Okay. I was just curious. >> Can I ask a clarifying question first? Um, mayor, >> the money you were talking about for it, is that for personnel or for like left over in their budgetary? I because I know Ian got a some grant money just came in. So, I'm wondering if that's some of the extra money that you're thinking is left over in the technology department. >> I was just making a statement. >> Thank you. >> All set. >> Okay. All right. I've got member Goodman and then member TR. >> One of the things we're not talking about which needs to be talked about >> is our declining enrollment. You know, I was proud to be able to say as a principal that my school was overcrowded. That same school today has a hundred less children in it than when I was principal of that school.
You do have the flexibility that if we come back to you in May and say this is not going to work. We do have the ability that we can look in other areas to make these uh reductions. So they it just because we say this if it doesn't work if Mrs. Robbins and her committee come back and say this doesn't work this is just a placeholder of where we think that these reductions could be made or we could come back to and say this is not going to work and then we re-evaluate and now we'll go through Mr. Bush the finance committee they'll be up to date regularly every month now regarding these reductions. So your points well taken Amy. Okay, great. Thank you. >> Let's move on to the next. >> So, the next one is a very difficult one. As was shared at Port Finance the other day that they they felt that there's only a few areas that we can make some reductions and it would be $110,000 worth of reduction of certified and non-certified staff to be determined at a later date.
I will stand by for any questions. Want to thank you again for scheduling this measure. Thank you. Kimberly Sevedin. Not here. See They are on zoom chair. On zoom please go ahead. Me [clears throat] chair? Hi this is Kimberly Sevedin. I'm actually calling from Molokai Drugs. Aloha chair Kim Keohokalole and the committees. We stand by our written testimony for the hopefully the new center for pharmacy and as was stated by previous testimony we have nothing [clears throat] like the centers for medicine and nursing and we're asking to establish a center for pharmacy in the state of Hawaii. It will not cost the state of Hawaii money. Private entities such as Molokai Drugs will be helping to pay for the center. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure?
Thank Thank you. Uh Donald Sakamoto on Zoom. Donald. Hello uh chairs uh vice chairs uh vice chairs, this is Donald Sakamoto. I would like to support the bill. Uh uh read uh on my testimony. You know, what I represent there, named Terrence Tom back in the days. He was a student and he was able to read write and Braille. So, this is very important for our students right now. So, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, Representative, he used to he used to be my neighbor in the house. >> Yeah. He used [clears throat] to chase me around his desk. >> [laughter] >> Good memories. Eric Mitchell on Zoom. Not present, chair. Okay. Uh Virgil Send Senate. Also on Zoom. Also not present, chair. Okay, anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure? You know, I just got to say this, I remember Terrence Tom, he used to carry his little Yeah.
Um we will standardize documentation expectations across the district. That's an an important item on our plans list. And all of these adjustments will help us to ensure consistency and sustainability. And then lastly, I wanted to speak about measures of effectiveness. And we plan to measure reductions in the number of these discipline incidents for these tier three students. But it's also important to measure perception data. So this would be from teachers and staff and parents. And we'll be doing that by collecting surveys pre and post. These measures will help us evaluate effectiveness and the consistency of implementation. The goal is to build a system that not only responds to behavior, but improves outcomes for the students that are struggling with behaviors and the students in all learning environments and to also support our staff in maintaining those strong learning environments. And I welcome any feedback or questions.
Um and that FY24 to FY20 the the that is only getting steeper. Let's put it that way. Um we expect that to at least be as steep uh in the next uh two fiscal years. We're in FY26 obviously now, so the the we I could have gotten some data from the town. I stuck with FY25 simply because it's source state data. So, and on all these slides where there is data to be driven uh from the state, uh the link is where the data comes from is at the bottom, so people don't need to um if they want to dive into more of the the data, the the links are at the bottom of uh of of that when it's available. I'm looking at this one. And we're seeing the orange dotted line at 3.5%. The blue line below that. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um if we're looking at the orange line dotted line, and it's at 3.5% as an increase, and then the blue line is below that.
