001good afternoon welcome to the senate committee on education today is Monday April 8th 2024 if I didn't have this I would have know what day it is thank you sta this is our 3:00 p.m. agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this meet meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and OnDemand video page of the legislator's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:00 agenda for the committee on education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding bu business on Wednesday April 10th 2024 at 3:1 p.m. in room 229 and a
002public notice will be posted on the legislator's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner thank you okay start with GM 520 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial nominee kahi Duo for a term to expire 6:30 2026 is K present thank you for being here today of testifiers please oh I start with superintendent members
003of the committee Kashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony and support of this measure thank you very much for the opportunity thank you David miiro why your kids can Vice chair me thank you Shar Nakamura he Coalition Shar thank you Kate Stanley I can't stand up can sure you can you can do anything you want Vice chair of the committee Stanley Andy in support of and all the first testimony and separate testimony support I Ur you to recomend to the Senate confirmation thank you you can tell she's experienced and on Zoom we have rnie Wilson not present on Zoom chair in support thank you kah Faria also not present on Zoom chair also in support monai Peters aloh hako dear Senators my name is manai
004Peters I stand on my testimony that has been submitted I speak today on behalf of my personal relationship with Ki Duo as a fellow public school classroom teacher from 1997 to 1999 at anoo school in Palo uh since that time I've had many other opportunities to work with kah as you know she has been a public school student herself a public school teacher an instructor at the community col colleges and at uh Mai college and she has shown the dedication and perseverance needed for this position it is often said that if you want a job done go ask a busy person kah is that busy person I don't know how she does it frankly but I'm Amazed by her work and her Evolution as an educator in Havi and I urge this com to support
005her nomination Mahalo thank you very much we have um a number of written testimonies only and um also uh we are going to hear all the GM before we ask questions so we're moving on to the next nominee oh yeah yeah yeah okay sure okay let's uh bring up our please thank you for being willing to serve um uh just Aloha everybody and um you know I'm I've been serving on the board of education since July of 2023 um I am super committed to public education I'm a product of public education um even in my job we prioritize our Partnerships with public education um and I really am busy but I'm busy doing the things that I really believe in and I really support um and I'm honored to be considered um for confirmation thank
006you do you want to let the committee know what you profession is uh uh presently I'm the vice chancelor of academic Affairs at uh Maui College um I've been a professor there for 20 years previous to that and um department of education teacher in cop puni for about eight years previous to that thank you thank you very much okay um questions sure questions you don't get away that e got away with sorry um can I continue please thank you would I dare stop you um you know as we know the board is very important and the families and the parents um have many concerns that they often time come to the legislature with their complaints and yet we tell them you know there's a board of education you need to go to the board and
007sometimes the board does not seem as accessible to them um so I'm hoping that the board will will make themselves more accessible so I just wanted since you've been serving to July 2023 what is your position on um including and making financial literacy uh mandatory and part of the curriculum instead of just an elective um I think I support that especially now I'm a little close to retirement not close close but you know thought oh I should have learned something better no I think it's an important piece um that has to be part of curricul so why isn't that the board have done anything because we've introduced bills time and time again and it's not gone forward and we've brought this up to the doe and they testify and say well it's an elective but
008you know we're finding that with uh College costs and students getting into debt not realizing the kinds of debt that they're going to be settled for for decades after they get out of school and just being able to manage through life um about loans and and everything else that so that they can they can survive um through all the fiscal issues that arise in our life that this is not part of the curriculum so um if it's so important then why haven't there's been something by the board to mandate it I don't know yet but I mean I think that's something you know there's a lot that is mandated there's a lot that should be mandated and I think um probably the firstest thing is to figure out where it might fit so you know
009when you have graduation requirements and you know you're you're doing the calculations right sometimes it's difficult but um you know there are also standards that you can use to embed that in different places and I think there are different ways that you can do it um and I would first start with an assessment like is it a standard in a particular class maybe it's not a whole class but is it being done and where is it being done um and if that's not enough then how do we strengthen that and where do we do it well I guess that's my issue you know why haven't it done been done before why haven't is ongoing and you know it's great to have all these other requirements and yeah you know you want to take speech you
010want to take English you want but you know what if you cannot if you cannot balance a checkbook and you cannot balance what you get paid I don't care how smart you are I don't okay what kind of A's and B's and 4.0 you are you're not going to be able to get through life um doing that and you wonder why people are into bankruptcy or people you know end up committing suicide because all of the stress is on them and we stress so much early college early college great go to college but then you don't know you canot manage your finances so I don't know if we're placing the right emphasis on what should be taught at at kindergarten through high school because we teach them to put put on all these all these
011um stress and issues on them and yet they cannot even balance sometime they canot give change you they go to you go to a store if register don't tell them how much change to give our students cannot give change because they know how to count the money back because they just T their phone sometimes no but then it says yeah if you give them you know a $20 bill and it's $18.58 and it says give them back a dollar so much that's what they do but if they have to count it out without the register they can't do that I've seen that happen they can't do that so it's going to be the next app when I how to count I mean I do it's a lot right I mean I think things are changing
012before I know in my generation you would learn by getting a job and having to learn how to do those things as you do it and I think that's happening less like I mean I don't know how come as of now but well I I hope if when if you're confirmed that that's going to be something I'm going to ask all of so I hope all of the people here that are up for confirmation will be ask answering that question and then the other question I wanted to ask is uh you talk about in your questionnaire about holding the board I mean holding a doe accountable so I'd like to see you know how have you held doe accountable can you give us an example the time served I mean I think one of the
013ways is to be prepared and to not be afraid to ask hard questions when we are being presented with things um I I'm still learning how the board works and how I work um there but I do think that um part of our job is to make sure that the doe is doing what um the public um and the policy say that they should be doing so I think to be um but how do you hold them cuz like were you aware that they had a billion dollars in in um CIP that um yeah just they didn't have enough money to so was on the books yet it's incomplete all those projects have you guys how have you held them accountable for that so one of the things is to find out what the problems
014were right to kind of dig down into what's happening what's not working and um how you move forward with that and I think that they have done some of that work in the new strategic plan to address um some of the processes that aren't working for CP and um r&m improvements so I think um you know I tell people this all the time it's a hard job it's like running a small country um it's you know almost 300 schools I work in one school and we have issues with CIP and repair and maintenance part of it is procurement part of it is the way you know you work with contracts part of it is you know you not you know you might not have enough money to finish the contract or you waited a year
015and it went up you know $2 million we encounter that all the time on one campus and you times that by 300 um and it's super complex but I think that they have come up with a plan through that Oreo you know they're calling it we're calling it Oreo but really it's about what has to be done what were the problems and how can we move forward and create a process that hopefully works better so part of it is um looking at the way things are budgeted between CIP and um repair and maintenance um looking at um Contracting things instead of doing a separate contract for all of these things trying to figure out how can how can we group them together but we have a problem now the the contracts are already L and
016the problem is there's not enough money to finish the contract so what have the board done and in addition to that we have a billion dollars ready to lapse in a couple months you know and yet we're we're we're funding we're appropriating another half a billion dollars for CIP this coming year if you look at the the CIP list and so we cannot even finish the projects uh that's there that's started and we've got projects that are going to lapse yet we're giving more money and I'm not sure how we handle all of this and that's what the board is going to be faced with and I hope all of you board members um that's up here have some thoughts about this because these are crucial issues that is happening now and yes process is
017important how we got here I mean we had SF ssfa and that hasn't worked so it's like you know U we need the board members to be able to step up and and make sure that we're overseeing and having oversight of the administration and holding them accountable and not just taking what they say for granted but challenging them as to how are we going to do this how are we spending our funds I found out that we're spending money on so many software and apps and applications thousands and thousands of dollars instead of doing surveys by hand we want to have an for everything that's fine but it's going to cost us $86,000 just to get the app and then $63,000 every year I don't know if the board knows that and is holding them
018accountable for those things you aware of that I'm not aware of that particular one but definitely aware about the budget and the CIP and the rnf and we've been having a lot of discussions about how we move forward to fix that thank you you know you're just one so I don't want to just throw it all on you but just kah just expanding on what Senator Kim is talking about can can you discuss or give us some thoughts on how you think the board might take a more active role in partnering with the doe um and private sector Partners to to help with some of these um issues including um you know the problems that we're having with uh spending down on our CIP um I know that they have some new processes in place
019that we still yet to see if that's going to work um but it is a strategy forward so I think um you know it's my for us to invest in that um we have discussed different ways of dealing with repair and maintenance um you know right now um the the the way that we are Contracting and and all that kind of stuff um isn't working quick enough it might be working but it isn't working quick enough the process of having to change in order come back increase in price all of that kind of stuff so we have been talking about you know how do you streamline that how do you maybe create a different um a different structure for that so I know um in conversations in the committies and with other people you know
