No, absolutely not. For for any change, no. I cannot go for that point. I mean, you guys No, that's wrong. We should be in person. When Sue calls around, we'll take the absences. Excuse me. Mr. Chairman. I think you're already running into problems with, you know, not everybody's going to be available the rest of the week. So, I mean, I don't know how you can have a meeting with everybody there. If And my suggestion of Zoom, I mean, at least people would be present at the meeting, so to speak. And that's not acceptable, so I don't I don't know how you're going to do it. Well, you have to vote on that. Committee can vote on whether you want to allow Zoom or not. It's up to you guys. Motion to adjourn? No, I have a motion, don't I? I have a No. I make a motion to approve the personnel matter.
Make a motion to approve the personnel matter. Personnel matter for who is the child? Okay, I didn't know if I say that. Second. You don't say the name, you say the title.
Call the roll please. You need to say the title. Say the title? Mhm. You're telling me not to. Mr. Deslauriers? No, I didn't sign. Mr. Jones? Yes. Mr. Lanier? Yes. Mr. Mistele? Yes. Mr. Taber? Mr. Ferris? Yes. Mr. Hayes? Mr. Washington, you vote? Motion. Second. Aye. Aye. Anybody oppose? Make it unanimous.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Committee on Education. Uh we are on the 1:12 p.m. agenda. Today is Wednesday, March 25th. We're in room 229. And although it's the 1:12 agenda, it is 1:40. Our joint hearing uh got pushed back because other chairs are hearing other measures. Similarly, the same holds true for our 1:11 agenda that we will try to get to as soon as we can. Uh this hearing uh is being televised live on Olelo and YouTube. If technical issues occur, committee will convene reconvene on Wednesday, March 25th at 2 at 1:00 p.m. in conference room 229 and a public notice will be posted at the Hawaii State Legislature website. And due to the number of measures before the committee and the volume of testifiers, testimony will be limited to 1 minute per testifier. Uh The first item on our agenda is House Bill 2296, House Draft 1, relating to school meals.
Calling the joint hearing of HHS Health and Human Services and Labor and Technology. With me is my co-chair Senator Elefante and Senator Lamasao and hopefully we'll have the other soon. Okay, first up our meeting is being streamed live on YouTube in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business later on Friday, March 27th, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. room 225. A public notice will be posted on the legislature's website. To facilitate this hearing in a timely manner, we will be enforcing a 1-minute Anybody who's done HHS know I do 1-minute limit of testimony. I will be reading a list of individuals who submitted written testimony for each measure. We apologize if the closed captioning does not accurately transcribe the names. If you're interested in reviewing the written testimony, please go to the legislature's website.
into order at 4:31 and I'll um take a motion to adopt the agenda. >> I move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> I second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries four to one four to zero. No one's here yet. We can do the pledge. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, do we have any public comments? >> Nope. >> Oh, okay. Imagine that. All right. Um, so we have action items. So we have two action items. Okay. So we're going to do uh 5.1 action items. Um, items for consideration, discussion, direction, and possible action. Um, discussion, consideration, approval, employee medical insurance and benefits plan for 2627. >> Yes. So this is uh pretty straightforward. Um the reason we're calling this meeting before the um April 8th meeting is is we have to let the other vendor know if we're not going to renew by April 1st.
Good evening. I'm still astonished by that. All right, I'd like to call this governing board meeting to order. It is Wednesday, March 25th at 6:30. Lisa, roll call, please. Pattie Cuchary Present. Carmel Lopez Present. Lisa Garcia Present. Ben Owens Present. Monte Rothschild All right, I have asked Dr.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our school committee meeting. It is March 25th, 2026. At the beginning of every meeting, we read our vision statement. The Ashland Public Schools strives to be a model district that creates a culture of inclusivity for our diverse students and staff who feel safe and supported, are empowered with the academic and social-emotional skills to pursue their chosen path, and embrace their roles as positive contributors to local and global communities. This meeting is being recorded by WACA Cable TV. Our order of business this evening is our call to order, opening procedures, agenda review and adoption. We'll have some time for public participation. Our reports and presentations include the Warren School Student Chronicles, student writing with community volunteer Donna Shaw, override data slides with Paul Kendall, Warren approval, superintendent's report, which includes a budget update, assistant superintendent's report, action items, discussion updates, votes, student activities bank reconciliations with Chris Matthew, appointment of a school committee member to the Driscoll Scholarship Committee.
