Um my name's Courtney Matsu, Deputy Director of Behavioral Health Administration um testifying in strong support of this bill to um exempt certain positions in DDD and um HSH from civil service um due to the nature of these entities um and the uniqueness of the positions, uh we respectfully ask for these um positions to be exempt. Um each position requires the training, experience, and knowledge that are very specific and cannot be appropriately recruited for or compensated under the current structure of the civil services um system. Um both DDD and HSH serve very vulnerable populations and um that's why we're looking for this exemption. Okay, thank you very much. Next we have HGEA in opposition. Chair uh Vice Chair. Uh Nui Seabass for HGEA. We submitted testimony in opposition to this measure um exempt employees. They're at They're considered at will by the state. They don't go through any merit-based hiring.
So as we look to see what we're going to do to move forward and as Mr. Hogan comes in, um the notion of of not having potentially a substantial increase over two more years after this year just gives a chance to to figure everything out. And so this really comes down to quite frankly more than anything else um a business decision. It's a swing of close to half a million dollars paying out 300 and some odd thousand versus saving 200,000. Um and so uh in terms of of the plans the um the plans between Asbait and Chyros are similar. Um and so there is a there is a way to to look and say their classic silver is the same as our 1200 which is what we present. There may be some differences, but generally speaking, it's the same plan. And so when you take a look at that, for the most part, uh our employees will see a decrease in the cost of of the plan.
The Maricopa Rams co-ed youth volleyball camp brought together 31 students in grades 2 through 8. Students worked alongside high school coaches and student athletes building skills and learning what it takes to be a part of a of a team. Eight high school students helped lead the camp stepping into leadership roles and mentoring younger students. After a full week on the court, those popsicles were well earned. Desert Sunrise FFA students made their mark at the Pinal County Fair with a strong showing. 10 freshman exhibitors showed animals with several top honors across the program. CJ Smith won the Reserve Grand Champion Novice Dairy Goat Showman and Grand Champion Auctionable Dairy Goat. Clarice Richardson, Grand Champion Novice Beef Showman and Desert Sunrise FFA Chapter Superior Chapter Status. Students sold 10 animals and brought in more than $10,000 at auction. More importantly, they gained hands-on experience in animal care, communication, and responsibility.
Without a doubt. Without a doubt, we've been looking forward to this for so long. The Warren School Student Chronicles. Welcome. Thank you for having us tonight. Um I'm excited to share a project that's been happening for a few years now, and um was actually many years in the making. Um I've been very fortunate of just different school committee members that have been part of our site council, but one of our constants in the 10 years I've been here is Donna Shaw. Um Donna's been our community rep on our site council, and a few years ago Donna approached me of just saying, "How can we How can I help Warren classrooms?" And the more we sat and talked, it was just more of of being able to help her to to fulfill that piece of passion that she has of working with children. And for all of us at the Warren School, it was, "How do we really take advantage of a great educator who wants to work with our students more and support our teachers who are trying to do more in the classroom?" As Donna and I spoke, we just spoke about the importance of writing and saying, "How can we have more writing occur for our students and more opportunities?" And just the importance of that one-on-one conferencing with a teacher.
>> Do we have questions that were already asked and possibly answered? >> Um, I had a long list. >> Sorry, what? >> No, you asked. >> Do you want to email the list you >> Oh, well, should I email everybody? >> I just I don't want to like duplicate questions. member Gwin would be asking that you would also be just check them off of my list. >> That's what I'm saying. Just verbalize them. >> Perfect. >> Okay. So, take us away, Mel. I mean, >> um the admin tech there was a big increase. I was just wondering what that was for. >> Sorry, you got a line. >> I didn't write that down. >> Oh, sorry. because we went we went over it. It's I'm going >> I mean I assume that power school and that stuff but >> the baseline. Yes, it's >> the red one right here.
We would love to have your name, your affiliation with the schools, and you'll have three minutes. And give me just a moment to get that timer set up. And I'm gonna flip the screen around, Jeff, so you can see in here. >> The timer towards my time. >> No, it's not started yet. >> Yeah. >> My name is Michael Master Taro. M A S T R O T O T A R O. I live on Cypress Street in Greenfield and I am a test services. >> All right. >> I just want to run some comparisons by you folks. Um the population of Maryland is about 6.27 million. Population of Massachusetts is about 7.15 million. Maryland's K through2 public school students are approximately 890,000. Massachusetts $900,000. Maryland school districts are 24 with 23 counties and Baltimore has its own screeners. Massachusetts has 396 school districts, 14 counties.
