EDU Public Hearing 04-13-2022 3:00pm

001good afternoon welcome to the senate committee on education today is Monday April 13th at 3:00 pm. we are in hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participant is being streamed 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 the zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include this 3:00 agenda for the committee on education in the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Monday April 18th 2022 at 3:00 p.m. and a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions

002on 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 call your name un mute 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 first on our agenda is gm7 I'm sorry let me introduce my committee I have Senator Kurt favilla here to my left and I'm sure the other committee members will be joining us shortly um a lot of them are still in other meetings sorry this is on the countdown so okay so GM 784 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Early Learning board gubernatorial nominee Carrie

003rosovich for term to expire June 30th 2025 Carrie are you there I am I'm sorry I'm sorry and I see Carrie and Bob Peters um Bob Peters is signed up to testify go ahead Bob oh thank you chair kadani and um members of the committee The Early Learning board stands in strong support of the confirmation of Carrie rosovich to continue serving on the Early Learning board as a representative of the Hawaii early intervention coordinating Council Carrie brings many years of experience in the early childhood field and her particular Sensi ity and respect for the segment of the community that early intervention is important to um keeps our Focus as a board on the needs of those children and families without losing sight of our system building efforts thank you for this opportunity to offer strong

004support for car's um confirmation thank you Bob and we have several other RIT and testimonies all in support of Terry's nomination thank you uh Senator Drew Cana to my left thank you for joining us and Senator Donna marado Kim my chair Carrie would you like to make a statement please I would um chair kadani Vice chair Kim and Senate committee on education members mahalan Nui for the opportunity to extend my appointment to the Early Learning board for another three years representing the Hawaii early intervention coordin Council my desire to serve stems from three main seeds the first is my own experience as a mom of three and the challenges I faced when my own Kiki were young it was extremely difficult navigating The Early Childhood system I had a very hard time finding affordable and

005quality child care and preschool programs specialized services for my youngest child and Community Family Support programs and I'm someone who doesn't struggle meeting basic needs for the tens of thousands of families that do struggle with meeting basic needs navigating the system is almost impossible when I worked in direct service with families helping them access resources and supports I was able to experience with them the firstand challenges of filling out government forms navigating language barriers not being able to find needed information in the sheer isolation they were experiencing secondly I believe I have skill sets that can assist the E to fulfill its Mission my background is in systems building planning policy and conflict resolution in statute the eel is charged with the complex work of coordinating the Early Childhood Early Learning System I enjoy working

006with in complexity and untangling systemic challenges and I've really enjoyed working with my peers on the Early Learning board to strengthen eel's capacity third and finally my North Star in all of the work that I've done over the last three decades has been focused on growing peaceful and just communities the health and well-being of our Ki and our families are at the core when our families are doing well our schools our workplaces our communities and our economies do well conceptually it's a relatively simple cause and effect Hawaii ranks seventh from the bottom nationally and its investments in children which for me is contrary to how I feel we value our Ki locally yet budgets reflect values I hope to continue to work with policy makers to ensure the state invests more in our Ki particularly

007in our youngest Ki so that we prevent Downstream costly and ongoing Community challenges galui for your consideration and appointing me for an additional term in serving as an early learning board member thank you carer you're welcome members are there any questions not um Carrie I I have a couple questions for you there so in your um written response and thank you for sending in your response to the questions you noted that you wanted to create a goal for eel to use the Early Childhood state plan as the eoe Strategic plan moving forward um I just wanted to note that um I think the Early Childhood state plan is you know has a lot of uh components in it that are really Department of Health and Department of Human Services so I'm I'm not sure how

008they would uh nailed into the Early Learning uh board and um so you're um in you're evaluating a future EO director's effectiveness of their role using the Early Childhood state plan How would how would that work what did you particularly like about state plan that you wanted to mild into the Strategic plan sure so so for me the Early Childhood state plan reflects the um the statute and what in act 178 or what the executive office of early learning is supposed to be doing in terms of coordinating the Early Childhood system so it's the most comprehensive plan that eel has currently to look at that system um and so for me they really are and should be tasked with that implementation working collaboratively with the other state department so they wouldn't be doing direct implementation