020they're talking about you know stuff that they did before and maybe they they can Implement again or you know new things moving forward like they used to have repair and maintenance teams go through schools right so you get them for a week and you get stuff done instead of having to do an order for each thing that you know you you need fixed right putting in a work order and waiting for it to happen so just I think we have to Envision sort of changing the system and how um it is presently being done because we are very sure that it's not working well I appreciate that because that is exactly what the bord is for to you know help the superintendent um make some of those decisions and they're not all always easy to
021see and the answer is not easy but you know we do have some concerns about uh you know lapsing cips Etc we do appreciate and look forward to that discussion that we have with the superintendent the rest board members further questions yeah yeah Senator P you know going forward since we're talking about the cips and the funding I was all ready for talk about economics and all that but since we're talking about cips what I think we should do with the doe and uh the board of education is go out into the field and look how the private sector is run we let the beers know how much money we have not how much money you think this project going to cost we're already telling them we get $9 million for this project putting one
022bid and we get three biders we take the we take the loser actually cuz usually that's the guy is the lower bidder later on he's the higher bidder after what all the project changes so why did the the Board of Education and the Department of Education go and look at how the private sectors put up the bid let them come and say this radi up will cost 15,000 for Bill but we know we only get 9,000 that's the problem we keep getting the lower bid then we get the shot in the deal then like you said constructions people protest the bid a construction cost cost high in the private sector I going tell you cuz I came I was working for persons nor out Road they put in the wrong amount of money guess who
023ate it not the state not the taxpayer the developer ate the cost of the mistakes and whatnot so when you go out there and bid on one job you got to make sure you bid on them correctly but because the St get the pockets that's what they do change order we give them prime example Ching Stadium it's one of the ones that is really really disturbing from one one 2 million to 6 Plus million over yeah but that's what we got to change if you got like change anything B of Education Department of Education change the process and how we go about going out and selecting the contractors not necessarily the L biller don't give them the amount of money that we have we told everybody in the stadium right we get 300 to 400
024billion a million whatever for build a stadium we don't even have the money so why we don't say hey excuse me Senator Kim how much you think would cost to build a stadium and they let all these contractors do that and then we pick the one it's closer to what we get in a bank instead of brok in a bank before the project starts so that's something that I think if you can consider and the last question I have and you gonna be hearing this as a broken record but give it to you extensive you know being a on Hawaiian um Hawaiian studies um hasn't been implemented in the in the language hasn't been Aur uh in the public schools even though it's was a Hawai 1978 Hawaii revised Statute said English and Hawaiian should
025be taught taught in a school as that and it was now to this day I hear for a lot of people that English was highly because we never have enough Hawaiian um education teachers but today we have but there is not an equal playing field so are hearing that if we do Hawaiian studies that we're going to lose um some of the other curriculums but it's the same with home economics if we go ahead and teach economics and bring economics back into the school we're going to have to lose something so instead of inquiring these things together to make sure that we don't lose what was given to us should be implemented so I just want you to think about that if you don't have an answer then that's fine but I just wanted to
026let you know that you know you will be hearing that yeah no I mean I will answer that because I should I know a professor in ha studies for 20 years um I do think I mean you know it also we know that in 1980 right we have fourth grade seventh grade and 11th grade I do think that we have to assess that look at what we're teaching um if those grades are appropriate if it needs to be um strengthened changed um and then we move forward that way I do think you know it's been a long time um and things have to be updated yeah thank you thank you chair appreciate you guys thank you for the questions thank you C sorry sorry C question Senator not not too much of a question but
027you know I think kah being the Maui rep I think I'm I'm very excited that she'll be potentially serving on the board if confirmed uh I appreciate all of the work that you've done um L far I think your strength is you know the the experience that you bring from the University and the inner working of the University bringing it to the Department of Education I think there's a lot of synergies that can take place between the doe and uh I think a lot of it is amongst Workforce not only amongst the folks that need to go out and get a some type of Workforce training after um you know their time in high school but I think it's even the doe internally needing their own Workforce of teachers and so maybe you can kind
028of elaborate on your work and your thoughts on developing Workforce not only for the doe but also amongst the community and how we you know you think the university and the doe can can kind of get more on the same page or do do you think we're there um I I know we've had a lot of conversations about Maui specific but from a system perspective what are your thoughts there I mean I think you know education is always evolving right and seems to be the cycles of different initiatives that come up and down I think for Workforce we're in a we're in a time where we see a lot of Workforce Pathways coming up in the high school so in my job at um uh Mali we see them um trying to access early college
029for before it was just gened right in Liberal Arts sort of classes and now we see it going into things like welding and and construction and teacher Pathways right um so making those connections trying to um figure out how you encourage students to be interested in education very early on which is very difficult to do and our Pathways we have one at Maui high and Luna they're very small they're struggling we're trying to figure out how how we do that um other ways you know um we have another project called the ha teacher pathway program which is just something that we picked up and said you know we have a huge need we have a little bit of money we have plenty of Connections in the community with our doe partners and you know parents
030and and just community and so we began to create this bridge into teacher pathways so not um you know uh redoing any other programs that are there but just trying to give people a head start into them with free course work so that they can connect to one of those programs while they work I think that's a really important one so I know the apprenticeship program um that um htsb is looking into um I've been to a few conferences where um states have those programs I think that's a really promising way to go because we do have a lot of people um who who are interested in teaching but cannot give up their job in order to to to do that so I think um you know there are ways and you know my thing
031is always like there's no magic pill I don't believe in magic pills I believe in looking at the problem doing some research getting you know knowing what's going on and then putting together the best plan forward and doing something immediately not working right so I think those are the things that I I'm looking right I think we I look forward to pushing the policies forward at the board level and making sure we stay focused on that at the end of the day we need a thousand new teachers a year right and and we're only probably producing four to 500 here in Hawaii so I think it's it's something we need to continue focusing on but I look forward to your leadership so thank you chair other questions members thank you next we go to GM
032710 submitting for consideration confirmation to the Board of Education goral nominee Mary hatori for a term to expire 30 2027 is Mary here she's present on Zoom chair so superintendent please well chair Vice chair members of the committee super standing on a WR testimony and support thank you David miiro Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee I'm David sunmo executive director of Hawai kidscan I stand on our written testimony in strong support of Dr Mary hattori's nomination to the board of education and like to offer some personal notes as someone who has known and worked with Dr hatori for close to seven years I would like to highlight the Deep empathy and care that drives everything she does in a number of settings from the work she has done with the
033doe for multilingualism to the celebrate Micronesia Festival she works to make Hawaii a more s safe welcoming and inclusive place for kids and families even today she is calling in late at night from rapanui because she never stops advocating for the solidarity and empowerment of Pacific island communities she has the expertise experience and heart to make sure the kids who tend to fall through the cracks in Hawaii get the supports they need and deserve I'm proud to support Dr hattori's nomination and to call her a friend and Mentor Mahalo thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley you don't have to stand I'd like to add that unction all the he today I think the Govern governor should be thank for sending down such strong set of nominees this is best I've seen thank you
034for that yes I do agree that we do have a very good nominee thank you um we have test written testimony from the governor of course and Susie varlam written testimony support um Masa written testimony and Walter kahumoku also withed testimony is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure if not members questions yeah Aloha Mary Aloha thank you for being willing to serve um so I guess I'm not sure who's actually been serving and who brand new so I assume this is your you haven't attended any meetings as of yet correct yes uh So based on the question I asked earlier regarding what might be your stance on fiscal uh literacy would you like to app on that sure you know the implementation plan and Strat uh strategic plan for the doe
035says we envision a K12 public education system that prepares all graduates to be globally compe competitive and locally committed we can't be globally competitive if we don't have financial literacy um the um the wealth uh there's a publication called the New Wealth of Nations by the World Health Organization and it says that the best most effective way for developing nations to advance is through education of all citizens so education is core uh I also understand that Doe just wrapped up task forces on computer science financial literacy and Civic engagement and the reports will be considered by the board um probably next month and so I think you know the conversations are happening within the doe and now is a good opportunity to to move forward on that so do you think it should just remain
036an elective or you think it should be part of the Core Curriculum I think it should be part of the Core Curriculum I think um we are coming out of uh the pandemic U severe economic distress how can we we proved ourselves to be resilient but how can we fully recover if we don't have basic financial literacy and there are lots of financial literacy programs going on um but it it I think it is um a basic uh necessity for success I I certainly agree with you wholeheartedly um so my next question is that you we the question was asked about uh the role of the Board of Education to hold the Department of Education accountable so in the case of this where we're talking about um financial literacy and time and time again we've
037introduced measures and the board has not um Boe I'm sorry has not really doe has not really implemented that um so how would you hold the the the board accountable I know you gave us some statements on the policy and what it should look like but you didn't State how you would hold them accountable sure I think one way we could hold them accountable is through the the standing committees of the board or um there measures in place in the implementation plan so you know my my assumption is that we as board members working through those committees uh will look at uh those uh measures performance measures and actually uh hold the the system accountable but what does that look like I mean what does accountability look like are there consequences are there I mean
