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Um we are hearing from members that life comes at you fast. Maybe you have a baby in that three-year piece and you need a little more time to finish it. Finances. I know myself as a veteran educator, I can't afford to pay for the PD classes to get me more money. I can't imagine paying out of pocket for these tuition courses or for um that piece. Also, personally, because I did my alternative certification with Teach for America, I was a emergency hireer myself and it was really hard to jump through the hoops to figure out how to get credit for what I was already doing as a teacher. So, we really support this measure and hope you do, too. >> Well, thank you. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Okay.
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I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> I um to try to be creative with all the things you're facing right now. I'm also a TA at O. And I thought to myself, there's a bus like right there. I would drive. It's really late. I don't know how you guys do this. I will literally get certified to drive kids back and forth to get them this education. It's important to them. It's important to a lot of kids. So anyway, I didn't think I'd get so goofy, but there you go. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Holden Montgomery. Hello. My name is H Montgomery. I am her son. And to put more detail into what she said, when I was younger, I struggled very much with dyslexics with graphia, which is essentially dyslexia but affects writing very strongly. And throughout the German program, FRA Anna has helped me with my writing and has improved greatly.
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Hearing none. Members, we're open for questions. >> Question. >> Yes. Senator the court. >> Uh HTSB, you're still online. >> Let's see. >> Yes, I'm still online. There's turning my camera on. >> Hi, thank you so much for being with us. Uh in your testimony, you argue that this bill lowers standards. Uh but in this bill it actually adds mandatory training, requires continued progress and ties employment to lenser lensure license milestone. Uh so my question is uh how does this bill um which is adding structure and accountability lower standards? >> Well, it is adding structure and accountability. I've seen that part and we we did take that into account. But the thing is that a lot of emergency hires have a bachelor's degree, but it might be in, believe it or not, we have fashion design, we have other things. Um, and they so they have their bachelor's degree, but then they're going through a teaching degree, but in the meantime, they have their students, they actually have a classroom of students, so one, two, three years, and now you're saying, um, this bill would extend it to four or five.
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And uh overall the program has helped me socially, mentally and hold socially, mentally and I had another thing, but socially it has helped me very much with leading and being able to talk to other people and get a conversation about specific topics going so we can get our German work done. And it's also I mean other classes to lead the groups that I'm working with and to help everyone get started working mentally. It has helped me with procrastination a lot because she provides very rigorous classwork and that without like specific cues on when to get it done but during specific due dates. She helps us she gives us this work. we have to get it done without being queued and get it finished to her level of grading. And that has helped me immensely with getting my other classwork done even with all the other teachers cues and has made it much more efficient in my scheduling of when I do my homework and everything and as well as with how the German program I wish for it to continue.
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Other states have actually said that this doesn't work and it's h they actually have documented learning loss and that's how it lowers standards. It's like we we don't want to do a disservice to our students. And I looked up our legislative priorities because of Senator Kim's question and it says they voted on lowers or changes the quality of licensing and permitting requirements as required by law and this bill would fall into that. um this bill would not fall into it just because of its specific policy that again adds mandatory training, requires continual progress and ties employment to the licenser uh milestones. So I think there might be a conflict with your folks comments to this bill saying that it does lower standard because in fact it does increase um because what we're finding in some classrooms is that there is no teacher at all. So currently we have students that are going to the cafeteria learning nothing.
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Obviously, teacher may not be able to be hired for this, but I feel like it would be relatively easy for guaranteed parking for sophomores, not sophomores, juniors and seniors who are able to drive themselves and travel, but as well as busing or car pooling with other students for freshman and sophomores who want to continue into German one and two, which would be Uh, I feel like this would be relatively easy to get through and get permission to happen and I wish that it would be considered to have busing if possible or obviously busing would be best for transferring between school to school. But obviously the biggest goal would be h have a teacher here at OE if possible. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you >> Katrina Beetle. Hi, I'm Katrina Beetle. I'm a speech pathologist at Oldpost. Um, and I'm actually here to represent a parent um, who is a part of or her son is a part of the sheltered English instruction program.
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So don't you think it's more uh beneficial that we have unllicensed teachers that are in the process of getting licensed than no teacher at all? >> Well, that's why we've been trying to recruit our um national apprenticeship program through using EAS through the grow your own program and trying to expand upon that. There's about 200 EAS on the Leeward coast that are willing to go through that program and then we would pay their tuition, take away some of those financial barriers so they could in fact become teachers and come from our communities and stay in our communities. So we we are aware. >> Go ahead. Thank you. And I appreciate the effort that you folks have made with the 200 students, but we currently have over a thousand vacancies right now. So to be fair, I don't think that that's enough. Also, uh, in your testimony, you shared that emergency hires were meant to be temporary.
