001hello myo and good afternoon Mahala for joining today's uh joint a hearing with edu is February 15th and we are in room 229 March sorry March behind a little yeah sorry and we are uh video conferencing as well which is being streamed live on YouTube in unlik the event that the hearing is cut short for whatever reason we will reconvene uh Monday March 18th at 1:1 p.m. because of our 90minut time limit we have a two-minute time limit for all testifiers so one item on the agenda HB 2774 HD2 modifies certain Benchmark goals and timeline for the Department of Education to provide locally sourced Agricultural and food products first up is Department of bag not here they have comments uh Department of Education good afternoon chairs and my um members of the committee C too
002Deputy superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education and our superintendent uh the department stands on its written testimony we're in full support of this um the bill is going to help us streamline um and standardize reporting reporting obligations uh to the legislature as well as to our constituents um we're happy to it's also going to help us with communication uh for menu planners to talk to uh and share with uh farmers Growers Distributors and things of that nature so we believe this will is very important I'm happy to answer any questions thank you thank you uh Mikata from ulupono initiative in support uh Kay e Nixon from Office of Hawaiian Affairs Allah Cher gabber Cher kidani and members of the committee KY Enix with the office of hawaian Affairs we will stand on
003our written testimony and support Mahal for the opportunity Dennis Chase from Public Health Institute chair gabard chair gadani committee members thank you very much for the opportunity to testify I am the uh program manager for the farm to school hoie and we are in strong support of this measure I just want to expand on what our friends from doe were saying a little bit to say that we have act 175 and we have act 176 Farm to school and farm to state which we think are great what this does is clarify a slight discrepancy in the benchmarks between those two bills because both bills mention the Department of Education one requires 30% local food by 2030 one requires 18% local food by 2030 so we think it's really helpful for doe to clarify and for
004everyone else who's involved in the food system who will be supporting doe to clarify that it's going to be the 30% by 2030 for the Department of Education in our school cafeterias so we're in strong support thank you thank you Dennis uh momer in support Willian Colton in support n Shaw in support anyone else wishing to test on this measure please for are you sitting in the back of the classroom thank you chairs members of the commune B here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm buau sitting uh in detention in the back of the classroom uh my apologies chairs we did submit written testimony if it's not received we will make sure the Committees get our testimony in strong support uh uh we agree with Mr Chase's explanation on what this bill is hoping accomplish
005I'm just here testifying uh to really commend the Department of Education they are doing what what they believe they need to do uh stakeholders agriculture has been meeting with them seems like every week and we feel like there is momentum 2030 is 6 years away we are about 6.4% 30% is going to be about 4% per year so without speaking on behalf of the department they are serious in trying to achieve those that goal and continuing to meet those benchmarks so again we're in strong support we want to make sure that the Department of Education has the tools that they need and the resources they need in order to achieve this first goal of 30% by 2030 thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony and I will uh get the testimony if it is
006received by the Committees thank BR anyone else members any questions okay uh Ros is on the way just take a brief recess okay all right reconvening the uh 305 joint with a and Abu the decision making the chairs having conferred the chair's recommendation will be to pass this amend this measure with an amendment to change the effective date to July 1st 2050 are there any questions or concerns for aen I think Senator Deco will take the vote chair votes I all members voted on HB 2774 HD2 with amendments uh chair votes I Vice chair excuse Senator votes I Senator Ro I Senator a excuse chair your motion is adopt thank you and for this committee on education chair agrees but we have no Quorum so we will make decision do decision making on Monday March
00718th in this conference room 3 p.m. okay that uh adjourns the hearing good afternoon welcome to the senate committee on education today is Friday March 15 2024 it is 3:14 p.m. we are in hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamlined Live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and On Demand video page of the legislator's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:15 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 business on Monday March 18th 20124 at 3 p.m. in this conference room 229 a public notice will be posted on
008the legislature'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 1 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 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 members please hold any questions until testimony on all measures is heard okay our first oh because we have no quum today by the way we will defer decision making to Monday March 18th 3 p.m. in this conference room 229 our first item is House Bill 1906 house draft one relating to
009making an appropriation for the Department of Education to promote student mental health and to testify Department of Education Tammy CH Department of Education standing on our WR testimony thank you Tammy Brad kusunoki school counselor hi chair kadani Senator faella uh thank you for allowing me the opportunity to to speak and support again um just wanted to add something to my testimony about uh this is listed as a mobile app but it's way more than that mobile app is is just the one way of accessing this tool um this is which is a very important program through counselors in any school to help to maintain and to Monitor and to provide assistance to kids for their social emotional well-being uh it's it's discreet it's easy to do and what the program does in addition to Panorama