Yes, >> it goes to one of those things where it gets because there are volatile areas that we always end up experiencing and I say this without any negative which you know we end up you know if you remember last year we we actually built in the contingencies before the mayor even voted the budget those contingencies were exhausted you know so we have this there are different like right now the next measurement is the April one movement date so that will be the date that we know what we are fiscally responsible barring any kids that we decide to send out ourselves or a kid that has moved in from out of state or assigned from uh from the state as far as being told we're fiscally responsible. than the other areas we potentially look at. Again, spike some might have we look at, you know, as the year is winding down, our vacancy savings in this year could potentially help us out or saving quite honestly back filling that $149,000 cut in title one because we would end up using less of our flame revolving accounts to then help out, you know, whatever it is that we potentially looking at for >> I know those savings are looked at as you know, but many of them represent support to our most neediest children.
We are down 700 students. We were at 1,900. We're at 1,200. Every space costs money. The our buildings I mean, one of the things that needs to be looked at, not only regionalization is using our bills buildings in an efficient way. You know, I I look at a huge building like the middle school and it's got 363 students in it. Um, you know, you you it's like an MCCAST problem. You know, do you put K through seventh grade all in one building? No. The parking lot couldn't handle it. The stairs not not appropriate. We have three elementary schools and at one point they were 250, 225 in each building. Now they're 183, 190, 150. We're I don't see our enrollment. I was hoping it would grow this year to tell you the truth. I was hoping we would see growth. We're sort of same numbers.
It's really difficult in two days to come up where these uh possible cuts um may be uh regarding staff. Um we're really going to have to look at um enrollment. We're going to have to monitor the kindergarten enrollment which we've been saying from the very beginning where we are with the the kindergarten because right now we have six sections in uh the budget that could show up as five sections. So we'll have to see. Uh, one of the things that we shared with administrators the other day is that we need to look at um, how many tutors that we have in the district and how many parents we have in the district. And I appreciate what Mrs. McClean said at our meeting the other day that we may have to adjust the the model and how we do things based upon uh, the numbers that u we have.
Hearing none questions. Chair you have any questions? Okay, I I do. So perhaps So I understand um what you're saying about the workforce development and comparing it to the nursing as well as physicians but the pharmacy do you have any um documented shortages because my understanding and my research so far is that that the pharmacist and does not face the same kind of shortages as as nurses and doctors. Mhm. Because the only data that we're operating off of is the data that the DCCA has collected. So we have data on how many pharmacies and pharmacists are on each island but that's it. I actually think Ray Dean Ray might be better proposed or better posed to answer that question. I know she's been tracking national shortages and there's some upcoming pharmacy shortages in the next decade. Yeah, but the data shows that there's more localized and distribute distribution based um concerns without clear defined statewide um shortages.
typewriter so for Braille typewriter and you could always hear him. And I he was amazing, so. And he is. Yeah, and he had all the bills. >> And he could still sing. Yes, and he played the piano and sang. Amazing person. >> amazing. Anyway, okay, anyone else wishing to testify?
Board members? I have a bunch. So part of this may need a separate conversation or another time that's okay. So I'll just go down my list and we'll get to what we can. Um First of all, I'm proud of us for for admitting that we have an issue. Right? That that's huge to me um to see our education is not just reading, writing, math, science, right? It's it's that whole person. Right? Regardless of the age. Um so I'm I'm really proud of us for taking these steps to address this and teach our little ones how to cope with life. This different life that we grew up from, right? Um You had said certified behavior specialist is going to you're you're refocusing them. Right? What is that refocus? What was it and what is it now? Or what is it what do you want it to be?
Does that mean that our health insurance costs for that period of time have been going up less than 3.5%? So, so those are our our expenditures. So, essentially the the 3.5 line is to get to FY25 at the same same dollar amount, right? Um or roughly the same dollar amount. So, um so again so again it if we didn't make the switch, this graph would look obviously a a lot different, but um but the the only thing that the dotted line is representing is where the it ends, and essentially over that entire time shows that even with FY17 going down and stuff like that, if we averaged it, it would far outpace um even with those good good decisions where we saved a few million dollars over the course of several years, um we end up well above there. And And like I said, if I have uh if I graph this next year, that that's going to be, you know, well over $8 million.
You know, when you look at a special ed budget and you see like five administrators, but we can't get a special ed teacher to come teach our kids, it's sort of painful. Or we can't get paras to be there with a special ed kid. I mean, >> because the five administrators, you weren't talking about us, that must been a different example. >> Oh, yeah. Who are our five administers? >> You have >> You're talking department. >> Yeah, the whole department. >> We have >> You have a director of sped >> and two assistants. >> Two assistants, two team leaders. >> Yeah, they're administrators. >> Oh, okay. So, >> and then two and a half secretaries. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Those are workers, but not administrators. Yes. But what I'm saying is the top is filled, but it's not trickling down. The money is not trickling down to what happens in a classroom because you can't get a special ed teacher and you can't get a pair.
