We do not need a measure to have a working group and I urge them to do so during the interim and be ready next year if we need a measure. So with that, uh, we adjourn the joint session. Thank you. Call back to order the committee on education. Uh we have several more measures. One, two, three, four, five measures on this agenda. And following this agenda, we also have decision-m left over from last week, Wednesday. So with that, we're going to get started. This is committee on education. Today's Monday, March 23. We are on agenda 111 p.m. agenda. Uh starting with House Bill 1970, House draft 2 relating to the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. This appropriate funds for the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Hawaii Tumor Registry. And we have testifying at that Brenda Hernandez for the University of Hawaii. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, and members of the committee.
Be resolved that there should be a raise for taxes for the general funds of 66 million $822,710 for the ensuring fiscal year 2026 2027. Now therefore, let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the executive county superintendent >> and breathe. That was really well done. Thank you, Miss Lee. >> I think uh we need to entertain a motion, >> Mr. Zupco. Thank you. A second. >> Thank you, Mr. Inc. Calcara. We'll do a roll call, Christine. >> Okay. Mr. Bell, >> yes. >> Mr. Dawson, >> yes. >> Mr. Hy, >> yes. >> Mr. Incatara, >> yes. >> Mr. Januzi, >> yes. >> Mr. Manhaz, >> yes. >> Miss Mosen, >> Mr. Walmer, >> yes. >> Mrs. Zupkco, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay, let's take the pressure off of Miss Lee for a few minutes.
Okay, our are areas of strength for SPED. Our students share that they experience supportive, caring teachers, they have access to extra help when needed, that they enjoy the co-taught classrooms, and they appreciate the accommodations and flexibility of staff. Staff highlighted their dedication and passion, their strong collaboration and teamwork, their commitment to inclusive opportunities, and the availability of the wide range of continu continuum of services. Caregivers emphasized a positive collaboration relationship with staff, strong focused on student centered practices, confidence in staffing support, and the effectiveness of individualized support for their students. So, we're going to start with the summary of student themes. To ensure student voice, we held focus groups and surveys within our junior high and high school students. We then summarized the themes identified by our students. And as we go through, you'll notice similar themes that are consistent throughout all groups. For special education, our student themes really centered around rightful presence, differentiated instruction, and ensuring that programs and services were aligned to their individual needs as learners.
Are there any questions on that or comments? I I do want to say thank you so much. I appreciate the updates throughout and it is so tedious and ever-changing, you know, from the time that that you research to when you bring it to us. I realize there's at times been changes. So, thank you for keeping us up to date on that. You're welcome. Anybody else? All right, we'll move on to uh item nine, board statements of appreciation and recognition. Mr. Waring, we'll start with you tonight. Uh thank you. Uh many of it's already been addressed. I when we uh quickly mentioned all of our success in academics and ECAs, I I think it's a good time to as we wish these teams um good luck going to the state championships and whatnot, the coaches that put in the time um often they don't sign up to coach for compensation, but if you considered what they do for their compensation, it's truly amazing.
Um your ability to go out and do some of this work before we get everything done and then come to us after the fact, I don't know that we would have a better partner in this. Uh the working with you has been a pleasure. Just from a board perspective, I know talking with the Mr. Brimberry and and all the maintenance people, they are so very happy to continue working with you. And again, thank you for being such a great partner in getting this and helping out. I appreciate it. Thank you. Anything further? Let's vote on the motion. Motion passes 7-0. Move on to H3 H&HS Arena ceiling repaint project award of bid. Okay. So, this is for the arena here at the high school for the ceiling repaint. And I'm going to be as transparent as possible on this one. So, this is actually a rebid.
We stand on our written committee uh testimony, but I would also like to highlight some key contributions of the Hawaii Tumor Registry to really illustrate its importance for public health and medical research in Hawaii. Um the Hawaii tumor registry over the years have worked closely with the department of health and different uh and different projects including the Hawaii cancer plan. Um we have worked closely with the DO to investigate suspected cancer clusters in areas such as Kuna, Kawaii, um Hawaii Island as well as among firefighters and the children of firefighters. Some important cancer trends that have been identified in recent years include the increasing rates of colorectal cancer among young adults in Hawaii, both males and females, increasing rates of prostate cancer among men of all ages, increasing rates of endometrial cancer deaths among women in Hawaii, and we are the only registry nationally to report cancer incidents, mortality, and survival specifically among Native Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos individually.