038because we we keep hearing and I keep asking not just this board but other boards including the board of regions is to the accountability issue and you know there is no there's no reprimand I'm not just saying they need to be reprimanded but there is that seems to be absent completely and so it's like there is no accountability well I think you know having a having new board members gives us an opportunity to change our perspective on accountability um I I've served on accreditation committees for many large institutions where we actually have best practices we have standards that we hold um heads of schools or or um people like the superintendent hold them accountable with specific measures and there are there have to be con consequences okay um I appreciate that and that that's excellent
039response I just hope that um the board will and you know you folks are all busy people and like they said you know want something done give it to a busy woman to handle um but even though that is the case there's a lot of issues that we don't even realize like the issue I brought up about the use of a lot of Consultants the use of getting a lot of um uh Computer Applications and the money that's being spent and while they may be good is there someone that's measuring what are the benefits like and I'm going to bring this up later on probably to the chair since he's familiar with with a lot of the education issues over the years about the kindergarten assessments that we spent a million dollars for and I
040don't know if the board ever took that up but you know those are the kinds of issues that I'm I'm I'm pointing to as far as accountability uh so uh I hope that it with a new board that we're going to have a a new attitude as to how we move forward so thank you for your willingness to serve thank you thank you so I think um my comment and and this goes to a senator Kim's question about why not include financial literacy we know that there are only so many hours in the school day so if you're going to include financial literacy um what do you cut back on and I think that's something for the board to take up uh to include the uh superintendent and his administ ation but I think that's
041a discussion that needs to be um had because this issue has come up I guess for the last I don't know Don three years four years yeah and it is I think important because um even in my own grandchildren I know I don't think they they um are that Financial literate to be honest and yet um you know today's students you know have more pocket money than in my days anyway so you know how yeah that makes it even easier so I think you know my request basically is just for the board uh with the superintendent to take up this issue so that maybe um you know next session we will have something more concrete to to look at and to move forward on and uh discuss thank you members further questions yeah just Senator
042just to in on what you said so we already started session a lot of the bills went in and there's was no room for this but the kids from Campo High School came I was surprising because they all had um special bills and stuff that they wanted to discuss with their Senator but their number one concern is what my two colleagues are talking about that's not enough of that in the school and that if they had a chance to go back they wish that they had that in their freshman year or even before before um going to high school because they see what exactly what my colleague saying a lot of their friends already they stressing out they can't even balance on how they going to balance the situation when they go to college cuz
043that comes with scholarship funding money they never had that kind I mean even what Senator uh kadani said these kids have more money in their wallet than most of us in this room driving around $5,000 scooters you know who's teaching them economics you know so that's something that I I I you know echo my colleagues that I would want to see next year more so we can go forward and help our kids thank you chair thank you members further questions thank you okay our next GM 711 submitting for consideration Bo editorial nominee Kaya for turn to expire 6:30 here superintendent please chair Vice chair members of the committee Kashi superintendent standing on a written testimony in support of thank you David M thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley do you sit on your
044rich and testimony thank you kage um other testimony and support Sean Tajima Campbell High School CZ and support lyel deal withth kez kir roselt and support uh did I see Warren Hari here board chair also in support anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure members questions can [Music] you go ahead K thank you very thank you very much for the opportunity um The Hope is during in the second term you know that things that were being discussed by the committee today will be things that we you know we'll be looking at and working on I think one of the things that you know I have written in uh questioner that came up is our review of programs and that's one of the things that you know we've been trying to work on to
045determine as far as the costs and as far as Personnel needed you know so that it is the type of thing where assessment evaluation of all programs take place we you know we're not going to be able to do all 250 some of programs at one time but it's a process that we need to take place so that we know specifically what is being done within each other the programs and what effect it has on the students so things like what's Senator Kim is talking about the financial things are there programs that can provide that kind of support so that you know we are able to see the growth of [Music] students and I hope that I'm around to see that kind of thing happen because after spending 42 years in the department you know
046this department has or the Department of Education provided me with you know a lot of experience and knowledge I'm hoping that you know we can do the same thing for all the kids thank you thank you questions members yes thank you Ken um having served on the board um how do you find out some of these things that is the money is being spent on I mean you know the budget is so huge the education budget is so huge and to be able to be aware of some of these kinds of expenditures to determine whether or not uh they're in fact uh necessary or just good to have um how does the board get its hands around that I think we're in the in the process right now of trying to you know set in
047place a plan um Bor member DLo talked about this what we call Oreo plan basically it's a overall real estate optimization so we're looking at a plan there's six phases within the plan and within each of the phases there short-term goals as well as long-term goals so this plan is to basically take care of the kinds of problems that we're facing right now and again truthfully I think I talked to both you know representative Richards and Hashimoto yes there's problems and you know we need to deal with that and we need to do a better job of like you're saying you know how do we ensure that the the money that is being provided is spent appropriately so you know CIP is one thing because those are large dollars and they're project by project but
048you also have the day-to-day kinds of operational the expenses like I brought up when these um software or these applications that is nice to have um and more specifically this an application to survey to survey the kids about their lunch to see because so much food is being tossed away and you know and to also have data and yet it's like well what happened to the days where you go to class and then the teacher pass out a paper and say okay who you know what did you like about our lunch and then bring it back and take it in to survey the school instead of having to go to a computer somebody has to program it somebody has to interpret it somebody have to pass out the data I mean it's great to have
049but practicality I mean you know H how is that benefiting us and the cost does it outweigh the cost that we're spending you know that kind of money when it can go to helping a child in the classroom that may need assistance um you know I struggle with that every day when I hear about the kindergarten assessment that cost a million dollars and we found out before the money was spent raised the concerns to do doe and yet they still went ahead and they still contracted with a Mainland firm and they still spent a bill million dollars that it was good for only that time certain and there's no use 6 months later these kindergarten kids have outgrown that um but yet you know that million could have gone to those kids that really needed
050the help right in in that kindergarten class the teacher can assess them in two weeks the teacher is really good at assessing them but how does a board you folks get to know that that it's going going on so that you folks can then say wait a minute we need to reassess some of this and yes it was a it was a law passed by the ledge I didn't realize that it was going to be this kind of assessment with the mainland firm and that was going to cost a million dollars and I told them come back to the ledge and we can re redo this bill or amend this bill but that wasn't done they didn't take it upon themselves to do that so who's holding them accountable I think that's one of things
051like you're seeing the accountability as a board you know it's making sure that we have the information provided I think a lot of it in the you know in the past we weren't provided or the board wasn't providing information to to know specifically what was going on one of the things you know that a questionnaire that Senate kidani provided was what is I think the accomplishment that I feel feel very strongly about I think there's a very good working relationship between the board and superintendent which was not in place prior you know prior to you know the the current situation I think that's important because with that then we get to understand what the needs are and then we get to see where monies need to be placed again this assessment evaluation is key to
052determine why a program needs a certain amount of money how you going to spend it what personnel you need so that when you move ahead it's like you're saying you know are you spending the money on some program and how is this going to benefit the department is it is it going to be effective in providing us the information that we need so that when we assess a certain child's need it's that you know specific time and place it will take you know care of that child so how do you get that information do do you sit and wait till the board gives it to you do you go out on your own cuz I know it's a voluntary position um do you watch our hearings and see what bills we're introducing because a lot
053of times if we know there's a problem the public comes to us first we introduce a bill and then the bill goes year after year so does the board look at that and say why is the reason why are they introducing this bill is there a problem that we not una aware of I think again you know it's that type of thing where you know we're spending the time you know again trying to see specifically what bills are in place and trying to ensure that the funding that's being provided well not even what bills are in place but what bills are being introduced because if there's a problem then is that something that you folks should be looking into because I've heard from other boards that say we learn more from the legislature than we
054do from the administration presenting us information because they don't give you all the information I'm not saying this necessary board there's other boards that they don't necessarily give you the information and you know I go out and I research a lot of stuff before I come and ask the questions and a lot of times I don't want to ask a question if I don't know the answer um and so you know but that requires work right and so I know the board and that's why I always ask board members do you guys have the time because it's not attend one board meeting correct you have to prep and a lot of times they give you the agenda the week before and expect you to vote on something um without having the the time to really