009probably on only certain components of that state plan but coordinating with DHS and do and the charter school commission as well as um Department of Education on making sure they're implementing their pieces so it's more of a coordination role but what comes with that is significant staffing needs to do the tracking and monitoring that's required um to demonstrate progress against the plan um making sure that we have coordination support on bringing the partners together in a really meaningful way telling the stories of success um making sure that we're advocating in the ways necessary to support the plan so it's that infrastructure that's required to meaningfully implement a strategic plan is what I feel eel needs support around thank you for that um one of the things noted in last week's hearing with the other uh

010nominees for the Early Learning board um I mean the EO was that um they have I was it 17 members they have 17 board members which makes it difficult not just to come to conclusions and decisions um but to even have all of them at the meeting so do you think that that there needs to be a reshuffling or reorganization of the board it's a very good question um I I can't answer that clearly because I really feel that first what has to be evaluated is the scope of the executive office of early learning um so if we continue to stay with the scope and the complexity that the office has been charged with then I do believe we need a representative board um because the system is very complicated um but if we move

011more towards the scope of eel being early childhood education you know child care and preschool focused then I think we need to really revisit the structure that we have in place I haven't experienced personally on the board a challenge of reaching decisions um or Forum can sometimes be a problem but reaching decisions really hasn't been the issue um it is a large board I think for a chair to to try to navigate particular clear on Communications and things like that in committees but for me if the scope is going to remain as complex and Broad as it is in act 178 that we need a representative board and I would strongly suggest that we have County representation um because e is tasked with Statewide implementation and coordination and without the counties there it makes it

012very difficult to understand the needs of neighbor Islands in an intentional way thank you Carrie you're welcome your response you also noted that um the executive office of early learning needs significant resources to achieve its Mission he also noted that the amount needed will depend on whether or not e continues to provide Direct Services or plays more of a systems coordination role in which direction do you believe e should go I believe they should go in the direction of of more systems building and Less Direct service um the executive office of early learning has done an exceptional job in my opinion of standing up the public prek program setting the quality standards working with the principles and the complex area superintendant to get that program up and running um and I think I I I

013think it's just me I'd have to consult others but I do believe that the Department of Education could run that program and executive office of early learning could really focus on the bigger systems pieces that are required around integrated Data Systems quality improvement and continuing continuing Learning Systems um the coordination pieces that are required to implement the state plan you know those bigger pieces that are Beyond just program implementation so that would be my hope moving forward okay I won't comment on the Department of Education running program but I will um ask you as a current board member have you advocated for board approved budget that increases the resources provided to the E you have we have yes so there has been prior discussion on this issue there has been I I mean they ask

014for incremental uh increases but again it's to implement the public program I I would hope that we would get to a point where we would understand um in real concrete terms the cost of implementing The Early Childhood state plan because for me that's the cost of coordinating and implementing The Early Childhood system in a really intentional way and if we understood that cost that would give the board more clarification of what we should be promoting and supporting um for the office of early learning thank you you very much K thank you for your service welcome your willingness to continue members any questions if not thank you very much Carrie aloha aloha okay next on the agenda is GM 801 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial Nomine Damien barari for a

015term to expire June 30th 2025 to testify on Zoom Malia noga olera Aloha chair kidani and members of the senate committee Aloha um I'm calling in today from Kawaii and I'm representing the moku kwaii Council of Association of Hawaiian Civic clubs and um we submitted um our testimony and strong support of this confirmation for k bakari um M manoo has worked with Mr bakari in different settings that range from general education in Hawaii Hawaiian language and culture-based education and other Civic and social issues we have witnessed his leadership and commitment to promoting excellence and equity for our Ki and our community we feel that his experience with policy formulation and ongoing work on committees like the human resources and student achievement will be a value to the work ahead for the Board of Ed Mahal

016aloho Aloha to you too um next Susan Picola Davis also on Zoom Susan okay I was waiting to be unmuted good afternoon Cher kadani and Bard MERS I'm testifying in strong support for kaima bar barosi to have his membership on the board of uced he is an active board member his strong knowledge of the Hawaii culture lends a perspective that is true Hawaii he adds depth to discussions and poses relevant questions he actively participates at all meeting meetings thank you for providing him the opportunity to get confirmed for an extension of his continuing service thank you thank you very much Susan members questions of Susan next to testify in person Sher Nakamura he a coalition Sher please [Music] Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee my name is Shar Nakamura director

