>> I am pulling them up now. And then I also have comments uh that I received from Jean and unfortunately they are not compiled. So uh >> well mine are very simple. >> So I'm going to show the ones from from Carl and then uh Jean if you can call out yours. >> Yep. I think I only asked to reference um the speakers that were appearing virtually since we had an hybrid meeting that um uh Chris Lucas and um I forgot the engineer's name and then um that Jeff um >> Angler was appeared virtually. Oh yeah. >> Do we want to just put that as a line at the top that the applicant >> representatives all appeared virtually? >> Yeah, >> for this hearing. >> We can do that. I I put it after each when they were referenced in the body of the the first time or remotely or whatever.
She makes sure we pay our dues on time. So I'm really glad to recommend her for this position. Besides that, she's also um part of the national board and if you know trying to be an active teacher, trying to be an HSTA officer and serving in the academic position really makes her qualified for this position. >> Karen, thank you so much for waiting and being patient to at the very end. If I known that, maybe would have moved that up a little bit. >> It's been a long time since I've been here. You look wonderful and sharp as ever. >> Thank you. But I also have 20 years coaching Special Olympics. So, if you know my true love, that's where I've been spending my time with the kids. >> Very good. Well, thank you. Appreciate you being here. >> Okay. Corey Allen in support. Uh Wendy Akioka in support.
However, you know, I initially I said appeared virtually but then I I guess appeared remotely also works. >> All appeared remotely for this. Uh the changes I have from Carl on this is just uh clarifying Massachusetts general laws plural um as opposed to just the chapter 4B process as there's more than just chapter 4B applicable to the site and Jean call me out with any of your additional changes. Oh, that was the the three references to the people were the only things I put in. >> Uh Carl also called out a spelling error on my part. Uh changing Scriber to Scriber. >> Still don't know who that is. um clarifying language on lines 88 and um to say that he received an email that Matt's D uh had sent to the LSP stating that the RAM completion statement should be submitted by March 13. Um, this was something that uh we had just gotten the language a little bit incorrect and so Carl corrected it.
Uh let's see. And that's all. Anyone else wishing to testify on this nominee? Welcome, Logan. >> Not always easy to be the last one. So, thank you for your patience. >> Thank you. >> Please. >> Thank you, senators, for having me. Um, thank you for the conversations we've had um, leading up to this and for your continued questions to make sure that what we're providing the students in Hawaii is ultimately the best. Um, 20 years ago this month, I was hired as an emergency hire. Freshly home from college. I didn't think I'd get a job in the middle of the semester. I was told, "Oh, you won't hear until July." And so, I thought I was going to just hang out and be with my friends who had gone to uh and didn't have a huge class load and get to play, but got um got a call and got hired at Fern Elementary.
Um, removing some unnecessary duplicated words on line 91. I think that may be it, but I'm scrolling through to make sure. >> 218 >> or maybe there's something there was it was like uh maybe it's 221 now. Independent on the direction or independent of the direction. >> Think of the direction. >> Yeah, that was it. Continuing further. That seems like the last of it. >> Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of March 2nd. Is that it? March 2nd. Um, as amended. >> Second. Roll call vote. >> I >> Crow I. >> Crouch. I >> Atinson I. >> Molton. >> I. >> To I. >> WS I. Motion passes. March 2nd 2026 meeting minutes are accepted. Next on the agenda is member prerogative. Commissioner education various topics. Does anyone have a member prerogative? No. No. Okay. I have no prerogative. >> All right, that's uh that's the end of the our agenda.
Um I filled a position that was created because the long-term sub wasn't working out and the teacher decided she wanted to extend her maternity leave until the end of the school year. Fortunately, I was under the mentorship of the um the district's pro. He was filling in as the temporary principal. And so, he told me exactly what I needed to do from that point of being hired until the end of the school year so that I could be in line to get my license and become a probationary teacher at the beginning of the year. He also told me, "Hey, there's six of you in only three positions, so I have to have you sign this paper saying you might not be rehired, but we'll figure it out." Um, thankfully, I had just sat through Oregon's version of the practice exams, and so sitting through the practice was not as difficult as in my head it was going to be, and I was able to become fully licensed by the end of the summer.