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Um, she did not feel comfortable um, sharing her story and so um, she gave me permission to um, share something that she wrote. So, okay. Hi. I want to thank Miss Beetle for being able to read the note that I briefly wrote. I'm a parent of a boy who goes to Oldpost. He's in third grade and is also autistic and has some learning disabilities. All of his teachers at Old Post have been amazing with him and I appreciate that with all my heart. He started going to Oldpost 2 years ago. His teachers have helped him so much. He can finally read to me and that is a huge accomplishment that took his teachers two years to get him there. I feel if he has to go to a different school that will set him back. Imagine changing a routine or schedule for an adult and how difficult that can be.
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Uh, and that has been pretty much the backbone in our hard to fill schools. So, again, uh, do you believe that the standards board is not keeping up with the reality of where our classrooms is at where we have no teachers in classrooms and this is actually a process that is moving our classrooms forward? Well, that's why at the end of our testimony, we do list things that we are trying to do again to help with teacher retention because if you can keep your teachers, you're not going to be losing your teachers. You're not going to be hiring 10,000 every year. Um, even when I worked back for HSTA, it was the amount of you can't if you keep your teachers and if most of the majority of your teachers over 50% are h are not staying beyond five years, that's the problem. So the work on the retention that's the pay the benefits the micromanaging whatever it is that's going on that's what we need to do and financial barrier is part of it and that's why we go for the for the apprenticeship model so that we could actually pay their tuition and that's why the standards board fought so hard for that is that we want to do that so that their tuition is paid because that's a huge barrier financial a lot of parents are telling them not to become teachers because they don't want them to have a student loan we want to take away that financial barrier here.
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Now imagine changing it for a child who really doesn't understand or comprehend the reasons why. I'm scared and worried about what is going to happen to him. He has made so much progress and just to uproot him again feels like it will cause a lot of damage. She uses exclamation points in these next two sentences. You gave us two weeks to make a choice. Two weeks. How can we choose in two weeks? I don't know what to do because I feel like out of the two options given if he goes to yet another school, either his home school, Fox Chase or Long Beach, it would just be devastating because it took him two years to get this far. two years before that he was at a different school in the district um and made no progress there. If he goes to a different school, we are going to just start back at square zero and in two years he will be having to go to sixth grade.
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>> So, if you agree that the five-year mark is pretty much a goal that we can all agree on, wouldn't this bill justify both of our goals is keeping them in at least 5 years? >> No, actually, we're going with three years as is the original intent of the emergency hire permit. I think the stability of having the consistent teachers in the classroom for not three years but a minimum five years at least that would be what uh my community would be more aligned with is having stability having the same person in the classroom uh rather than trying to continue to funnel and this revolving door of maybe new faces that have to get used to our kids and our culture and our community. Um, so, uh, with all due respects, I don't agree with your testimony and opposition because this has actually been working for my community and the longer we can keep the same people in the same positions would provide stability for my community.
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As a beginning reader at Oldpost, I feel uprooting him would set him back. You can't just do that because they in quotes can adapt. I really hope the board will listen to what these children need. Um, so for context, Old Post has the sheltered English in instruction program um that we were informed is going to be u moved to Long Beach Elementary. Um, and then these are just my notes. Um, the teachers at Old Post and staff were not asked for our input or feedback regarding the plan to transition SEI to Long Beach. Our multilingual language learners who also have learning disabilities in IEPs deserve just as much consideration and rightful presence as any other student population. In my opinion, forcing our multilingual learners to have to transition from their current learning community to a different school for the last 1 to two years of their elementary school career is not aligned with the district's goal for students to be rightfully present in the educational setting.
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So, thank you, uh, Mitsy and thank you, chair. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Members, >> questions. Senator, >> um, this is a question probably for DOE. I'm not sure. uh Sean if you have it have the answer but maybe Mitsy you can also chime into the question. So has DOE looked at other possibilities um with the teacher shortage like making larger class size so instead of 20 30 students with another teacher and possibly a student teacher or a teacher >> yeah a substitute teacher something that may work >> I think Senator I think one of the things you know we we have looked at you know there are the schools have the ability to have educational assistance in their classrooms to have additional support for the teachers in their classrooms. I think m Mity mentioned about the educational assistance primarily a majority of those are helping with our special education students but not all.