017of he Coalition we stand on our written testimony in strong support of the nomination of kaim barar for a second term on the board of education Kima has been a firm but fair voice at the Boe when it comes to understanding how doe will spend State and or federal funds he consistently asks for essential information such as data which should inform good planning a plan that everyone can understand and specific timelin so that everyone knows when things are supposed to be done he is also not afraid to inform the doe when they have not provided sufficient information or information in a timely manner to go back and redo things to meet the boe's expectations kima's deep knowledge of Hawaiian language and culture also keeps the Boe and doe grounded in Havi and keeps a focus

018on equity and education in our system we urge the committee to support his nomination thank you for this opportunity to testify thank you Sher members any questions if not um there are about another 35 uh written testimonies in support of this nomination and I'd like to invite Carman or Cary to the seat please and would you like to make an opening statement please olaaa Aloha I really do appreciate the opportunity to be considered for another term to serve our Kiki this past three years has been very eye openening for myself I had never imagined that we would end up in a pandemic and and really having an opportunity to overhaul A system that really needs it I found a lot of solace in myself when when things got a little bit of crazy and and

019really tried to reenter around the students School visits for me was something that was very very important to really get to hear from our Educators but more important from our kis and our families and that is why I'm here today to to continue service in any way I can and I would thank Mahal you for that opportunity thank you very much K and also thank you for your willingness to serve another term and to be engaged in those very long meetings um in your response your response to the committee you noted the need to resume discussions with Community Partners to strengthen public support and buyin to our public education system um can you um elaborate on that com yes most certainly in in the first eight months of my my initial term I was super

020encouraged by a lot of progress that that was made um we had a lot of reach out from our community supporters uh one particular item was um we had a meeting at our board offices with the um white executive Roundtable education committee and then a lot of of members of our business communities and they express a huge desire to be working with our schools they express the frustration that they often have to look outside of to find worthy candidates or willing candidates to fill a lot of the jobs that we have here in Hawaii they recognize and so did we that we need to start creating a bridge not just saying we're going to do it but then putting resources towards it when I talk to to teachers and and other Educators they would love

021to have the support of the business Community but putting that extra kolana on them at this point in time when they have so much other things to do it is really hard they're already spending a lot of dollars out of their own personal pockets of money they're already spending more time than um a lot of us realize so we started initial talks and how do we create that bridge how how do we find those and most likely from the business community that would be willing to to take on that charge now these discussions were very um preliminary where initial we were really encouraged about that and then the pandemic hit and we had to really shift to student safety to to make sure that our our students were safe that they were fed we realized

022that a lot of our especially disadvantaged children they get a lot of their stability at our schools so we really had to do as much as we could to shift and get into that mode of um jumping right back into business not having a gap in waiting to see what happens even though we we really had no idea what was going to happen in the meantime a lot of our business supporters continually supported through through testimony through through phone calls but they too realize that this wasn't the time now that that the the pandemic is I wouldn't say under control but we have a better grasp on on where it may be going and how we might better adjust to it I I believe now is the time for us to pick up these conversations

023to reach back out to our partners and a lot of them have been waiting for that and I think by doing so we can create that that bridge and the opportunities for our students you it really breaks my heart when a lot of our a lot of our Kiki leave because they don't perceive that there's something here for them and in a way they're right but how do we make something for them and how do we Empower them to create these opportunities for themselves through our education system thank you for that P so if reconfirmed what areas do you think we need to plan to focus on First and um you you talk about the need to increase opportunities to recruit and grow our own teachers and educate and Educators is that something that you

024think we should start first or do you have other ideas where we should I apologize I didn't hear the last part of that the need to increase opportunities to recruit and grow our own teachers is that some place where we should start or are there other areas where we should start first to focus I think we we need to continue on that area to recruit our own teachers and to recruit more teachers but something that has become really apparent especially during the pandemic is that teacher recruitment is not enough we need to combat our our our teacher loss there's been so many people that have have retired because of the pandemic or during the pandemic for for safety reasons but we're also on on a I believe a really good track with with your folks

025support and and the differentials for um for sped for um heart to fill and and wine immersion that signaled the value that we put in our Educators next up with that was looking at the compression issue to make sure that it's not just those in these fields what all of our teachers are valued and and have what it takes to to make a living and that they're compensated properly unfortunately again because of the um the the co issue a lot of that had to be put in the back burner and I I do believe that those are two things that we can start looking at now with your support that will make a big difference and and and position us for success in near future thank you um you know we do have bills going