>> Oh, podium's yours. Okay. Um, I'm a parent and I'm here because I care deeply about the quality of our education system that our children are receiving. Sorry, I'm out of breath. So, that was um I have young children um that go to Cherry Brooks Primary and what happens in these classrooms really matter to me. I understand that bud budget reductions are necessary and have happened across other areas. Um, however, I'm concerned how these um reductions are going to impact the board of education. My understanding is the board of education is being asked to determine um a $200,000 budget cut internally and um these decisions oftent times oftent times um impact their children directly. It means larger class sizes, um, fewer teachers or support staff, um, reduced services for students that might need it. Um, potentially, you know, we also need raises for our teachers.
Aloha, Nate. Aloha, Chair, members of the committee. Nate Hicks with Hawaii Public Health Institute in support. Uh we saw that there was a attempt to increase lunch prices last year due to the uh current language and we support this measure to make sure that lunch prices do not rise and students are able to afford uh being able to, you know, afford meals. We do want free school meals for all K-12 and so making sure we don't raise prices would be a first step to get making sure we get there. Mahalo. Okay. Thank you. Lauren Zirbel, Hawaii Food Industry Association on Zoom. Lauren, I'm present on Zoom, Chair. Okay. Let's see. Geneva um Mama. Yes. Aloha, Chair, members. Um Geneva Mama Ho, Hunger Action Network. We represent over 20 anti-hunger [clears throat] focused organizations. Um we support the bill as it's written now, which is um that 1/4.
And furthermore, um we've seen a significant increase in the use of exempt positions in state government over the past 6 years. There's been 600 positions or 25% increase. This not only undermines our civil service system, but this measure itself further legitimizes um an attempt by a department to work around DHRD and the civil service hiring process. Furthermore, um while I'm not accusing this department of it, um with this increase more of our members in our union have less rights, which impacts our ability to advocate for our members. Um and we can we consider that union busting.
Um so if I had family coverage, I would see a slight decrease. Uh you know, percentage- wise, sometimes a percentage sounds bigger, but when you actually put it into mathematical numbers on a quarterly b I mean on a monthly basis to pay periods, it's not a significant amount. The one exception will be if I'm an employee. So we pay for employee. Um but then if they choose to buy up we give them two plans to buy up to. In that case they will see a slight increase. And when I say slight in the numbers you may have seen 17% but that's ends up being um $6 a month or something like that. So over two pay periods you're talking $3 a month. So so it sounds like oh my gosh 17% but the reality is when you throw it into a number. Now, the reason I said 200 versus a 222 that's in your agenda is you need to understand as we get the final numbers for life insurance and for medical and for excuse me for dental and for vision and all those numbers play out, it's it's not quite the same that that 222 represents um the cost of of the medical component.
And I think uh Ms. Markham is here tonight. She was She took our students. Go ahead and stand up. There you go. >> [applause] >> Congratulations to Mr. Nerwin Balilu for Desert of Desert Wind Middle School for being named a >> [applause] >> Heck yeah. for being named 2026 Special Educator Rising Star by the Council for Exceptional Children. He was honored at the National Awards Ceremony in Salt Lake City over spring break. This prestigious award recognizes early career special educators who demonstrate strong leadership create inclusive classrooms, and make a meaningful impact on students with disabilities. Mr. Balilu represents Desert Wind and MUSD exceptionally well, and we're so proud of the work he's doing for our students. Congratulations to the Treble Singers at Desert Sunrise High School and Director Micah Braden for earning a gold award at the WorldStrides Performing Arts Heritage Festival in Anaheim. This marks the first award of its kind for Desert Sunrise High School and reflects a year of hard work and preparation.
Uh so, Donna created this idea to publish our students' work. And she goes into various classrooms, not only at the Warren School, but also at the Menotomy School, and works with our teachers and ultimately with our children to help them um revise their writing, edit their writing, and then finally publish their writing. Tonight, I've asked four students from Ms. Clifford's second grade class to join us. They're going to be coming up to the podium in a moment. They're going to be introducing themselves. And they're also going to just talk a little bit about some of their favorite parts from working with Mrs. Shaw. And then they are going to read an excerpt from the last entry into the Chronicles. Welcome. Can you tell us your name? My name's Audrethy and I'm from Miss Clifford's class. >> Hello. Um it's so cool to have your book published and Miss Shaw helped me develop new skills to make my writing better.