055look into it Go and ask the parents ask the teachers ask the faculty um that takes takes time but that's the kind of research needs to be done in order to be accountable right yes that's correct I know for myself as well as the you know the board members that are serving now they have and we have gone into the community to get information we've worked directly with superintendent we work with the staff I've attended meetings with specifically you know staff members like directors and things to get information about what's going on so it's not that type of thing like you're saying where it's a okay we're going to meet Thursday and that's all you know it is I'm lucky I'm retired so I have a little more time to to go out and do
056some of this stuff but all of them every one of them I mean in a situation like the Maui fires I mean you know board member Duo I mean she spent time outside of our job doing those kinds of things so it is the type of thing that we're seeking information okay but yeah because stuff like you know I'm sure you weren't aware of million dollars for assessment you weren't aware of these programs being being done and the money's being spent so those are the kinds of areas I'm concerned about not the really big issues that you're probably aware of but all the day-to-day that adds up and that's why the public feels that they always say you know the uh education is too top head because there's all these expenditures that is unaccountable for
057yeah and I think that's where again like I'm saying that assessment evaluation of programs has to take place because personel yeah and that's correct and on top of that with that assessment evaluation it is looking at okay do do we have enough Personnel or is this program topheavy does it need to be trimmed do we need to move people around and I know in certain situations right right now is looking at reorg certain you know groups I think that we talked about that Senator ashimoto so we look forward to getting this information and I know you folks only come before us every four years or so but you know we still want to hold you accountable I think you know four years from now Senator uh kidani has reached out to us to say if
058there's concerns that we have that you know she's more than willing to hear what the things are and we need to take her up on that type of thing also thank you thank you so I think um one of the things that I would like the board to discuss is this issue that we have talked about for three or four years is the financial literacy aspect is that it's important to some of you know um the members of our education committee but also for the future of our students our our community but I know that also entails what do you give up because there's only so many hours in the day onless we shorten some of the class time for other whatever and you know put in another uh class so those are some of
059the things I think the Board needs to discuss right I think you know again it's looking at programs and and determining you know where possibly it can be fit in you know as part of it's like you know before we had health we had you know home economic and you know all different kinds of programs and you know these programs got cut now the needs may be there there again so where and how do we you know implement this kind of thing where how do we put it back students can't even sew a button on their pants the boys you know I mean you know some of us are HD and Miss because that's what I had to do so you know it's a lot of poking fingers and things but you know okay further
060questions members yeah chair Senator Richards okay thank you um yeah Ken thanks for the the followup and spent a bunch of time interviewing uh most of the candidates uh just followup thing we've talked a lot about students you and I also visited on teachers and specifically The Bullying side of some of the teachers can you just give a few comments on that and your thoughts and you've heard the the concerns of the Senators when it comes to the FI the financial side and fiscal side I really appreciate that cuz we visited a long time on that one um but then as we're taking care of students I think we also got to take care of our teachers too so just your thoughts on that I think the whole system I mean you know it it
061takes a community to you know to educate children it's the same thing you know with teachers I mean administrators which I was one you know we look to see how we can support all teachers and I think that's important it's also educ educating administrators how to deal with concerns and problems and that's I think the training that has to take place and you know that may be something that in the leadership academy that the department has where it's going to take up more than just how to do the academic side the financial side but also you know the human relations also okay yeah thank you we long conversations look forward to hearing some of the other com um comments thank you chair thank you just I want to keep talking about so you know I
062I graduated in 86 and we had all that I never like cooking I never like sewing I like eating um but I just think I mean I I want to understand how did where in the doe that we decided to totally Veer off of that whole plan because you know as as years go by how I would end up waking up to all of this is when Comming core came to town and when my daughter came home with her homework and my wife was trying to help her with her homework and she told my mom her mom that she doing the math wrong you're doing the math wrong is not how we do it there so we we're going back and forth ch um so I just want to know the body education at Department
063of education got to start Ping ponging around got to stay forward is that you want the parents within the school or you want the parents outside of the school which is it the question I ask this is because when Common Core came to town they had radio ads from the Department of Education saying to ask them teachers your leaders in the school not go home ask Mom and Dad come and ask us for Comming core that was the commercial and that was very disturbing for me because it wasn't for my mom and my dad and wasn't for my teachers I wouldn't be here today but when they took away a short period of time teachers had to take time out of their work schedule to go relearn what they learn in college so those are
064the kinds of stuff even like with other stuff that I don't want to talk about when it comes to the principles and the theory how much of the teachers and the principales actually get say on the curriculum because none of the teachers in poor care Elementary I going just say them cuz they all gone already most of them transferred out but all the teachers in poor care Elementary not one of those teachers like coming core not one every one of them but they had to do it so how we can have the B of education and the Department of Education work together together with the teachers and the community he start Ping ponging around because there pointing the fingers in every direction but it actually falls upon the school and the teachers teaching the curriculum
065that they don't have the passion to teach and that's something to me is troubling so I just asking that going forward I mean I know you guys going work good you guys all new but please um don't play ping pong maybe you guys go play pickle ball or something maybe that'll be a little bit different but you see what I'm saying yeah I think yeah I think Senator um the one thing is it's it's again communication you know like you saying um we were or I soon say we but I was a teacher okay so and I'm a lot older than you are I'm a 71 grad so I got a few years but in the Department of Education we went through the same thing you're talking about trying to deter curriculum what we going
066to do how we going to spend the time I mean at one point in time social studies you had four years you had to take four years of social studies it went down to two as a social studies teacher that's disturbing because that's my job I'm going to lose my job because you're cutting classes that's also Civics education yes that's correct Civics there was a whole bunch of things but why because then it became the focus on you know English everybody's going to college and I think right now we're looking at things and saying you know college is great but is it for every single child it's it may not be but is an education that is in let's say carpentry Plum is that does that make a person not viable or you know a
067good citizen and it's not it's the interest that they have the passion that they have for education and I think that's what we're trying to build you know the system is trying to get to that point where I mean you know some of us I mean looking at you know Senator Richards I mean he's uh very successful you know as far as went through college got his you know doctorate but he's are also a Rancher so he found a passion that he has and that's the same kind of thing that we need to do for all of students thank you thank you for that now now I kind of understand thank you thank you chair thank you for the questions thank you Mr C for being here you know I think we we too had
068some great conversations I think a lot of it was around facilities and I I'll just ask one part and this allow you to get some stuff onto the public record so I guess what you know there there is a lot going on in the doe with with facilities and in your position as you know the chairmanship that you hold currently on the board you know I I think you have a big say in how we move forward I think the the position that we're in now is not ideal I think in your in your um questionnaire you said you finally now have a better handle on Do's office of facilities and operations which is a little bit concerning because we we should have always had a handle on that area um moving forward but I
069think it is what it is we we' lapsed what we needed to laps and I think we need to to move forward but I know you you proposed some you know things that will help us get better you know with your new programming but what is your definition of success in facilities and and from a policy standpoint how will you be pushing to get us to that definition of [Music] success I think you know for me if you're looking at facilities um facilities like the Cornerstone of um The Learning environment it's basic needs it's providing every student a safe environment a environment that they can be proud of um I think the way we get to that is again working with the Department to ensure that the monies that are being provided there is specific
070steps that are going to be you know taken things like the CIP monies we cannot receive that money and wait two years to decide to use it we need to determine as soon as that money comes into our coffers the do cers what are we going to do with it is it sufficient like you know Senator Kim is saying there's not enough money then why didn't the department say something no but say they it was enough money but because the project took so long and delayed there was costes that was not you know and that's what I'm saying you know that that money at that time may have been sufficient but because we didn't start immediately with the process then it becomes inefficient or I shouldn't say inefficient but insufficient to you know complete the
071project so we need to ensure that when that time comes the money is provided is that sufficient to to fund the project do we need to set up a system or way to in order to have that contract in place do we need to have people work together to determine yes we can you know create a plan and move forward and then ensure that we when we incumber it we're going to be able to pay that thing off so from a policy perspective when when can we make sure that we see this action taking place well the hope is you know now that we're you know in this situation that this oral plan that we we're proposing that we're working on currently is going to be an immediate you know um Step that we're going
072to take to see that so so so 6 months one year well I'm hoping you know it's immediate I mean you know is it going to be completed the six phases in a year I mean I like anything else I think it's you know steps that are going to take place and try to ensure that you know that the um projects that are in place are going to be you know done spe specifically within that time period That's provided okay so if we come back in a year when we have the next legislative session should we see some type of improvement I would I want to promise you that and I will well I think I think what what we would expect expect to hear is that you would try your best to push that's
073but you know yes I don't think we know we we're saying we want to just sit back and wait and see what happens there is an effort on our part and superintendent will be very on upfront with you you know as far as the lapsing of funds he took responsibility you know on himself which to me is unfair it's part of our responsibility as a board too to take the the Bulls by the horn if you want to call it that to get things done and work together with with the superintendent and the people within the department to to make sure that you know the funds are spent appropriately and in and in in a timely manner yeah no I think that's that's all we're asking is we fix this problem I think we will