Okay. Chair statement. This meeting is being recorded by the budget and finance subcommittee. If any other person's presenting or also recording, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Uh meeting called to order at 11:31 a.m. on March 23rd, 2026. Uh roll call. Oh, sure. our regularly scheduled technology um issue. Uh I hope everything is still okay. So back to that roll call. >> You just lost video. That's all. There's no video. I'm getting audio now. Wonderful. Oh, are we still recording though? Yes. Good. We are. Thank you. >> Here. >> Oh, Vice Chair Childs >> here. >> Secretary Web here. >> Okay. >> We are all present in the comment board. >> Okay. And next item, public comment. Um, we have a member of the public, Jimmy. Would you like to comment? >> Unmuted. >> Um, he can unmute himself. If you like >> um I'm all set.
Huzzah. All right. Thank you all for your patience. Uh it is March 25th at 6:24 p.m. Uh this meeting is being recorded by the Greenfield Public Schools. Um if any other persons are doing the same, please notify me at this time. Seeing none, uh would love to call us to order at 6:25. Will you please do a roll call of the members? Secretary Webb. >> One second. >> Yep. >> Chair Son >> here. >> Secretary Webb, I am here. Vice Chair Child >> here. >> Member Dene >> here. >> Mayor Disorder >> here. >> Member Dman >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. >> All right, we are all here. We have a quorum. Um, and now we're going to open it up to public comment. We do have two people in the room. Uh, I think both of you are wanting to give public comment.
I had >> Jordan's calling. Yep. I just just promoted Jordan to panelist here. She just joined online. >> Jordan is online. >> Yep. I'm here. Can you hear me? >> Yep. Okay. >> Okay. I'll call this meeting a special meeting of the board of education for Wednesday the 25th. Uh the purpose of this meeting tonight, it's a short agenda. It's a budget workshop to discuss uh board of finance reductions and uh with that I would ask us to stand and say please for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. that we'll move right back to public comment. Anyone for public comment tonight?
Reduces the amount the Department of Education is authorized to charge for school meals to all students enrolled in Department of in the department um and charge no more than 1/4 of the cost of preparing the meal. So, first up on the testifiers list, we have Keith Hayashi with the DOE. Aloha, Chair Kim, members of the committee. Shawn Tajima testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The department stands on its written testimony with comments on this measure. Uh the department requests that the bill revert back to its original form. The original form requested that meal prices be no less than 25% of the meal cost. The amended bill changed it to be no more than 25% of the meal cost. The amended bill would require the department to lower current lunch prices, uh which would decrease revenue and be an increased financial burden to the state.
You'll find a link on the status page for the measure. We appreciate your understanding. We remind you that the committee does have your testimony. We will review them, so I encourage you to use your time to either add additional comments or you can stand on your written testimony. I do note that in um the EDU HHS following this joint that we may have uh American Sign Language interpreter. In which case we will allow for more than 1 minute because I want the testifiers to testify slow enough for the ASL interpreter. [clears throat] Okay, but otherwise um 1 minute. HB 1541 relating to Department of Health. First up we have for 1541 Okay, I'm just I'm just going to I don't have it. For 1541, when you find it it is First up, we have Department of Health in support. How about that? Hi chair. Vice chairs.
And so um we couldn't wait till the April 8th meeting because we would miss that deadline, right? >> Um we currently use Kyros. We went out with uh their renewal like we normally did or normally would do and they they came back with a 17.2% increase. A lot of it has to do quite frankly with just our usage utilization. And so we went out looking with uh Asbait as another possible vendor. Uh the two things that they came back with um is they came back with a a decrease uh a savings of uh roughly I'm going to just say $200,000 is 220, but by the time you get done playing around with a bunch of different parts, it's closer to 200. Um and so you you're seeing um and and the second part, excuse me, would be that they would hold uh no more than a 5% increase for the next two years.