And there's technology equipment. >> I can just >> so system software lease correct is the all related to the uh >> and I think you said switching over something and what is it? We're no longer in that but it's all related to the software contracts that overseas. >> Okay. And then the technology equipment one is a replacement of some I think is talk out here about the Chromebooks itself. >> Okay. I just wondered where that was. >> Yes, that's right. The smartboard. >> Okay. Okay. >> Let me keep going. >> Sure. Sure. >> I have this online. >> Okay. Is there a plan for like textbook or curriculum material replacements? I know there's money for that, but like technology, you know, you don't buy all the physics books and the chemistry books. You don't buy them all at once because you do it in a cycle.
Smith Academy 7 through 12th has 134 school districts has 134 students. I give them three years before they fold. Stonely Burnham School, private school. Nevertheless, they're hovering somewhere between 130 and 150 students 7 to 12 including postgrads. DA went co-ed back in 1990 because they saw the writing on the wall. The Monu schools at Pioneer and Waller are voting in September to regionalize. Folks, this has nothing to do with school choice. Although if you're running a bottom 10% of the state, you got you are going to lose children. What it has to do with is families are averaging in this in the states 1.6 children per family. The young population is dropping and it's all our old folks. Okay, Greenfield needs to join the party. I've said this for two years and I was on Ways and Means. I'm going to say it again tonight.
Um, and at the same time, we all know that our town is growing. Um, more families are moving into Canton. I mean, I moved in four or five years ago myself. And um with that comes increased student enrollment in more complex needs for our our um students. Uh and growth should mean that we're planning for more resources and not reducing them. We're already seeing that our children need more support in areas such as social emotional development, behavior health and um mental health supports. Uh our our teachers need higher salaries. Um I was just having a conversation with some of the teachers uh last week and we were talking about how important it is to have more social emotional developmental resources for these childrens who are going through what we call big feelings and um complex emotions that they need to navigate from. Right? Um so as a mom this is where it becomes really real for me and um these are kids these are our kids this is uh the future generation of candid um these are staff these are relationships all these um are being impacted and um our schools are one of the most important investments that we make as a community um it's really important that we invest in our future future of Canton which is the board of education and our students and if our town is growing our and student needs are increasing our investment in our education should also reflect that.
So, um we do support any measure that expands access to free school meals and this would reduce um that obstacle. So, if we do actually align with the governor's commitment to universal free school meals in 5 years, if we changed it to no less than 1/2, then we would have to be back here again trying to change the rule again. So, that's why we're supporting this no more than 1/4. Um mahalo. Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure whose name I didn't call. Okay.
We're happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Next up we have Aloha Independent Living Hawaii in support. Next we have Annette Tashiro in support. Anybody Anybody else wishing to testify on HB 1541?
Um we would move forward with all of it. Um as we finalize it, we will communicate to our staff. Um there will be a district update coming out from me either Friday or Monday once we are feel comfortable that we have all the information. I think Christine you have a meeting on Friday with ASBAT um that we have all the correct information when are going to be the uh open enrollment and all those kind of things and then we'll share that with them and then we'll continue to share it throughout the next month month and a half. Um open enrollment everybody will require to go through it um and fill out because it's a new change. The big issue that may come up, I don't want to say big issue, the issue that will come up is we're right now on United Health, correct? No.
The group was celebrated during a private award ceremony at Disneyland, making this milestone even more memorable. The MUSD Bond Oversight Committee received an exclusive walk-through of Al Mifarro Innovation Academy getting a first-hand look at the construction progress as the campus moves toward its July 2026 opening. Principal Elizabeth Allison shared the vision behind the innovative K8 campus highlighting the design features and learning environments that will prepare students for the future. The tour underscored the importance of strong partnerships and a shared commitment to bringing this school to life for Maricopa students and families. Good attendance is essential to success. Tonight, we're celebrating four schools whose extra efforts have literally paid off. Each school will receive a certificate and $250 that we hope will support the strategies that work best to promote good attendance. Principals, when I call your name, please come to the dais to receive your certificate from President Cuchary.
Would you like to share some of your writing? Yeah. Um this is my best friend Venba by Audrethy. Venba is 8 years old. She has a brother but does not have a sister. She is a kind girl and really tall. She's taller than her first grade teacher. Wow. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Would you introduce yourself? My name is Venba. I'm from room 20. Can you tell them about what did you really enjoy about working with Mrs. Shaw? I really like Miss Shaw because she's so nice and helps me develop my writing and teach me new words and how to spell things. Wonderful. Can you share a little bit of your writing? My best friend is Audrethy by Venba. My best friend is Audrethy. She has a little sister. Audrethy is so nice. And we both like restaurants. That's wonderful. Thank you. I love how you wrote about each other.