074continue to be the biggest supporters of doe projects but I think the problem is is at some point we need people to execute it and want to be there to help you support you in that effort to do that but at a certain point you you know you need to tell us what is the problem right is it better people is it is it reorg what what is it right and so I think if this Oreo thing is what you you're going to stake you know your solution to that's fine but I think as a board we just want to make sure that there's incremental progress and if it's not working we got to try something different right I I think like anything else I mean as we go through this process if there are
075things that are not working yes we need to change we need to inform legislature if there's concerns that we have also so that you folks know upfront I mean you you shouldn't be caught at the last minute like this thing with the you know lapsing funds to know that there's a problem I mean I mean it is what it is but you know it it needs to be better okay well I look forward to this you know making progress on this I think the first step is saying that you're going to work on it I think maybe it wasn't the top of mind for a lot of people but now it is and so now we just got to make sure we fix that so thank thank you for your continued leadership so thank you
076chair thank you other questions members if not oh thank you thank you for GM 712 for the nomination of William [Applause] arakaki um good afternoon good afternoon huh good afternoon Senate education committee um thank you so much for this opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas and a little bit about myself uh like board member kah I was a teacher coach I principal principal complex superintendent and um you know um during that time too I have eight grandchildren three on Kawai that are now the next generation of Learners that really need uh this support with all of you and the system like the de we um you know my passion has always been supporting the Kiki um you know being in a system and uh I'll continue every way I can to support and you
077know hear the many things that is being Express today to be part of the board you know being on a second term you know we have great opportunity to really Implement what um has been worked upon together with um superintendent on a strategic plan so um you know we're going over some things but the next step is really seeing what the the data is as far as what's happening so um yeah that's a little bit about myself and uh thank you so much and I'm ready to answer any questions or my thoughts thank you stay right there we're gonna call this I found my list so superintendent please afternoon chair Vice chair members of commit superintendent Department stands on truth and testimon in support thank you thank you David [Music] Niro support and did want
078to note that Mr AR is proven he is willing to meet with stakeholders MERS outside of the regularly thank you Sher [Music] Nakamura thank you Kate Stanley I'd like to say one thing that I've been impressed byy participation on the board but he is a very kind person that doesn't mean he's ineffective it means he's kind and that has a lot to be said in times when we need kinds thank you Kate Faria on Zoom not present on Zoom chair thank you and we have a number of written testimony in support at this point members questions lead off anybody else wants to lead off no why don't you lead off president s cocki so you've been on the board for one term yes and in during that one term a number of the issues we've
079talked about have occurred so how how do you justify all of that what was the issues again the issues on financial literacy the issues on how to find out all the expenses and stuff that money is being spent for doe is it is it uh effective is it worthwhile should we can be continuing on this path um so for the past four years is it four years that you've been on the board two years two years yes um yeah so how have you held the the administration accountable and do you feel that you're getting the information uh that you need to make these decisions uh U thank you so much for the question and uh definitely you know being um in the three years I was the um Vice chair for the student achievement committee
080and um this year I am the uh student achievement chair and you know uh one of the um great things that had happened was I was very fortunate to have Vice chair Lauren Mor work with me and one of the ways that we have been uh working with the Department of Education is prior to the because you talked about the agenda things coming out you know within a not not enough time to look over the presentations but what we've developed uh as far as establishing what's going to be an agenda for a meeting we have um planning meetings I call it or briefings with the department and others that are within to the uh subject area and and uh we sit with them and we look at what they're presenting and ask questions and why
081is this why is that what's missing you know uh how is the public uh you know going to understand what is being presented so we've done this this year with the um sack meetings now you what has occurred is that um you know when we go into our our meetings um and again thank you to the testifiers about other many areas you know there was um you know discussion and I see um David here you know we talked about financial literacy at one of our meetings we talked about the um computer science we talked about other areas that needed to be done so what's going to happen is um as we plann for other meetings it's going to be um you know D is looking into um what how it is very important these these
082um topics or curriculum or content is very important now how do we embedded or change things within the system so a report will be coming out because we have to look at our graduation requirements graduation requirements has been around for a while so how would that look like as far as changing that now again uh the de is collaborating And discussing this matter with uh various stakeholders you know not only the teachers principes and others but also people in the community and so on so you know um 1986 grad back then to now what is the skills or the learning that they need to know so that they can succeed in life you know and you know it's um it's not only about college readiness it's about career Readiness so how is that working you
083know within the system now with that is okay we're not talking only about high school it's a K12 construct meaning what's happening at the Early Elementary Middle Elementary uh middle school and high school so how do we and the do we if you visit schools because one of my things is um I do very visit thank you to Mr Mar at the complex super on Kawai he's allowed me to go with them on school visit they call it walkthroughs and this year thankful um C deima has allowed me to visit schools at Campbell capap and uh um C do has allowed me to we're visiting schools in her District too so um it it's it's very um for me to be able to see to be able to hear and look at what's happening on
084the ground level and with that then I can bring up the questions and so on so with the board meetings and you know the big big topic areas but we really need to go out to the field and to see what's happening uh with that because um it's very important to address those matters so when the de we comes back with okay how can we look at as far as the requirements to make it that we can do but like you said there's not enough hours in a day there there's all that graduation work that's there already we canot add more to that so what kind of change do we need to do so that our students will be prepared for the next generation and Workforce and and what's going to happen in the world
085today and you know in Hawaii which is very important for them to succeed Mr aaki you brought up really good points and I think it is important to to visit the school it's important to know what is going on um but you know you talked about skills to success to be successful in life yes um it just it just makes me kind of laugh to myself because this these basic skills I don't care what generation we're in it doesn't change it doesn't change that you need to know how to balance the book your your your checkbook how to figure out you know your charges and if you don't pay your charge card uh if you only pay the minimum it's going to take you 11 years to pay back because of all the fees I
086mean there's basic things in life that hasn't changed and so you know you guys talked about oh we talked about this we talked about that there's a lot of talk that goes on but those basic things haven't changed and so yes there is a graduation requirements but how do you have these kids be successful so they can enter College not just necessarily having a GPA or necessarily being able to to pass the SAT and have a high score in SAT but can they manage with other students can they get along can they make decisions can they figure things out um and those are the things that are lacking and a lot of that also that's lacking and it's not the school's fault but it's the family the breakdown of the family and the family values
087and part of it is you know we want to get the child into preschool get the child into Early Education and they lack some of the family values some of the family Basics that they would learn at home so they rely on the teachers to teach the children that and that's not the teachers necessarily job it's why we wonder about our teachers and why we can't keep our teachers because they have to be nurses they have to be counselors they have to give medication they have to change diapers they have to do all kinds of things that they didn't sign up to do and so it's not just the pay but it's the work that now they're required to do because of this breakdown that we have but so to to say that the basic
088things in life to be successful have to compete against everything else that you're looking for graduation um requirement to me that's crazy and you shouldn't have to discuss it for years we should be able to to determine that and say these are basic stuff you got to know yeah yes thank you for that um I'm really excited and waiting to see what the results will be from their research on that and you know you it's not only academics like you said it's about the sociate emotional learning the mental health and all these things that go on for the whole child to be de developed them so yes a lot of it we have um the what if the survey says it's not important what if the survey comes out and say no financial literacy not
089important compared to you know stem well then what are you guys going to do I mean sometimes these surveys are doesn't necessarily reflect what is going on practicality yeah yeah that's interesting because when you visit schools you see different um they do they Implement financial literacy in different ways it may be a course it may be through uh a pathway in which they do the integrate the curriculum within the the classes so there's many um things that are being done so when I'm sure the survey will indicate that schools feel this is very important so how can we support them and see what they say as far as making it but does it achieve what is necessary just because it's brought up in other in other ways in other curriculum can a child understand the
090stock market can they understand about the interest rates for the credit card that kind of specific things are not necessarily intertwined into some of these other so-called financial literacy uh lessons that might occur so again you know that really got got to get back to the basics and not to the abstract yeah and you know they just went over um we're able to um U look with the doe the uh key performance indicators which is a is a measurement that is used so how do we with that U make sure that how does it align to the student is doing financial literacy and things like that I'm going to ask you and all the boy members can you guys apply common sense to a lot of this stuff and not necessarily indicators you know that
091we rely upon these these these uh I don't know AI or whatever it is um um applications to tell us what the indicators are that can we apply basic common sense to some of this stuff so we can get back down to the basics thank you thank you thank you sorry we don't take questions I did yeah we'll get to that let's finish with the nominee please um so um Mr araki which committees do you currently sit on on the board um I sit on the I'm the chair for the student achievement committee I'm also a member of the FI uh financi infrastructure and HR Human Resources I'm also um part of the um CTE cak or technology uh advisory something um also working with the um uh hsta and hga as far as negotiations