Scott to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance since she will be performing on Saturday at Dancing for Our Stars, so this will be a nice little lead-in. Thank you. All right, first item up, adoption of the agenda. Do I have any amendments or motions? Motion to approve as written. Second. Lisa, we have a motion and a second. Ben Owens Aye. Lisa Garcia Aye. Carmel Lopez Aye. Pattie Cuchary Aye. All right, we'll move on. Superintendent's report, Dr. Lotman. Thank you, President Cuchary. >> [clears throat] >> Spring break didn't slow down our students one bit. They stayed busy in all the right ways, learning, practicing, and making the most of every minute. The elementary academic boot camp welcomed 24 students in grades 3 through 5 at Santa Rosa Elementary School. Led by Principal Sopranic, the camp focused on building skills and confidence to so students returned ready for the final stretch of the school year.
Um this next item WACA AHS Television Studio use renovation. Um we will not have that officially on the agenda this evening cuz WACA is not presenting just yet, but Mr. Adams is going to share a few words about it. Um we will review the Tri-Board meeting minutes from December 10th, 2025 and January 21, 2026. And then our consent agenda includes approval of gifts and donations, minutes from March 11th, 2026. We'll have reports of school committee members, and then we will adjourn. Everybody okay with the order of business this evening? Yes. Yes. >> that you're all here, Marcy, Tina, Paul, Mark, and I am here, too. Um and we will um start by asking the community if there's anybody who would like to offer public comment, either online or in the audience. Seeing none, um we will move on to our first and best item on the agenda.
I'm here just to watch. >> Okay. Um if you change your mind and want to say something at any point, you can pop a message in chat, press the raise hand button. Uh just make yourself known. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next item. Approval of March 2nd uh 2026 draft subcommittee minutes. Um >> still moved. >> Second. >> Okay. We have motions. Let's vote. All in favor? I >> I >> passes unanimously. Now on to the fun part. Um budget hearing questions. >> So do we have a list of questions? >> Well, I emailed uh Roland and Andy the kinds of questions that were coming up uh from my conversations with various people out and about in community blah blah blah. Um we have two. Okay, let's start with you then. >> Well, do we want to see what we have for questions? >> Sure.
Is that accurate? Great. Thank you. Um, and if you are online and you would like to give public comment, please put your name in the chat and I will get to you. You'll be on the stack. Um, in the meantime, which one of you would like to go first? Let me get my timer set up.
All right, hearing none, we'll go online. Anyone for public comment online tonight? >> If you're joining us for public comment, you can use that raise hand feature of Zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name. >> No raised hands. >> Okay, one more time. Public comment. Would you like to? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Oh, >> we went to public comment. You're welcome to come on up to the to the podium. Just state your name and and your address, please. That's all. Sorry to catch you so quick. >> Oh, no. No problem. You want me to start with my comment or just >> whatever you'd like to do. >> Just your name and your address, please. >> Aisha Sadiki, 60 Wilders Pass, Canton, Connecticut. >> Thank you. >> Do you want to say anything or >> I mean, yeah. >> Yeah. >> I don't know.
The department prefers the language in Senate Bill 2615. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. We stand by for questions. >> again no less than is what the language you want. We prefer no less. Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Okay. And has Senate Bill uh 2615, is that moving on the House side? Yes. Well, it was heard. I believe it's moving. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up is Wolo Kane. Aloha, Chair, uh members of the committee. Andrew Chapman, Governor's Office, on behalf of Wolo Kane. Um the Office of the Governor stands on certain testimony in support. In support of which one? Of no less or no more? I'm down. Okay. >> draft. The current draft? The current draft will be no more, right? Will lower the lunch prices. You better check to make sure that that's what they're doing. Okay. Nate Hicks for the Hawaii Public Health Institute.