026through the Senate right now that um uh puts quite a bit of money into the the teachers decompression the um I think it's 93 94 million or something like that um and one of the other things that you may or may not know is part of the issue I think has been is that the classifications for teachers has been in statute and they're the only public Union so when they reach the top you know there's no more movement so um um um we have in that same bill asked that the statute be removed you know with the classif classifications in it and they just negotiate like other unions and they have agreed to do that this time so hopefully that will help and we we do have other funding for the differentials for the hardto

027fill areas um and hope again hopefully that will help but I do agree with you that uh during the pandemic we lost a lot of great teachers we lost a lot of tenure teachers mainly because a lot of them were not comfortable with doing virtual teaching Etc and I think that was someplace where uh the department fell short and not being able to train our teachers or provide them with I mean even students in high school who could I mean my my middle school grandkids can operate my phone better than I can and when I have problems I just hand it to them and they'll fix it so you know I think those were places that we could have done a better job um so I I hear what you're saying in the questionnaire I

028asked about the doe strategic plan which the doe currently does not have do you believe you believe five education achievement markers that should be part of the next strategic plan or academic achievement social emotional intelligence Readiness for Next Level ability to overcome and adapt to difficult situations and contributions to the community how do you see these five achievement markers being integrated into a strategic plan so I I think really it although they're five they have to be integrated together I I think for me one of the biggest things that I I see a lack of nowadays is giving our students the opportunity to aana giving them the opportunity to take on responsibilities to contribute back to the communities thus giving relevance to the education that they have why am I learning these things what am

029I going to do you know oftentimes we hear that well you know you go get an advanced degree you can make a million dollars somewhere and that that's success and that is one measure of success but what about our students that maybe not making a million dollars but but they're contributing posi positively to their communities they're helping others in their communities to elevate themselves and thus Elevate our lahu our our our communities as a whole so I think in in any strategic planning it it's not just about the great parts that we put together but the integration of these different parts and I think that in itself is key um those those five areas as well as others that will be definitely brought to a strategic planning process but really making the parts work as

030a whole is what I think is is really necessary to accomplish that thank you and my final question is how quickly do you believe that the Board needs to engage with a new the new superintendent to build this strategic plan I would say as quickly as possible uh I I think it all a lot of it depends on who this uh new superintendent is and how they work some some people like to get a good lay of the land a good understanding you know some people have uh plans that are you know your first 100 days your first 30 days your first 60 days um I I I believe as soon as a superintendent has a good grasp of the situation and an understanding and has talked to enough has engaged enough with um with

031you folks with with with our legislators our communities our staff and have that understanding and ready that is when um it'd be appropriate to start this or start engaging in a strategic planning process um exactly the sooner the better is is what I would hope for it to be thank you for that members any questions Senator K hi good afternoon I'm sorry I didn't get to meet with you Ahad of time I did meet with all the others so um going to ask you the questions I probably would have asked you if we met earlier you talked to just now about the education achievement markers and about the Strategic plan and um part of that is social social intelligence emotional intelligence Readiness for the next level and um you know I don't necessarily think we

032have to have a strategic plan to be able to integrate that into our schools have you being on the board notice or realize that we are are students are lacking in being socially adapt and being ready for the world whether they they go to college or not that they can interview that they are um they have social skills that they can balance a checkbook that they have financial literacy um having been on the board um have you any thoughts about that and have you folks discussed that has it been something that you folks uh have been um prioritizing so I I I I do have some context and some understanding of that but not so much from um from meetings in the boardroom more so from meeting with our students in their schools meeting in

033in the community forums and and and listening you know listening to our principles listening to our CES listening to to our teachers and really understanding what the Readiness factor is for for the Youth for for the children um no I don't think we we need to um have a strategic plan to start that I I think it should be core to to what we do but I do believe that it should be accounted for in a strategic plan like I mentioned earlier I think all the different parts of a strategic plan need to work together and and need to be really really um considered and and understood that it's it's it's the parts that make the whole you know it's Hawaii is such an inter interdependent Place often times we hear the the ideals u

