both monitor that.
Yeah. Thanks, >> Miss Colin. It says in here >> to develop recommendations for the town council by April. Will this have an impact on this year's budget? >> The way in which it could have an impact on this year's budget if if we switch providers um for stop-loss or we made a recommendation to switch some part of our medical. Like I said, I think that changing our whole medical insurance in that time frame is is small. Like that's a small possibility. Um but that would be the impact is our stop-loss line medical insurance. Um included in there is workers comp where we are we are also self-insured. >> So this group is is mainly the study group for the future. >> I think there are some short-term and long-term recommendations that they could make. I they've only had two meetings. So I'm interested in seeing what actually develops in terms of concrete recommendations.
Two, update section three, designation limits in section 209E-4, HR, add a new subsection C to read as follows. C. The department may declare up to two census tracks in the state that contain an innovation enterprise to be designated as an enterprise zone subject to the governor's approval. Three, adding a new section, comprehensive review. insert a new uncodified section mandating a comprehensive review of the program by the department of business and economic development and tourism. The text should read section six section 6A. The department in consultation with the department of taxation shall conduct a comprehensive review of the state enterprise zones program established under chapter 209E Hawaii Revised Statutes. B. The comprehensive review shall include one, an evaluation of the economic impact of the program, including the number of jobs created and the types of industries supported. Two, an assessment of whether existing enterprise zones continue to meet the statutory eligibility criteria for designation.
And for the the viewing public that doesn't have the paper in front of you, SE 480 is the accounting and audits policy, 660 is the curriculum content policy, and 7150 is the agency and law enforcement requests policy. Um, the rest of them I saw were either administrative or trivial, you know, non non-material updates. >> And if I had looked at them, I'm sure that I would have beg agreeing with Mr. Hempkins assessment. get that feeling. Yes. All right. All right. So, we will concentrate on those issues or changes and uh this just a first reading. So, we just need this to proceed. Maybe we like to make a motion to approve our first reading. What of 120? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Adam. Second. >> I'll second. >> Tyson roll call, please. >> Lisa Schumacher. >> Yes. >> Tyson search. Yes. Adam Himin.
Um, I will tell you that the executive assistance list serve is such a helpful place. They're not elected officials. Therefore, they're not compelled to offer their opinions on anything. But they share such good advice um with others, people who are new to the position, haven't done certain things. They help them to access Corey, sorry, fingerprinting, you name it. They provide policy advice. Um that kind of thing. Um, if the attorney general says, open meeting law says if you're on a list serve, and you would never know if a majority of your colleagues were on that because you don't maintain the list serve. So, if you're on a list serve, you should be asking for advice, best practices, um, how did you manage to xyz? Um, and you should not there um express your opinion on a topic under your board's purview because you would never know if there was a quorum there or not.
But that is the the idea is that they're giving the recommendations by April. I can't say exactly which ones they're going to focus on. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, moving along to medical benefits. Great. >> Uh so our budget for the medical benefits fund is $15.9 million. Uh we do make a contribution of $1.2 million to fund the account. That's an increase from $1.1 million last year. Uh the beginning balance of the reserve fund for this fiscal year was $2.8 million. As of um January 31st of this year, our balance in the reserve fund was $2.2 million compared to $2.3 million of Janu January 2025. Um so a little lower than what we had this time last year. And in January 2026, our claims were 1.265. 265 million which was a 1.2% decrease which is like $15,000 compared to January 2025 where claims were $1.281 million.
Three, revenues generated by the participating companies by county. See, the department shall submit a report of its findings to the legislature no later than 20 days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2027. The department shall do this review inhouse for renumbering the remaining sections of the bill accordingly, make any technical and non-substantive amendments and defecting the effective date to July 1st, 2050. Period.
>> Yes. Andrea Cordy. >> Yes. >> Greg Meyer. >> Yes. >> Perfect. That concludes our items for action in the regular session here. We're on to our discussion items. First one is a facility study. I think our two guests just left a little too early on that one. They saw it coming. They wanted to get out of your you guys came up with questions. You want to walk us through or facility? Facility. We pretty much did it. Yeah. It is um really just coming down to the logistics of getting those final things. There's a lot to go in an auditorium and you know and once you get it installed, you've got to get it all working and then once you get it all working, you got to get everybody all trained and so it's uh we're we're right there at the end. We've started some punch lists and uh we're moving through.