We will do our uh Oh, I apologize. Uh Mr. Mson is not with us tonight. He had a prior engagement, so we do not have a student board member report. Uh just to note that. And we are up to committee meetings now. We'll start with education. Mr. Dawson, the floor is yours. >> Okay. Um we had two main topics in our education committee uh this past month. The first one was chronic absenteeism, which uh we heard from Mr. Ross earlier, the district has put together a comprehensive plan that will help kids get to school more regularly. We appreciate all the nuances. It looks different at every level and it's a complicated issue to address. Uh but we are confident that we will continue to make gains in that area and we appreciate the work of all of our staff um to help kids and families get to school and not only get to school but enjoy their time at school.
Um, I just wanted to highlight that as a team, we were very impressed with the feedback that we received from students and the insightfulness that they were able to provide us as it was very instrumental in creating these themes that you will hear. So some of the themes were identified that we really need to align program with programs with student needs and really articulate entrance and exit criteria. Another area identified was the need for more access to afterchool clubs and activities that supported the needs of all students for meaningful participation. Students also spoke about the system being rigid and not taking into consideration student needs such as instances like our tardy system. And then lastly, student identified the needs for professional development around interventions to support needs of students. And then they also spoke of the need to recruit staff who understood how to support their needs.
And that is the job description, that's what they sign up for to give it their best to reach their highest highest potential. But uh um I just think about Coach Swan and his coaching staff uh heading out this weekend and all the work they put in. I want uh want to recognize that. And just a um quick funny story. So, my for for me, fortunately, my daughter wanted to go to the game. It was her birthday weekend. So, traditionally, she gets a stuffed animal. A little bit old for it now. Gets a stuffed animal for her birthday. And uh it was kind of cute that she decided to name this. It's always a big, "What are we going to name this thing?" And uh this weekend it was a Dikembe Swan Elkhart is the stuffed animal's name. So, that'll be one to remember for 20 years.
We bid it once. Uh numbers came in pretty high, and we learned a few things through the contractor, the subcontractors uh in the process of that of that initial bid. Um We learned that there was no way it was getting done in one summer. It's 42,000 square feet of ceiling space. Um and we learned in the process of of removing the paint that's up there uh alone would take 6 weeks. Uh setting up scaffolding in the entire arena would take a month and a half. So, there's no way it was getting done during the summer. So, we learned some lessons through that initial bid. Um and then we rebid it, adjusted our drawings, and changed the project to a two-phase project, which would be two summers. So, phase one, that this coming summer would be the upper level. So, if you're going up on the old running track, it's basically everything above that area.
And this is very critical to identifying cancer prevention, early dete detection and treatment strategies. So, some of the key research findings of studies that have come out of the Hawaii Tumor Registry supported by um the Hawaii Tumor Registry with specific investigators include a recent study looking at Native Hawaiians and the risk of lung cancer and found that per cigarette smoked. Native Hawaiian have a higher risk of lung cancer and Japanese Americans a lower risk even accounting for the same amount of cigarette smoke compared to whites. Distinct molecular features of lung tumors of native Hawaiians have been identified that suggest they have a higher mutational burden and suggest that they may be more amenable to certain therapies including imunotherapy. There have also been uh studies looking at the breast cancer risk among specifically Japanese and Hawaiians who have the highest rates of breast cancer in Hawaii and specifically found that this may be due to greater uh accumulation of intraabdom abdominal fat.
We also looked at the upcoming state assessment which is called the NJSLA- A. Um, as you might recall from the fall, this is a new assessment um that the state appears to be building the plane as they fly it. So, we're all trying to figure out exactly what that might look like and how to administer it in a way that is optimal for our kids and our schools. Um, so the district has prepared a number of ideas and contingency plans and are in the process of getting our staff and students ready for that upcoming assessment. I think one thing that's important for us to know as a board is that because the assessment is new, it's going to make it a little bit more challenging to compare how our kids did this year versus previous years. It's it's apples to oranges and this first time we don't quite know uh what the assessment or the the data that comes from it might look like.
Very similarly, our ML students had shared that they felt for the implementation opportunities for language proficiency, they are looking to know what is the roadmap for gaining language proficiency so that they can start taking ownership to it. They also are looking to be active participants in our school and not be passive. They would like to see that more of our ML our nonML teachers take on the role of being an ML teacher within their classroom so that they can be seen um as both a general education student and ML. They would like that they're um they want to see themselves in our curriculum and in the materials that are in our classrooms that are being used. They are looking that we ensure that they can be included in high stakes things like honors courses and those types of programs rather than the smaller programs within our that are more ML related.