034in America of of being independent right but growing up here in Hawaii I understand that it's really about caring for each other about that interdependence so being able to give our students the opportunity like I mentioned before to to Al kolana to take on some of these responsibilities I think that's part of the socio emotional um learning that's really important because they start to feel value we don't need a strategic plan specific specifically to make that happen that can and and I've I've seen some great examples of it already happening um in schools you know it's I I'm a proud graduate of wak high school and I I I will admit that I wasn't probably the best uh student there um but you know I'm the oldest in my family and I had to make

035my way and learn going back and visiting that school they had their ambassadors that um took us around and and and shared and it was it was really beautiful but then I went walking around afterwards to observe those that weren't given that responsibility and and I I still saw a lot of a lot of promise and so um it it's super important but giving the students this this opportunity to grow into that and guide them into a social emotional well-being it is super important so what have the board done I mean have you folks mandate anything to the to the superintendent or to the schools in this area or I mean it's one thing to talk about and say how important it is but I mean we've had to we've had bills to include financial

036literacy in the curriculum so why do we need a law why do we need a bill if that's so important then why isn't it part of the curriculum the normal curriculum not an not an elective but part of the everyday and teaching it from a young age as they grow so are you does the board aware of some of the measures that going through where you know we really don't need a law you folks can can AFF effectuate those important areas I I agree um I I myself am not fully aware we do have a great um uh a team that that is following building the ledge that that does keep us informed um to be honest I I I don't know that we've addressed that specifically um that that specific issue around the um

037financial literacy and and check rating so are are you aware that it's only an elective in some schools and and some schools don't even have it are you aware of that that's my understanding so is that acceptable you know I I I I think we can definitely improve I think it needs to be improved okay so I I guess that's what I'm driving at you know you've been on the board and um you're going to be on and so I'm hoping that there's some proactivity in in these areas of of importance and not wait for strategic plan not wait for the legislature to pass a law but that you folks are going to be proactive in in making sure that this becomes part of the curriculum um so that our students are ready um and

038I've shared this with the with the other nominees but I sit on the witchy board and um one of the areas in which we all agree is that our students across the nation coming out of high school lacking social skills lacking skills to interview for jobs and um lacking financial literacy they cannot can't change back they can't do some basic things and one of the things we talked about was that colleges maybe should be uh providing some of these programs and these courses at the college level which really worries me because we're going to be teaching basic things that should be taught at the high school and intermediate school and yet we're going to saddle our students with student debt at the college level for these basic courses that they should have already under their

039belts and so I think that's an area that's really lacking and I'd love love to see that the Board of Education take a stronger role in talking and and working with the superintendent and the area superintendent into looking at how do we Implement these things now and not wait for a law and not wait for a Str plan h on the other area I notice that you're on um the human Human Resources um committee is that correct are you familiar with the overpayments um overpayment where the state overpays uh teachers because they don't have they take they get all of their all of their sick leave and all of the vacation up front and so some of them use it up before they six months and they use it up and then they go on

040vacation or they go on sick leave and because it's automatic payroll they get paid and they end up owing us because we overpaid them they didn't have vacation they didn't have sick leave and it's thousands of dollars in fact there's a point where if you add it all up doe is one of the largest um violators of that of millions of dollars and half of that is uncollectible because teachers either quit or leave the system and so that and every year after year we've been after doe to do a better better collection a better way of making sure that teachers who do not have sick leave or vacation left that they go on the manual system of reporting their pay so that they're not overpaid because when they're overpaid then they take a long time

041to pay it back the losses we can take it a percentage but the unions you know fight it and the and the people who got it fight it but if we underpaid if we underpaid anybody boy we better make sure we make that whole the very next month or the very next week but we we overpay and these are thousands and thousands of dollars some teachers or or Personnel have gotten over payments and then will pay $25 a month and take forever and then they leave the system and you can't collect it and this is money that is could be used in our classrooms it could be used for our teachers um so you're not aware of that I'm not aware of it but Mahalo for bring into my I'll make sure that our committee

042does take that issue up because I bring that up every year I talk about it in meetings I talk about it with doe uh talk to the governor's office I mean this is something that's been going on for for a number of years so I hope that you guys become aware of this and that more effort is done in being able to um do something about it to collect it thank you w thank you thank you chair um kind of going back off of what Senator Kim was saying and first off for uh taking the leap and continuing on hopefully uh on the board for another term and I think you know I'm a big advocate of yours and know you do good work in the community and hopefully I'll continue to do good work