092I'm part of the charter school commission group uh also with the legislative investigative aot committee which I learned a lot talking to many of our uh elected officials on what they looking at and what needs as far as Bill introducing bills thank you so is this um issue about financial literature something that has been discussed on the board yes we have and we we will continue to work with the Department as far as what needs to be done and amongst again um in compliance to um the Sunshine Law you know how do we you know um understand what that is all about and financial leaders and also computer science and the others are are just as important too so definitely um it is something that's going to be coming up again on a probably because
093it involves student achievement it'll be on a Sac committee agenda and presentation because it'll also come up again in this committee yes yes yes definitely I'm just yeah saying that this is uh how many years in a row we've discussed this and I think I know it's a difficult issue as to how to plan the curriculum to include uh financial literacy and you know what do we have to give up but I are there um um I guess uh meetings that you guys are invited to across the United States for Like Other Board of Education um yeah fortunately I was part of the nasby national uh Board of Education um I attend their conferences and so on um so there's opportunity for uh us to and also on Kawai um because Kawai is so small
094um I support and work with the uh um Kawai Economic Development board we have other um um nonprofit groups that uh ask these kind of questions and how we can really ensure that our students are succeeding you know not only going to college but in in the workforce and in life life meaning some of them you know are looking at different ways to to get their families and and succeed so so you know um what the students dreams and aspirations are how do we ensure that they're able to attain that so I guess my um ask for your your membership on the board and other board members is to look at if there are counties across the United States that have managed to include financial literacy in their curriculum and how they did it um
095how long it took for them to implement that so that's your homework for us thank you I got homework thank you and for the question Richards yeah thank you chair and Mr arcky thanks for our visit good long talk story um we discussed the size of doe relative and we're a bit unusual also looking through the testimony looks like you are real boots on the ground that you go out and you go look and I appreciate that our structure for doe um from the board perspective and um superintendent I think you got a very engaged board so I want to commend you on that one um is there a better way we can engage so and we discuss rural schools getting enough attention I know you worked on coai so just a quick thought on
096that one yes definitely you know how do we um provide the opportunity for um schools that may not have come present or or talked to our board members I know you folks go visit them a lot so how do we uh and Tammy Chan just talked to me about how do we uh enable each complex area to have the opportunity to share their successes and things that that we can share within the board at a meeting so right now you know it's all um a presentation you know with all the data and things but again the more the the important part is about having the schools the principls teachers or whomever even the students especially to be able to share so one of the meetings will be dedicated to a we have 15 complex areas
097I know there's only 12 months in a year but you know how do we provide that opportunity for the ones that are way off and cannot really come here but provide them the time and effort to see that they can come in and share their things you know and I appreciate that um but it's not just to share the good it's to share the bad the ugly too and that's why I think boots on the ground when we actually go look some times that'll save you hours and hours and hours of testimony if you just see something so you know what's interesting is um I'm also allowed to attend uh principals and education officers meetings um there's many events and activities that um I was able to attend and you know when you're there people
098would tell you uh especially on Kawai you know you go to the store hey mrui you know kind of things so I think how do we uh have that relationship that we can build with um everyone here and not only on the neighbor Islands but here on aahu so you know taking the opportunity to visit um with other cazes and the different areas has been very even though I worked at wo high school you know um and you know at different areas um it it's the change and what's happening in each area is is different from back you even three years ago so to to be able to really be boots on the ground and to listen here and see is I think is very valuable as a board member and I would encourage you
099to expand on that thank you chair thank you thank you thank you um mrani you want to provide testimony yeah H MERS of the state senate my name is come closer thank you chair um I was appointed to the principal ship in 1991 and have served in that capacity for the past 33 years the last 14 as princi of Kalani High School my Al m i stand on my written testimony and support of the reappointment of Mr William marakei to the Hawai State Board of Education thank you very much for that members questions questions thank you thank you thank you Bill not for have questions for the guy with a green shirt okay I questions for you another guy with a green shirt oh no not you red more green shirt just just going forward
100I understand you have time but I know you belong to a lot of uh things on Kawai CU Kawai is small and everybody volunteer for a lot of things but you're going to find time to you know the dedication that you and you obviously show that you have continue to do what you need to do for the ball of Education yeah interesting because you know when um the appointment uh issue came up I had to talk to my daughter because I have three grandchildren on kaai and our youngest grandchildren of the eight uh he's 2 and a half years old I've been watching him since birth so whenever I don't have meetings or I don't visit schools or whatever it is I I babysit him oh papa where are you kind of thing but anyway
101I've told her that um depending on what happens um you know and because of you know the love for the Kiki and the community and so on um I'm going to not be able to watch then as much um and that um it's because of we're here I'm here to support education because you know again it's the children the students that are now that may be seniors or whatever the graded in and it's also the next group of you know prechool all these ones coming up that how can we really ensure and make it happen for them because Hawaii is a great place superintendent is is doing such a great job we just need to you know provide that support and look at the data and and hear the voices to what's going to happen
102so I am committed to that yeah so how how important you think um signing your name um not just signing your name but actually writing you know actually writing things out writing one story on a piece of paper because it blew my mind um of course this is a long time ago 20 years right when when my daughter started school I was all excited so I go buy all those books right you know follow and Trace so I sent the book to school with her and they said uh we don't need those we don't do that anymore so my daughter had half time writing her name when she was in intermediate for sign her name because everything was digital you just go on the pad thing that they had right new technology boom sign your
103name ini your name so that's the kind of stuff that we're talking about even now now that they going bring up One bank account you canot just press on button and sign your name you actually got to go in there sign your name so I just wanted to know going forward how important that that making sure that at least that when the kids graduate high school besides being economically intelligent but just graduating be able to sign your name you know that's very important because I was shocked that most of her classmates could not sign the name yes and um there was already junior in high school they couldn't sign the name because all they did was computer to this day everything is on the computer to sign but how important do you think going forward
104if we're going to be teaching economics and you know Senator K make me laugh cuz she used the word charge card you know bank account a checkbook kids don't want to know what is a charge card you know but going forward you know that's important to know how to balance these things because a lot of kids in my my age and and Below yeah a lot of them filed for bankruptcy um in in 10 years or five or seven years of high school a lot of them went bankrupt you know and that's something that I noticed today is a trend they're not trying to pay off the de say they doing it purposely but they're not trying to pay off the debt they're so in debt they're so frustrated that they just F bankruptcy I'm
105not planning to buy one car not to planning buy one house I'm single ah just clean band repy and that's happening a lot um in the trend so I mean going forward I mean there something that to think about how important that these little tools that we had graduating back in the days are important to this generation because if you look at it under age 25 you know maybe I'll go look I get the statistics for you guys under 25 how much guys on F for bankruptcy yeah okay thank you chair thank you thank you thank you so much we have three more uh GMS to go through so moving forward GM 713 submitting for consideration tutorial nominee Wesley low for term fix by 630 2027 uh Madam chair um Senators um thank you for
106your consideration for me for the Board of Education uh just some quick background on myself um uh I'm a pck banker by trade um I um ended up uh moving from banking into um County Government for several years and somehow I got roped into Healthcare which has been quite a journey for me um so I've been in um various uh Healthcare organizations for probably about the last 20 years um most of it as uh running um ran uh the M Memorial Medical Center as well as I run um a large postacute Care Network um throughout the state of foi um you know I'm looking forward to be on the board of education although despite some of the questions I had of why I'm doing this but um I'm excited you know I I I certainly
107have my personal stories about education and seeing the success stories but I I think that um as I've gone through my career and evolved I'm I'm realizing the importance uh to Senator Hashimoto's point of the workforce and the Workforce Development and the communities we serve and so um I'm looking forward to I I think healthcare and education are the building blocks of society and if we could do it all over again I think those are the two areas that we should um concentrate on so um with that I um happy to answer any questions you may have thank you members questions oh testimony sorry Is there further testimony Kashi my list chair Vice chair members of the committee Kashi superintendent the department we stand on our testimony support of thank you thank you you on
108the WR page Paige Choy thank you David meiro Sher [Music] Nakamura Kate Stanley Jonathan Ching uh hi chair Vice chair Jonathan Ching uh speak speaking on my own behalf uh stand in strong support of Mr Low's nomination to the Board of Education thank you members we also have testimonies in support questions members Senator Richard yeah thank you um again another good conversation we had uh we've had Educators coming before us now we have a different lens can you expand on that a little bit bringing what your thoughts are as as far as for the Board of Education your perspective as we go into this we've heard about fiscal management and all that we've heard about um project management and moving the needle relatively quickly but from your perspective from a business perspective please um Madam
109chair um senator Richards um in in regards to fiscal management and project management um um I I think it's it's a it's a journey um when I was on the board of education in 2011 I was not prepared for the size of the organization um and then um over my years I was uh although a large organization it was a singularly focused organization Memorial Medical Center um that has some complications but a lot different than Department of Education um over the last several years I've um now um overseen see about 13 different facilities as well as uh multiple more operations which still pales in comparison to the Department of Education um I think from a fiscal management standpoint um there's a danger of um getting too deep into the weeds at a board level because