>> Okay, motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Roll call vote. >> Aman I >> Crow I. >> Crouch I. >> Hackson I. >> Molton I. >> Toledo I. >> W's eye.
Um, if you told me 20 years ago though that I wouldn't just be in a classroom, I wouldn't believe you. Um, but I've learned that the best way to advocate for students is to be a leader and to advocate for my colleagues, to push boundaries, and to ask the hard questions. So, I'm thankful for this opportunity. >> Yeah. Well, thank you. And I know hearing and seeing your resume that you are a busy person. So will you have time to to serve? >> I will make the time and I will have the time. Um I think I've always been that person. Um I've don't know what to do when I don't have something to do. Um, and when the work is something I'm passionate about, I don't um I prioritize it and I find the way to have that balance. I find ways to have fun, but I also make sure that um that work is um valued.
>> Like they say, if you want something done, give it to a busy person, right? Yes. I think that's all of us busy people here. Um members, questions? >> Questions? No questions. Okay. Well, see, being last sometimes is good. No question. >> I was worried. It was a hit or miss. Thank you. >> No, but what what I will say I and I just want to comment actually, not really a question, but you know, considering how you do um sit on multiple boards and you are in multiple rooms, uh it really does give the advantage uh that you can not only bring your experience, but mainly from the ground level, it's so important to have that connection with our teachers. And I think you uh being on uh the HSTA, Yep. HSTA really is an advantage because um you have to continue to face these people.
So when you are not held to a higher standard to ensure that not only are they protected, but they're being served well and hard questions are being asked. So I I do want to say thank you very much for your commitment and your investment to ensure that overall the classrooms are well equipped. Uh but then our teachers are well taken care of mainly. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I just want the public to know if you're tuning in that we have I know I have met with all of the candidates prior to this um in person or on Zoom if that wasn't possible. And I know my colleagues have as well. So, if we didn't have a question here, we did ask questions and I did have them all fill out um questionnaires, like 10 questions uh to answer. So, we do have all of that background information.
So, we're not like, "How come you only ask this person one question?" But, okay. But, um if we had issues, then we wanted to to discuss it. So, just just to be very transparent in our process. So, we're going to recess. I'm gonna go we're going to go into decision- making. We're going to come back. We're going to announce it. Then what's going to happen is um the committee's recommendation will go to the Senate floor at some time when the president puts it on the agenda which shouldn't be that many days from when we submit the um recommendations and then the full senate will vote. So that will that that's you know the committee is just the recommendation and that is up to the full senate uh to vote. So in in support. So with that we are going to recess. call back to order the committee on education.
We are in decision making. Sorry. We are in decision making and you know it's not easy to always when we go through these confirmations because it does we understand that people volunteering to do this job. You don't get paid for many of these boards and commissions that you go on and we really appreciate willing to serve but at the same time we do have to scrutinize and we do want to make sure that we're putting the right people on the board. not necessarily maybe you're not a good person if we don't confirm you but maybe this may might not be the right board for you or the right time for you to be on there but I I just wanted to say that because it's not always easy um for this so in that members the recommendation on GM 658 this is for the confirmation of Christy Miamayi uh for term 63028 um the recommendation is to not advise and consent and I'm open to comments and discussion on this matter because it is serious.
So >> chair, if I may, just with for the with the committee's indulgence, I do have some >> prepared remarks and I I do want to um I appreciate your recommendation and I will be supporting you on this recommendation and I want to be very clear on to the record why my position is grounded in my fierce advocacy for the students that I serve. We are in the middle of a historic workforce crisis and during my meetings with the board leadership, I challenged the members to look at both short-term and long-term solutions. But rather than being solutionsoriented, they have inferred that the status quo and what they are currently doing is just fine. I'm here today to say that the status quo is not fine and the Hawaii State Teachers Association agrees with me, which is why they submitted testimony in deep concern to this nomination.