043advocating for our kids now and into the future but going off of what Senator Kim says you know we have bills coming through the L every year um and the department always says we can do that ourselves we can do that ourselves we don't need a law but we keep on providing these laws like whether it's financial literacy or other types of things that we feel as a legislature are important uh for our kids so one of your responses not really a response to that but in terms of uh Boe has an absolute expectation to advocate for needed resources um he noted that it was readily apparent that our lawmakers need more confidence and Clarity that the resources already allocated are being utilized appropriately and effectively by the department before we can request additional resources

044so how do you balance you know the expectations of the legislature and in relation to the needs of the students in the schools and the Boe and the or the department you know in terms of like us requesting some our expectations and then your expectations I I I really look forward to um the new superintendent coming in and and really level setting that we have great communication between the superintendent the board and the legislature you know we we've heard over and over um how your case in point Senator Kim with with this area that I was not aware of but I should have been um that there are inefficiencies that that need to be taken into account of we will need significant resources in in the near future um especially to combat learning loss and

045to you know create a better system for our students but we hear you I hear you that that there's an efficiencies that we need to address first so my response was was such because I I I I understand and my hope is that we can work with the um New superintendent not my hope my expectation is that we will work with the new superintendent whoever that may be to create the systems of accountability to understand how to create efficiencies so that when we come to you folks with a request it's clear it's concise you have confidence that it's needed and that we've already looked elsewhere and we couldn't find it elsewhere that that we've come to you so that that's what I expect to happen with our next superintendent thank jar thank you and by

046by the way I had an opportunity to visit your Al way here last month and um I agree it was a wonderful opportunity to meet with the students and even those that were not part of the committee were very pleasant and you know s Aloha and greeted us as we walked by it's very very nice good experience so thank you Mahal without further questions our next GM 804 so submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial nominee Bruce Voss for a term to expire June 30th 2025 and to testify we have Susan Bola Davis Susan please Aloha it's my pleasure to testify for Bruce and an extens I mean confirmation for a second term he is an active board member his strong knowledge of Finance added substance to the finance committee meetings

047in his capacity of chairman of the finance committee he adds insight into the Department's presentations on budget for the board to be accountable there needs to be a robust finance committee led by a leader with integrity and standards he openly listens he listens to testifiers when they testify or early he reads the written testimonies he challenges when necessary and adds Clarity to the confusion he actively participates in all meetings I truly believe that this is a very necessary second term that we keep Bruce because there will not be continuity and his expertise in finances brings a lot to the table whether it's in a finance committee or even at the board once the finance committee has met and then the general business meeting occurs he provides a lot of insight for those that thank you

048Susan your time is up also to testify live in person shering nak for he [Music] Coalition Aloha again Cher kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee Sher Nakamura director of he Coalition uh we stand on our written testimony in strong support of the nomination of Bruce Foss for another term on the board of education one of he's biggest priorities is equity in education and looking out for our struggling students Bruce is a strong advocate for these students and in his actions interactions with you we make sure that they are being addressed coherence transparency and accountability is the coalition's second biggest priority we have been extremely thankful to Bruce for asking the doe tough questions to get clarity on things like how the cares and Esser funds are being spent how our CIP funds

049are being spent and what the doe is doing to make processes and op operations more efficient so that we can get to the outcomes we desire we look forward to working with Bruce and we urge the committee to support his nomination thank you for this opportunity to testify thank you Sher there's also a written testimony in support from David miiro of Hawaii kids can Bruce please go ahead and make an open statement Al chair kidani and members of the committee thank you very much for taking the time this afternoon when the governor asked me to consider um what would be actually my third term I thought back to the words of my father who was a math teacher at kylo intermediate for almost three decades and uh my father was a great teacher but he

050was a Taskmaster and my father would always say to his kids us and to his students a job half done is a job not done at all and at the board of education and the Department of Education the job is not done the pandemic has caused Great harm to our students particularly our English Learners and our financially disadvantaged students both in their learning and their social emotional well-being there's a lot of work to be done a lot of work and if confirmed by the Senate I would like to support the new superintendent whoever that is and her or his team to do the work necessary to get our students back to where they should be where they must be thank you chair thank you Bruce members questions before I start online because I'm sorry I'm