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Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. >> M. Stiff Goodman. Hello. My name is Melvinia Steph Goodman. I work in the transportation uh department here and I'm here to talk to you guys about bullying. I'm being bullied by the nurse in our transportation department. I have talked to several people about this already. I have sent out a letter to uh several people this evening. Well, yes, earlier today about this. I've been talking to Adam Roose Rousik in HR and um he he makes it seem like to me that I've been bullied a second time because he've lied to me and he made me he just makes me feel even worse. Um he stated that he investigated what has taken place and he has not. He claimed he has got is insufficient evidence. It's not insufficient evidence. D has threatened to kick my ass three times and there was lots of witnesses around.
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Um I think you know research does show that smaller class size sometimes does help you and I think if we're going to look at ex making class sizes bigger. I don't know if that's the direction that the department would not just saying making it bigger. I'm saying making it a little bit bigger. So maybe increase it >> 10 15 students more. But add another teacher. And that teacher could be a part-time teacher, a substitute teacher, a teacher that is not yet credentialed in Hawaii, something different. Just try it. I mean, we're we've been looking at this for years. >> I've been doing this for years and we haven't found the answer. Are you guys looking at other states that may have the same problems and have found the answers? And Senator, I think one of the things that we're really looking at is majority of our emergency hires are local individuals.
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So if you have witnesses around and I give I gave him names, how is there insition evidence? D have harassed and intimidated me by lying to me about what our director have said and we have had a meeting and our director did not tell her any of that. I'm fed up. I'm tired. I'm been fearful of coming to work. two weeks ago, maybe even three, I can't remember. I had a breakdown at work because she was going to write uh drive our bus because my bus driver was off. I refused to get on the bus with her. Don't nobody know what I'm going through but me. You don't want a bully in your presence. You guys have uh protocols. You have rules against them. Why aren't they followed? Why is she still here? On December 19th, 2025, at our Christmas party, that was the most humiliating Christmas party I ever been to when she threatened to kick my ass in front of everybody.
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And I think what we are seeing with some of our data is is that if we can hire local, the likelihood that they will remain in the position, remain in Hawaii is much higher than what we're seeing that those sometimes that we would recreate would that we would recruit from the continent or other locations. So I think that's what we're looking really is is how can we support this group of emergency hires that are local individuals give them the additional supports and time necessary to hopefully see them be successful to become a licensed teacher in our schools. I mean currently right now with our emergency hires there is a process on an annual basis that they have to show active pursuit that they are working towards lensure getting their practice they those positions also on an annual basis do need to be posted for tenure teachers to have an opportunity to uh have an a chance at those positions.
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We had vendor, outside vendors, DJs, and everything there. And she did this. I went to Adam with this. It's been three months. Adam hasn't done anything. I have over 40 emails that I have sent to him. We've been corresponding back and forth. He lied to Raphael Daniel. He lied to my union representative to uh Linda Yusel and everybody that he done something when he done nothing. I can't take it anymore. I putting you guys on notice tonight. I am getting in touch with the news team to talk about this. I don't care how it makes you guys look. I'm considered myself now because I matter to myself if nobody else feel that I matter. I matter. I'm in pain. Not you. I am I'm getting in touch with the EEOC. I'm also gonna get legal advice on what I should do about this because I have gone my last mile here at H with HR because I have gotten nowhere.
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I think what we're really looking at at this point is what would be the alter alternate if the these people get to their three-year mark and they're close but maybe haven't gotten to that that final finish line. We would have to basically at this point release them and then we'd either start over with a new emergency hire or we would do a day-to-day um substitute teaching. >> I think that's my point. What you guys have been doing for years is not working. So, can you try something new by looking? I'm not saying a larger classroom with just a single teacher. I'm saying a larger classroom with maybe an additional teacher. And it may not be for all classrooms. It may be for certain classrooms, but something different. I I'm just exhausted with with this topic. And I think we we haven't tried every avenue yet.
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Dr. Kelatti, I even emailed you and I haven't got a response from you. I hate to put you on the spot, but I don't care anymore. That's my clue. I don't care. I'm in pain. I'm hurting. Nobody else knows. Nobody. I know some of people know that I had long hair. I pulled it all out because I'm just that stressed. I've been wearing a hat hats different color now for three months because over the holiday I could not take it anymore. Nobody knows what has happened to my hair. But I'm revealing it tonight. I have spots all in my head for pulling out my hair. I've seen I'm seeing the EAP therapist here that you guys re that I don't recommend. I can't do this anymore. Coming to work with a bully is not good. telling somebody what they going to do to you, lying on me, lying on your boss.
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