They correctly noted that under Miss Miam's leadership, the board has opposed extending emergency hire windows and act enacted a moratorum on out ofstate pipelines. They are not moving quickly enough. The board claims that they are only looking at long-term solutions, which I might add still have not produced one new teacher as of yet. Meanwhile, they are completely ignoring the short-term practical realities we are facing now. We currently actually have the momentum on our side to fill our classrooms, but the rigid policies of this board actively threaten that progress. My district on Maui has the highest number of emergency hires statewide. Furthermore, our schools heavily rely on the J1 visa exchange program. Because the board rigidly mandates the practice exam for these veteran international educators, 104 out of the 133 J1 teachers in Maui will likely be forced to leave by June 2027. At schools like Wuku Elementary, 29% of the teaching staff are J1 educators.
Losing them would be devastating to our community. We desperately need a licensing board that operates as a collaborative partner with the Department of Education to dismantle these administrative bottlenecks. Unfortunately, under the leadership of the current chair, the board operates strictly as an inflexible gatekeeper. When they requested a meeting with me to discuss these severe operational realities, they offered no practical solutions. Instead, they focused their energy on my tone. Chair Miam um sent me a formal letter complaining about my delivery and explicitly stating that finding solutions is not her job. She wrote, and I did say this before, but I'll put this again in the record. She wrote, "Putting us on the spot to produce counter proposal for filling the teacher shortage was inappropriate." She added, "That responsibility belongs to the Department of Education, not the HTSP." In her questionnaire submitted for today, she wrote that suspending standards is a postponing is postponing accountability.
Yet, we received testimony today from Shauna Nishimoto, a dedicated science teacher who passed her practice exam and earned distinguished evaluations. Because of the rigid bureaucracy of the board and severe delays in processing her permit, Miss Nishimoto was forced to miss the hiring window and is now working as a substitute without benefits. That is not accountability. That is a broken system. In her letter to me, Miss Miam also accused me of simply wanting a body in the classroom. And let me be absolutely clear. We do not want to lower standards. We want to modernize how we get teachers license by offering various flexible pathways and acting as true collaborators. Complaining about the urgency of legislators is a tactic to deflect accountability from her own administrative failures. Miss Miamay is not a part of the solution and it is clear she is stuck in her ways defending a broken bureaucracy that forces emergency hires to beg for closedd dooror rule suspensions just to keep teaching while simultaneously creating new barriers that penalize our kauni educators midstream.
That is not the direction we want to head. Our students deserve highly qualified teachers and to get them we need a board that is willing to innovate and act with urgency. I stand with those who believe in collaboration and that is why I cannot support this confirmation. Thank you chair for the indulgence. >> Thank you Senator Dor. >> Chair also I have some comments as well. Um and thank you very much for allowing this discussion uh to take a little longer I think than we all expected but it was very necessary because this is very important. So for the record I will be supporting uh your uh comments as well. Uh but I would like to say just from me person in my personal capacity um is that I rise in opposition to this nomination because it's uh not about dedication. It's about what we heard directly from educators and I want to send a message to the teachers and the educators out there.
We hear you and we are standing on we are sitting on this side of the table and we will ask those hard questions. So continue to share that with us in the opposition in my opposition testimony. Uh in the opposition testimonies, uh teachers shared uh consistent concerns, lack of transparency, shifting expectations, delays in lensure uh decisions, and a process that feels inconsistent and difficult to navigate. We heard from educators who did everything asked of them, completed requirements, gained classroom experience, and still found themselves unable to move forward. We also heard concerns about policies being implemented without clear transition paths leaving teachers in the pipeline stuck or set back. These are not isolated issues. These are patterns. And when the very people are trying to we are trying to support are telling us the system feels like a barrier, we have to take that very seriously.
We need a teacher standard board that is clear, consistent, and supportive especially in a time when we are trying to grow our workforce. You know, when I was contacted uh by the chair uh to have a meeting with me, I was hopeful to think that in that meeting was going to be discussed solutions. However, no solutions were discussed. Uh in actually uh she had criticized a lot of the solutions that other platforms um and programs had brought. uh she also decided to take that time to criticize my colleague here who also sees this as a very uh important issue to continue to advocate um and continue to um find these solutions to fill these classrooms. And so unfortunately um I saw no integrity um standard uh with this nominee. I saw only complaints and at this point we don't need complaints. We need real solutions.