051gonna ask to leave for another meeting but um and I know we met and I asked you a lot of questions already okay ask away Senator no I was just reading your response and you talked about the CIP prioritizations one of the things that you push you and that you're you're part of doing and um I commend you for that every year however it seems as though the legislators of the area have CIP requests for their schools which seems to be uh not on the priority list or very low ranked on the list of cips that the doe decides they want to do and so how do we reconcile that and um you know I know are some of the older schools like parenton High School which we are both alumni I mean that campus

052is very old um both um Senator kadani and myself their buildings there that was there when we were there and um their master plan is really it's it's taken a long long time and a lot of the students across the island from other areas and if Senator faella was here probably would jump in and they're very envious of all the new schools and all the latest Technologies at the schools and you know the wonderful facilities and some of the old schools are are you know really bad uh luckily for Faron we fought really hard to get the field and the new stadium area you can see it from the freeway and everybody's very envious of Fon but they don't see the empty pool that's been deteriorating they don't see the gym that's terrible I mean

053there's all the stuff that's going on the campus so how do how do the board help to reconcile some of these no it's it's a great question senator and if I may briefly you know we're all shaped by our personal background so briefly I want to tell you how I came to this um I I I graduated from Kaho high school and I was six years there I was there in the 70s when it transitioned from an intermediate school to a high school and if you may recall if you around at the time that area of kyoo was represented by people who were unfortunately not influential in the legislature and so in this actually happened in the late 1970s when it came time to paint Kaho High School um the only thing we had they

054took all the leftover paint from the elementary schools the purple paint the green paint the red paint and that's how they painted Kaho high school and we laughed about it we joked about it but it it really did make all of us feel kind of like second class citizens this is paint didn't hurt anything but that always stuck with me you know and then I look at places like um and I don't mean to put anyone on the spot um ferrington is one of them nanakuli kuki High School King Intermediate School some the neighbor Islands you know WEA on the big island Kaho some of those places in my view it's just not fair I I don't want any kid to ever feel second class in a learning environment so to answer your question it

055has to be a balance as long as I have been paying attention to legislators uh legislators will advocate for their districts and they should and we have gotten some terrific schools as a result of that and some money um that you wouldn't already have gotten my wife teaches at mono High School I'm grateful to the legislature for um all they've done for that but we cannot let the schools that have fallen into disrepair like kamuki high school go the way they're going because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy Senator if we don't improve those schools the senator the parents don't want to send their kids and it it grindle down to nothing so the department has to work with the legislators on their priorities incorporate those into the the policy which uh commands um you know socioeconomic

056um equity and come up with a list that is public that's part of the conversation so that when the legislators go to fund uh the CIP projects during the session they have a list they can talk to the people at the department and facilities and that's going to be a key part of the superintendent team and try to find that balance so that they can advocate for their districts but that these students don't get left behind in second class so that's you know I often talk about balance but this is an area where balance is definitely needed well let me just share you a story about the field at farington and so while we put in the money they did up the contracts because they ran out of money or the bids came in a

057certain amount they cut out the lights for the field okay so we're going to have a football field with no lights and so the principal came to see me and the counselors came to see me the coaches came to see me and they said we're not going to be able to play games at night we we don't have the lights and then I was told and I said okay well you know we'll put the money in the budget and they said the contract says if you don't do it by the time the contract begins you cannot add the lights and if you go back in later and dig up the field you're GNA have what happened at at at Castle and some and some of the bad things that went on and so we we

058pushed for that I ended up talking with the chair of the Board of Education he found money in an account that Doe has um for when they have extra monies from a contract additional monies I guess it's a f found the money we put it in but if we didn't get involved we would have a field today at farington with no lights and then the same thing happened again when they were finishing up the field they didn't have they didn't have money for the visiting bleachers and a bathroom and we had to go and find the money again and same thing I think it came out of that fund right Senator yeah um but again I mean how how do we get so oh I'm sorry I didn't mean interrup there's there's sort of two

059two parts to that question uh the answer is um first is on the project management because that what you're describing at least in part is a project management failure and we just learned this I had the facilities people come and it's not not their fault but I don't know if you know this there are almost a hundred positions vacant now within facilities development and Facilities Management and they have ideas Mr Tanaka in terms of of mentorship and bringing people in but it's a huge gap there we need to get that department fully staffed with experienced people and frankly if we need to pay Market rates for that we need to do that we need to get those people second you know whether it is um you know lights at Fairington um or any of the