We're staying the same. Um all the projections are saying that there will be even less that we're going to decline more. We should be meeting with the surrounding towns to talk about regionalization. There are lots of new buildings that have been made. Um Turners has beautiful new schools. Greenfield has a beautiful new high school we're still paying for. Um, Pioneer, I mean, Greenfield has never gone to the table to talk with our neighbors about declining enrollments and ways to do our business in a better way. We are lucky to have a transportation hub that could help with that whole whole thing. Um, as somebody who's walked into Franklin County Tech, which is regionalized, and seeing something that works so well with 600 students and all the all the students are there from different places and different towns. And one of the things we've been talking about is trying to bring our students together so that we have less problems with the uh mentality of we're this school or that school by regionalizing our middle school, regionalizing our high school.
We also have some vacancies with within our district, the retirement retirements in different areas. So, we're gonna have to look at that. Um, so the 10810,000 that will be something at the finance committee um that we'll be talking about as we go through the year of where those um reductions um will be um and we'll also look at um that the kindergarten in particularly and see where we are. But that that's where we are relative to staffing that it'll be $110,000 worth of non-certified certified staff and it will affect children. Um it's just we're going to have to look at the models of of how that that um happens. But this will be something that I wouldn't say our April 7th meeting for the finance committee. No, we'll have a better answer than we have tonight. But I would say by our May meeting, I believe it's May 13th meeting or May 12th meeting, >> we'll have better idea of where we are with enrollment for kindergarten um and high school scheduling.
Also, our pharmacy school is far from even being at its maximum enrollment. >> Mhm. Um the enrollment is low and there's a lot of issues about that. Um the fact that it's on Hilo and there's not a lot of clinical work that can be done. They have to come to Honolulu. And so the enrollment at the pharmacy school is is down. Mhm. Half the students come from the mainland. They don't stay here. So there's a there's a lot of issues and surrounding this and I noticed that the fees that you folks are putting on um $100, right? Is that what you're >> every 2 years, so $50 every year. And right now it costs me $90 to practice pharmacy in the state. >> for a wholesale prescription drug distributor, $200 for each new and renewed pharmacy permit, $200 for each new and renewed permit. These are even higher than than the the nurses and the doctors.
Non-members, any questions? Hearing no questions, moving right on to our final measure, jointly, House Bill 2159, House Draft 2, relating to healthcare workforce development. And this establishes positions and appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii to support healthcare workforce development in the state. We have Paula Donne. Uh Paula Donne, good morning, good afternoon. Chairs, hi. I'm Terry Vespers for Dr. Jack Lewin, administrator for Shipto. We'd like to stand strongly on our our written testimony for support. Thank you. Thank you. Samuel Shoemaker. University of Hawaii. Aloha chairs, vice chairs, members. Sam Shoemaker, Dean of JABSOM.
So one of the recommendations from New Solutions K12 was to make sure that everyone involved in supporting behaviors had a clear role and expectations and that things that they perhaps did not need to be dedicating their time to to be doing because it would take away from tier three behavior support that we take off their plate. So we there wasn't much in that area being that there was only one person. Um supporting PBIS was one area that we worked sort of collaboratively on. We're we're taking that away from the BCBA role. Um so also we sometimes had calls or outreach for support for tier two and tier three students. We're going to come up with a clear definition of what is tier three and narrow the focus of the BCBA to tier three students. So not every student is going to be impacted by the case management of the BCBA.
Um so, the the it it's it's only getting a lot worse uh lately, so. Yeah, it is. I know like I know the GIC figures for the upcoming fiscal year are 10.9% increase. And so when you when you look at this, obviously, you are closing that gap in this in the last year on the chart where FY24 to 25 um that means I think that means that you're actually the increase is much steeper than 3.5%. Is that right? Yeah. >> Yeah. So just it Yeah, no. So so this is only to FY25 and >> Right. um and yeah, I could probably put something supplemental together because uh I think the the 27 rates just came in uh little while ago. Um and we obviously should know what we're spending in FY26. Um now the other component of that is com- trying to combine what comes in uh from the state on schedule A and what we would have in the system here.