010it gives us uh something to help organize analyze and to to give us the data that we need rather than taking all the raw data and trying to to Cate and analyze it ourselves um so it really pushes us ahead and allows us to have the access and to give services to every student that needs it um and we can give it from any student from ages kindergarten through adult um and we can give them assistance if needed in a very quick amount of time so uh just wanted to clarify that're they're both programs that um of course they they there are tools and the kids might not use it but they have the opportunity to use it and it does help when they do because um it gives us an insight to how they're
011feeling and helps us to to Pro provide any interventions needed in the event that they might be feeling any of those feelings that we see that might lead to uh things that we see on the news or things that we don't want to talk about so uh I humbly ask you to just to support this measure and to allow us to keep using it thank you thank you Brad on Zoom we have osou President hsta not present on Zoom chair thank you we have someone from Hawaii state Council and mental health on Zoom not present on Zoom chair thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure if not we are moving on next item is House Bill 2399 HD1 relating to the ho state public library system exempts an additional
012administrative assistant position in the white state public library system from Civil Service here to testify Stacy Aldridge thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure moving on might finish on time our third item is House Bill 335 HD2 relating to the Department of Education procurement exempts from the Hawaii public procurement code educational materials and related training for direct student instruction in Career and Technical education programs within the department of education to testify superintendent Tammy superintendent Department ofation stand thank you Tammy on Zoom Bonnie Kakui procurement office good afternoon chair member of the committee Bonnie kahaku for the state procurement office rest stand on our written a testimony providing comments for clarity thank you thank you you Bonnie also on Zoom principal Zachary sheets my high school not present on Zoom
013chair next on Zoom Kumari Moss principal Moana laa Middle School also not present on Zoom chair tardy huh okay next to testify Shan Wong principal Roosevelt High School not present on Zoom as well chair is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure members questions on this that's all we have okay members questions on any of the items discussed for the the mental health [Music] which item 1906 okay question is that the the de or the program will be available for homeschool students and if not Department are doing reach out to the home school students so um you want to take that one introduce yourself hi Ida Bania and I'm with school-based Behavioral Health educational specialist for the office of student Support Services thank you chair kidani and senator faella for having me
014here today um to answer your question yes so it is available to all doe public school students and so we can Outreach to our home school students as well and on all grade levels all grade levels yes okay thank you J thank you is that the only questions that you have C on all of the whe that was it okay my turn um so for um doe on House Bill um has this program been used nationally or internationally um so both programs uh Panorama and Trust Circle have been used nationally um Panorama more so nationally and Trust Circle actually internationally so Panorama is widespread across the continental US and Trust circle is actually part of the World Health Organization and the cost the annual cost is oh we're asking for 1.7 for both platforms so
015equal split between the two and that's annually yes thank [Music] you um for State libraries please mie um can you explain the need for this bill to correct act 88 right so when you create a position through the budget process it creates a civil service position but the intent was always to create an exempt position so you have to create the position and then there's that statutory change that must also happen when we created the um position for our facilities to see all our facilities back in 2021 the corresponding Amendment which is reflected in HB 233 was never done so when the when that position was created was it specified at that time that it was an non Civil Service uh that was our intent and that's what we uh discussed with the um the
016finance staff but I think in the rush of everything uh we all neglected to do the followup statutory Amendment and if you notice the statute right now says that the state librari the exempt positions for the library system are the state librarian uh Special Assistant the secretaries and administrative assistant a an administrative assistant so a very technical reading of the specific language requires us to say administrative assistance within n okay thank you mie thank you let's question sorry okay so for House Bill 335 do e regarding procurement so how is this going to help student achievement and students goal of Industry recognize certifications how is this build specific so this bill would allow students to get our schools to obtain Career and Technical education equipment more quickly so that students could have access to the