Uh Dikembe Swan Elkhart. So, that's all. Thank you, Mr. Waring. Mr. Angel. Uh and sentiments like people have mentioned already. Congratulations to all those retirees. Uh Barb Melo being, you know, principal or principal of a elementary, I've, you know, got to meet with her many a times just over my time here. And congratulations to her. I literally don't know how uh just raising four kids, all elementary principals do it day in, day out for the 180 school days every year. And uh do it with love, laughter, smiles, and you name everything else. So, kudos to all of those in that in the education field that do it on a daily basis. So, uh with that, congratulations Coach Swan. Um I had I went to do the radio show before the regional game with uh the Dog Pound radio show. They invite me once a year usually before March Madness.
Phase two would be the following summer in '27, and that would be basically above the court. Uh or if you stare up at it, look at the primary steel structure, and that's where the dividing line is. So, this includes the removal of all the paint of the existing steel deck, all of the steel structure, primary and secondary, and all of the duct work. Um and most people don't look up there because they're focused on the court, but if you spend enough time in there, you'll see there's quite a bit of paint peeling. And in the process, we learned that it was originally painted uh back back in '75, painted again in the '90s at some point. Uh but most of the peeling and and um delamination issues are due to the fact that that original paint would have been an oil-based paint. A latex paint would have been put on it in the '90s.
So fat that's in in in the abdomen um compared to total body fat and this may explain some of the higher rates in these groups. >> Can you summarize please? >> Sure. So uh I just wanted to highlight these points to really illustrate why it's critical to support the Hawaii Tumor Registry for the public health benefit of our state. Thank you. Thank you. Paula Dome for John Luen. Jack Luen or Jack yourself? >> Yeah. Chair Kim, Vice Chair Dani, members, Jack Leuen, Administrator Shipa, we strongly support this measure. We think that uh we need this cancer registry um and tumor registry. Um we think the funding requests are fair. uh and we we strongly support it. >> Okay. Thank you. Cynthia, American Cancer Society, chair, vice chair, and committee members. Thank you so much, Cynthia. On behalf of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, in strong support of the measure, the Hawaii Tumor Registry is a backbone of cancer surveillance in our islands.
So it may be a little bit of an adjustment process for us. Uh but we are in good hands. Uh and I'm sure that our our teachers, our administrators, our kids will do the best they can with the assessment. >> Thank you, Mr. Dawson.
And then finally, they would like to see themselves in the staff that we hire so that they can be represented. So next is a summary of our staff theme. So on the special education side of it, from our staff feedback, we had a few consistent themes that emerged. First, there was a strong need for greater consistency across buildings and programs, particularly for practices such as MTSS and how service delivery is implemented. Staff also emphasized the um importance of stronger collaboration not only within buildings but across buildings as well as vertical articulation to ensure alignment and a shared understanding. Professional learning continues to be a priority with staff seeking more targeted training connected uh directly to student needs as well as instructional practices. We also heard a need for clear structures around programming. So this includes a more defined entrance and exit criteria for our programs to support equitable access for our students.
So, Mr. Glock, Mr. Barber. And I got a chance to go wish uh Coach Swan and the boys good luck. And unbeknownst to me, I just wished good luck, stopped by there afterwards, and had somewhere else to be. And Coach Swan mentioned uh "Would you like to say a few words to the team?" And I literally hadn't done that in like 15, 20 years. And as you guys know, I always speak from the heart, never really have those kind of things prepared. But I was in a little qualm because I, you know, things have changed. So, I got done with it and thought I did an okay job, but was pretty paranoid. So, knowing that Daniel Swan was on the team, I reached out to her and she got back to me a little later. And um most of you know me as being a little outgoing and never afraid to say what I'm going to say.
And so, we can't put another layer layer of latex paint on top of that. It would just be a disaster. So, we got to peel it down as far as we can, get down to some raw metal, repaint reprime it, repaint it, and um and redo everything. So, with all that said, uh our bids that we got for the second time in the rebid uh was from ACB General Contractors the low bid at $2,052,000. And to be honest and transparent, the original bid was a million dollars higher than that. So, going through the process, taking the time to rebid it, phase it out, got that number down by a million dollars. So, it's money obviously we need for other projects. So, um So, it was worth the time. It was worth the effort. It was learn the lessons uh that we all learned. Even the contractors learned some things in the process.