110it's so large and I do think that you have to have metrics that allow you to determine outliers and uh then allow you to drill down from that and um I do think that there needs to be a project me management methodology it sounds like they're on their way to do that so that there's span of control and then there's reports that roll up to you that you can see progress and it's a cultural thing I mean each um for those who study organization charts you have a span of control and everybody needs to have a cultural responsibility around accountability Etc that's where the breakdown can occur um so I I think that um what do they say is you measure you get better and I do think that uh there needs to be measurements
111although I do worry about measurements because they have to be appropriate measurements they can't be just counts um they have to be uh either process uh measures or outcome measures and I think that's going to be the complexities of this I don't have the answer to it but I've thought about it and um I I don't want it I don't want this to turn into where the board is getting drilling down to the minutia but I think that if if the um variances are such that you need to drill down to it you're notified of that and there's a a culture of transparency that has to roll up to the board um ultimately uh the board to uh the superintendent I know answered your question or not yeah that actually and I agree with you
112because as a board you should be setting policy not micromanaging but there should be a metric in there and I agree with that statement the ability to okay there is a big problem and we're not going to ignore it we're here to help facilitate it so I like that perspective um and I think that's a facet that you bring from the the private sector that's a different lens that we're looking at that I like the fact that we have Educators because you know where the the problems have been and and you know how to dig and then a Private Industry side where we can put those metrics in place so I appreciate that thank you chair thank you members further questions just full disclosure I met with uh Mr L at length went over all
113of those questions so he's not getting off Mr L um you in the response to the questions that we asked um you described six core responsibilities for the board can you briefly elaborate on the financial oversight and how you plan to create appropriate measurements um ch chairani um much much like I explained to Senator Richards um I think Financial oversight you need to start with a broader level of metrics that come up um but you need to look at variances um back in 2011 I think I did not do a good job um but the one of the issues was uh transportation and school bus services and I think that um I think over the next year frankly process measures have to be built on how you're going to get to a point of having
114outcome measures I think that there's a lot that needs to be learned um I I think they use the terms A and B accounts salaries and expenditures and trying to look at what um what those measures are where the variances are and I do think uh agree and I'm not sure exactly how to approach it there are certain areas that there are some expenses that um may not hit the thresholds but we need to figure that out so I think that part of it is going to be um developing these metrics from a financial perspective I also think that uh to Senator uh k um comment about some certain expenses um I talked a little bit about culture I think that um there needs to be um uh Authority limits I I'm sorry I worked
115at a bank there you have authority limits and people are held accountable to those Authority limits so when there's an expenditure they should know why they're expending it and if it's if it's expensive I know that I have to explain to my boss because something's very expensive I better be able to tell them why whether it's right or wrong I just need to be able to justify that so I think that um it is building this layering it's not so simple of just looking at financial statements and metrics it's looking at that and building authority levels policies and procedures um and layering it down I I I don't think it's going to be easy um Senator Hashimoto I would say that I'm not sure it's going to take a long time to develop that I
116uh um I've I've been involved with performance- based budgets and they take forever and keep on evolving from year to year but I think that um over this next year I think that you start making progress towards them and you have specific process measures on how you're going to get there um as relates to the um I suspect the might be some thoughts on Capital Improvement things um you know I think that that has to be rolled up I I um I do think that there should be or um consistent reports that flow up to the board again not with huge amounts of detail but enough so that the there's visitability the board and therefore you measure you get better um and then um it should we should concentrate on the things that matter uh
117to the Senate to the legislators um for example um you know I think they even have a report related to uh funds that are going to lapse Etc or project costs Etc so I think that uh you need to build these reports um I think that we need to find High Lev metrics and consistent reporting to um create that culture of accountability that a long answer for nothing I'm sorry thank you members further questions can I just add a comment thank you for thinking about that and coming up with you know hopefully what those metrics might be I think it's important that we have that um and certainly the amount of time that you're given to review the budget I'm not sure how much time that the board I should have asked somebody that served
118you know how how much time they actually spend on looking at the at the the budget because we we in the legisl spend not enough time going over the past budgets but just all the new stuff and you know that's why I've been advocate of zerob based budgeting for for my whole career that that's never come about but to look back and say you know we gave you all this money maybe you don't need it anymore maybe things have changed we don't need that much F and mots anymore right so to be able to do that so appreciate that side of your your um experience to bring that to the board so thank you thank you s thank you chair you know I I just not really a question Wes but just I want I
119thank you for being stepping up and being willing to serve you know for disclosure West is a constituent of mine but I think he he truly cares about the Maui Community and his time is very precious and so I think helping us on the board of education I think is is something that I'm very appreciative of you doing I think we could use your expertise especially in the area of facilities and so I think hopefully they'll put you to good use so you know hopefully the Boe chair back there is listening um and you know I think hopefully we can move the needle as you said I think you you know what the realities are and you know how hard it is to to fix some of these things but um hopefully you're you're committed
120and and we'll see some progress coming up so thank thank you Wes thank you thank you members thank you R our next nominee is GM 714 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education nominee Chun or term to expire 6:30 2026 members nominee Elin Chung could not be with us today because of a prior commitment on the mainland however I want I want to assure you I do know her personally she has been a principal at the Milani uh area and most recently at Milani Middle School um taught my children and now some of my grandchildren and as a principal at Milani middle school she's highly respected member of the school community and students including my own grandchildren very much appreciated her guidance and her um concerns with that members questions ask yeah
121I get a question yeah can you go sit you're too young to be having grandchildren oh thank you I'm not sure what he wants thank you yes so to testify superintendent please you chair chair committee members superintend testifying on Department stand Our Testimony thank you David M support you thank you Sher Nakamura thank you Sher Kate Stanley in support thank you Kate we also have written testimony from about 11 people all in support I suppose there's no questions for any other thank you moving on is this our last one um GM 735 submitting for consideration confirmation as the chairperson Board of Education gubernatorial nominee Roy tkumi for turn to expire 6:30 2026 can you please come to the hot seat to it out as long as he can to testify oh my gosh it's been
122a long day superintendent please chair chair committee members Department supp thank you superintendent David [Music] M Sher [Music] Nakamura when she comes for I don't know Aloha chair Vice chair and members of the committee Sher Nakamura director of he Coalition we support the nomination of Roy tkumi for those who don't know us we're a coalition that Advocates strongly for educational equity I.E our struggling students we do this because we feel somebody needs to speak out for those that do not have a voice our experience with former Ed chair Tumi tells us that he is align with us on this priority we also believe that doe and all state departments need to use taxpayer dollars efficiently to ensure this we have worked on projects with members in this committee to urge the doe to be transparent
123with data and show that resources are being used judiciously with impact we know that Cher tkumi is on the same page on this as well finally we want to see Improvement in all aspects of doe and most importantly Improvement and outcomes of our students this was also a consistent consistent theme for Cher takuma's Ed chair and we are excited to have him continue this theme as bee chair we urge the committee to confirm confirm his nomination Mahala for this opportunity thank you Sher okay in support I've known Lory a long time and I've supported him and I don't think you could get a better nomination thank you Kate is there anyone else here wishing to test Aloha members of the Senate education committee my name is danen Honda and I am testifying in support of
124R tumi's nomination to the Board of Education I believe his leg ative experience can help bring a positive change for decades not just a few years um there has been an ongoing debate of whether the Boe is the sole authority to set graduation requirements and if unintended consequences might happen if the legislature steps in meanwhile generations of students myself included have gone off into the real world without necessary life skills such as financial literacy and had to learn through mistakes we suffer the actual consequences during this history there was at least 4 different superintendents and 12 Boe chairpersons Mr tkumi you were the chair of education for many of those years and are intimately familiar with this discussion and I hope that through action you can show that Advocates such as myself don't need to
125keep coming back to the legislature and requesting both to be introduced 25 states have already committed to teaching financial literacy as a grad requirement we're the highest cost of living state in the nation and it doesn't hope that we're also one of the least financially educated I hope everybody in this room we can all work together to help change that Mahala for your consideration thank you needed your voice thank you okay is there anyone else here wishing to testify we do also have a number of written testimonies in all in support members questions Mr tuni I don't even get you on that seat how does it feel to be on the other side the table maintain the chair not plugged in questions opening remarks none oh opening remarks yeah well you have my you have
126my background information and you know I do have I have experienced a kind of a vacuum with the Department of Education because I was the Ed chair 5 years ago you know because when I I went from being the Ed chair to the consumer protection committee chair for 3 years and then um I've been I've been out of office for almost two years so a lot of a lot has happened in the department the past five years um a lot has happened in the legislature in the past two years so you know and I found out that um I would have this opportunity three and a half weeks ago so it's all come pretty fast I was happily retired and um but I think I decided to agree to do it because for the same