017equipment and be able to learn the skills the Hands-On skills and how many contracts is this going to impact uh so we don't know yet how many contracts this will affect but we do know examples of the kinds of equipment that were um that currently need to go through the full RFP process because of the amount of the the cost of the particular equipment so sometimes our Career and Technical education equipment can be quite expensive or at least above the threshold um that we currently have for procurement uh and especially when you're doing equipment for engineering or for example uh agriculture uh they can be uh they they're higher than the current thresholds which require full full procurement which takes quite a long time sometimes it can delay receipt of the uh the equipment for
018a full school year from the time the School intends to purchase thank you thank you I never have but um for just for that going forward um would it be okay if we I me this is only out the box right if they we raise the threshold is this the schools purchasing or the doe will be purchasing for each school cuz I know there's thresholds for the principles inquiring and buying equip for the schools for Educational Tools and then the doe so which one is this going to be just a doe so it would apply across the doe whether State office or complex area or schools are purchasing uh we have all the same thresholds one of the things we'd like to do in the future is be able to have the state office be
019able to do larger purchases so that schools don't have to individually purchase um the equipment yeah that's that's what I was talking to some of the prison because you know we doing the pathways for enmies and even though Kim Sanders was blessed with an equipment of carpentry when she took over the school still yet other equipment still cost uh the school's a lot of money and the kids who's interested in them not going to be able to benefit if we cannot expedite okay thank you thank you chair app so did you guys expect the cost savings by doing that uh possibly it's possible that we'd have a cost savings we definitely have a Time Savings and I think the cost savings might come in the amount of effort that staff have to put into the
020procurement process currently but for delivery it still be to individual schools yes well it depends on the kind of equipment but a lot of this equipment is large so yes okay thank you question for the uh State procurement office is Bonnie Kakui still online line she is still on Zoom good afternoon Senator thank you so Bonnie when is SPL moving to a new electronic uh procurement system as you indicated last year the move would be completed well we're in the process now but we're not starting with the the electronic procurement portion of that we are starting with our e- Marketplace which is our already contracted Price Less and vendor list so it'll be a couple of years before we move into the full e- procurement system however we still do have our Legacy system that's
021up and running as does the doe they you I believe they use heps uh for some of their work and uh they're they're able to use hypro currently so um to address your testimony and equal opportunity though doe and other departments for um that matter could post their notices on hands which is the state's Hawaii Awards and notices data system that is cor that is correct that is a posting board only um agents vendors would have to go look for those notices as opposed to a procurement system like hypro like aloh ebis which is the brand of our new one in in hypro in an electronic procurement system notice notifications go out two vendors who have signed up in our system hands just says it's just a like a bulletin board electronic bulletin board and
022you got to go look for it so are you assuming that uh those companies that regular deal with due would not be looking at the postings I I don't know for sure particularly if it's only once in a once in a great while by but what the doe can do is reach out to their vendors uh if a particular item is coming up for their need they can reach out to their vendors and say hey go look at the the notice in hands and then that way everybody or everybody that they reach out to where that's seen the notice uh will be able to respond to them okay thank you thank you de you please so how will this help with student achievement and students goal of Industry recognized certifications so we know that the
023industry is changing really fast especially as technology um increases and there's more applications of technology and so this uh this bill would allow schools to acquire equipment Career and Technical education equipment more quickly quickly to give students uh more students access to the Hands-On experiences that prepare them for for work in some of these emerging Industries or high-tech Industries um they would be able to in some cases earn industry certifications um that are associated with um learning skills on the equipment so um you just heard the SPO say that um do you could reach out to to vendors um to and just tell them to look on hands to see what you guys are looking for is that a possibility yes yes it is so at the State office level we do use hands to
024put some of our procurement up on that system um so that is a possibility yes so what defines some how do you determine what goes on B anything that's gone through an RFP process is put up uh through the hand system is posted on there as well um and as well we also do use high pro for some of the uh uh different uh procurements that procurement methods that are used so both hypro and hands are being used by the department I don't know if you guys know the answer to this but how many contracts go has to go through a procurement each year that we're going to have to get back to I apologize I don't have that on hand yeah so you guys don't keep up a number by schols in well we
025would we would have that number I just don't have that okay I would appreciate your getting back to us on that Senator can you clarify do you mean contracts overall or do you mean specific to CTE purchases CTE purchases yes further questions thank you and this concludes our meeting or do we have something else yeah we're going to decision make is that what you're talking about yeah obviously we can't take a vote there's only my friend here and myself um so we will be decision making um on Monday March 18th at 300 p.m. in this room 229 thank you it's adjourned