127reason and you all the public office as well because public service is a calling and I feel very strongly about that so I realized time commitment that this involves and um you my daughter lives in Las Vegas and um and my wife and I would go to Vegas kind of often and uh so I told my wife I I think I'm not going to be able to go to Vegas that often she said I can always go by myself that's what happens when you married that long you so she's going to go buy herself I think um but um this will be my only Public Service commitment as far as any bard of commission so um I know I can dedicate myself to whatever it takes to um make the board Opera in the way
128it's supposed to operate so you want me to address your questions financial literacy yes well let me just say that I am pleased like the others that the governor appointed you um having worked with you and realizing all that you know you've done while you were Ed chair uh it's like riding the bike you know you probably get back on and you're right in in tune with it but I think it's important that the perspective that we have been sharing and that I've said to uh other boards that you know if the board do their job of the oversight then we don't have to because we don't want to a lot of bills that are introduced I asked do we really need this measure can't you folks do it anyway why do you need us
129to tell you and I think you're in that position that you understand that and so having heard the discussion which is not new to you you've heard this discussion and for me who've been around for I'm not going to say how many decades but it's the same thing over and over so if I come over as being impatient or or being like you know it needs to happen right away it's because it's lered and I've heard board members come and go say the same thing you say oh yeah we're gonna hold them account we're gonna do this we're GNA do that but at the end of the day they leave and it's not done it don't get done so I you know I'm glad to see you there and you know I'm going to hold
130you accountable I have your phone number I have your cell number um and she knows where you live I know I don't know if I know where you live but yeah but so I hope that these issues get addressed and you know and I I I know your word is good and that you wouldn't take this position if you didn't think you could do it so thank you thank you thank you Senator thank you members for Senator Richard yeah thank you um we haven't had chance to talk story yet right but we are going to right um good and um I appreciate you've heard a lot of the comments questions um conversation this afternoon your reflection on what we've talked about we've talked about financial literacy obviously but we've also talked about Direction facilities briefly
131touched oning ju just a few comments yeah you know well as far as bullying goes the department does have a very good policy on bullying as well but I wanted to talk about the Strategic plan that the department has it's a 25-page document I'm sure all the members of the committee have read that document there's um 127 action items in that document and so I think as a board and all the members here are committed to that is to hold the department accountable to those 127 action items and in those action items you have tax forces and working groups and assessments and reviews and so on and so forth it's it's a lot it's very ambitious and I think the role of the board is to ensure that the department lives up to that document
132first and foremost and I really agree with what board member L said that um you don't want the board to get too granular and really into the Weeds on the operating side of the department because it's really is a policy setting board and so um that strategic plan is the road map and I expect that we'll have a lot of conversations at the board level and at the dep Department level on trying to achieve all those action items okay and then just again rural District our rural schools I think they're out of sight out of mind more than they should be comments on that yeah you know um when I became Ed chair when I first became Ed chair represented Bob heres um at the time said you got to come out to where I
133I live and so I jumped on a plane and went out to his district and it really made me aware of because his district was huge geographically and we visited some of the schools in the district and it really made me a were very different from the schools in my district in PE city right and so I think the department is sensitive to that the recent committee on weights decided to allocate an additional $6 million for small rural schools to be put into the weighted student formulas so that these smaller schools have a little bit more cushion to operate in flexible dollars because as you know Senator the way the student formula is to try to get schools as much flexibility and autonomy over their budgets and so um I have a lot of Aloha
134for small schools the the challenge I think they always will have is capacity right can they deliver the kind of the full range of programs and options that kids fortunate enough to go to Urban schools have so that's always good that's why I'm also a big believer in distance learning because that's where kids can get the opportunity to take classes online that they couldn't take in a bricks and motor school because they just don't have the capacity and I agree with that to a point but um Big Island a lot of these kids going to school the place that they're eating is at school if they're not attending the school worry about their nutrition and then transportation to get to school and that's a huge problem on the big island on the big island so
135we're not going to solve that that in this conversation but I definitely want to have that conversation with you later sure metime because uh you know we've talked about it's the Next Generation that's what we're setting up for success but if we don't take care of them early on get the nutrition into them get the education availability to them going forward and really set them up for success we're actually creating a problem for all of us in this room for that future so I appreciate the comments and my office will get together will come up with the time good thank you chair members questions y we have minutes just joking anyway um was really nice talking story with you yeah yeah it was very good you know you have a very open mind I'm hopeing
136you going continue to keep that uh moving forward but I want to touch on something on a little bit what Senator Richard said on I noce when I went to the continent and seeing my brothers and my nieces uh School in up there something that we don't do here but maybe in the rural areas like Hilo and you know certain parts of the different neighbor Islands because a lot of our schools even in ever Beach a lot of our schools was on city and county property and I'm not sure of the neighbor islands is too but we we are one of the only States probably do not get any I Kickback help from the city and going forward as a board of education and working with with the rule schools in the other areas know
137working with legislation here and the counties the counties and the ru schools should be putting up some funding too because the infrastructure sucks and when it sucks the kids can't get proper you know uses of water and and everything like that so instead of just depending on the state and the kind that the rural areas in the neighbor islands should start looking into getting their County cu the county get plenty tourist k back money all these kind they should start paying paying their fair share for thinking that our kids are a future during the pandemic right Rick Rick said mayor BL J said we never lose money and then he found a billion dollars I don't know if it was under Kurt cwell pillow but he found a billion dollars how you find a billion
138dollars you see what I mean but they don't pay for Education we're the only state that don't have have any City funds and that should change because their kids on the rural areas on the neighbor islands are suffering when the city still collect their taxes whether we are in school or out of school they collect their land tax and that's what Rick said he said during the pandemic we made money because everybody pay their taxes on time because everybody was home but how is that fair to the state the doe and the bo of Education finding money to help guys like um you know Senator Richards in the ru areas so I don't know if you guys can come to you know it's up to us not to them oh yeah okay sorry sorry but
139I was dreaming Constitutional Amendment yeah because they're not States okay we better take somebody money back I just wanted to top on one of the things and it was just surprising me so maybe the date might be wrong here cuz you don't look like you was around in 1947 but you was at the noble PR uh Peace Prize um for your service in America uh friends servicing committee you know I don't like ask you what age but that's the correct date they won the Nobel Prize in 1947 okay yeah I wasn't around okay okay all right this just check in close to it yeah yeah thank you thank you okay well other than that other than that thank you okay thank you have appreciate you open mind thank you chair okay thank you members we
140have a hard stop at 5:5 so questions thank you Roy for being here um you know I think I don't really have a question we we did talk at length before but um you know I think yeah I think one of the big things that we hope gets fixed like like I said to every other you you know nominee is hopefully we can look at facilities make sure we fix facilities get that under control utilize your the people on the board to help you with that think that's going to be very important I think you know what wayed student formula act 51 all those things that you were the you that was your brainchild back in 0434 still very much alive and so hopefully we can get a handle on that and so you have
141no excuse right of not knowing what that policy was all about and how been 20 years Senator right and so I think that's that will be very important um to get into to make sure that you know what else do we need to do to to make the operations U much smoother um and so you know I I think I'm I'm glad that you're there I think you you know what needs to happen um in terms of policy and oversight um so I look forward to the work that you produce um and the leadership that you bring um I know there's going to be a lot of challenges um but hopefully we can make some fixes and and see see the the needle move so you know you are my former colleague I know you
142know where you come from you I actually testified before you in 04 and 05 when I was a student member and as when you were the edge Shar and so I think um we we expect big things and hopefully um turn I know so thank you chair okay thank you s questions members okay uh I have one question for you so in your uh response to our uh questions um you noted that if confirmed as chair your role as chair is to hold the department accountable and measurable progress in the key performance indicators can you explain what you mean by meable you know when it really when you really distill what the board is responsible for it's to hold the department accountable and the me measurable outcomes did the graduation rate improve did the dropout
143rate go down is the college growing rate or the career ready rate going up so those are the things and you know if you look at the nape scores there's been steady progress and so I think the department I think we should all be cognizant of the fact that education reform is hard work and it's slow work if you improve the graduation rate even by 2% that's considered that's considered you win a awards for that kind of stuff and so I think when I say measurable outcomes that's what I was alluded to thank you um having worked with you for so many years Senator chair of the House Education committee I am really pleased to see you your name here and uh look forward to working with you and that you will do um a
144good job for not just the Department of Education but for all of our students I appreciate that can I ask one make one comment financial literacy no outcomes so I agree with you on that however sometimes the outcomes itself doesn't then justify some of the expenditures which I think needs to be lined up so see the cost benefit ratio right I hear you thank you I hear okay thank you members if there's no further questions let's recess reconvening the committee on education okay thank you members um we are going to take all of the nominees in one vote because our committee members are in favor of all of our nominees and support all of our nominees so with that um members the vote is to take into consideration all of our nominees chair votes I
145no you want okay so chair is recommending that we uh advis and consent on GM 520 gm710 GM 711 GM 712 GM GM 714 and GM 7:35 so if there are no objections any members voting with reservations any member voting uh no if not chair all members voting in the affirmative so unanimous your recommendations adopted great thank you members J