060other many issues you know I would encourage whether it's lawmakers or whatever to to communicate to the board you know I was telling this to Senator kadani when I met with her people call me all the time and a lot of times they're yelling at me you know about things that the department doesn't does it not doing and people yell at you all the time but you know what that's how I learn things you know and I particularly love it when parents call and yell at me because I learned stuff about what's happening in the schools and so that's the kind of relationship that I hope the board and the department can have the legislature going forward I mean you know what you folks have done are hopefully about to do with the um the

061teacher differentials and the compression issue that's a wonderful message and I hope I hope that's the beginning of kind of a little bit of a new relationship where we can talk openly and if where the department or the board screws up which we will on stuff like the lights at Fairington you know we can do what's necessary to fix it and fix it now I appreciate your response and like we I said we did go to uh don Herer who was the chair of the board at the time and he did find the money so we did I did have that relationship with him that we were able to do that so this is my last statement I'm going to make before I go um the keii school being done on Maui and I know

062that the doe may have had resistance to it but my understanding is that school's going to costs us in excess of $300 million to build a school which to me is is crazy because we have so many schools that could use some of that money to be upgraded and yet we're spending that money because of the rock because they were told that this is not a good area to build a school but we went ahead and built it it anyway and it's costing more and more uh as the days go by and um it's it's such a waste that we do stuff like that because again the money could be used at other schools absolutely and I know it's expensive I haven't heard the $300 million number but but it wouldn't surprise me given the

063the site uh constraints there in Maui the traffic as you know the land use commission had its own you know view view on that um and no doubt we need to we need to do a better job the Board needs to do a better job the department needs to do a better job of spending that money sufficiently to to their credit and I do want to defend the department here you know um some of the procedures they've put in place particularly for the repair and maintenance project and there's been some Innovative projects that's better and those are being done more efficiently and one of the things that we need to do is scale those processes up take those ideas for the larger CIP projects now remember some of that's going to be taken over by

064the school facilities agency but they need the school facilities agency needs to hire its good people take the priority lists take the ideas and and begin to develop uh projects more efficiently and I'll admit part of that problem is the legislators get involved and we kind of mandate and say this is where we want it but I think that in some cases the board has to stand up to the legislature and say this doesn't make sense if you put it there it's going to cost us amount and it's going to take off for other schools and you know cuz we're we're not the experts we rely on you guys to be the experts to tell us and when you guys don't then we'll dream it up understand we do we'll dream it up I mean

065that's our role right to try to put something there I mean In fairness to the legislators and and and and I'm I am very familiar with the background of kii school you know that's a burgeoning area a school needed an active legislator and and and good for them they're doing what they're supposed to do they're representing their constituents so I I'm I'm be the last person to criticize them um but you're right cost control has to be a factor it has to be a factor great thank you appreciate thank you um on that note um the school facilities agency bill was passed almost three years ago I think and unfortunately it took a while for uh the governor to name the executive director who has been named p f is from the Big Island um

066but I think the problem that was just discussed can can um somewhat be resolved with the school facilities agency to give um you know us some information and and uh for the board to get involved too as to what you you guys are hearing um and agree the 300 million price tag um is because it is Blue Rock the land should never have been purchased by the state uh it was purchased um quite a number of years ago um the other issue with that now and which is going to be make it even more expensive and the board might want to weigh in on this is the community wants um an underpass under the freeway which is going to cost a lot of money and I want to weigh in by saying this noani high

067school was built with an underpass of Camp Highway The Underpass gave them nothing but problems for years the kids would go there and smoke after school fight whatever it was um and now the homeless were were in it they finally closed it they closed it up it's not usable so uh what the intention was was good but that's not in today's world not not how is not how it's going to be used so I think um you know the board should should look at that and maybe weigh in with the Department I I don't know where we are and something that I might want to look at further I don't know if the money was is in this budget now to do that or not um so I can understand um why the school facilities

068agency was was needed and again we did pass it a while ago but you know things sometimes moves too slowly here um but I look forward for the board's you know input in some of these projects and and hopefully the school facilities agency will take the lead and let us know through the department where where the the facilities are needed um and not so much the legislators weighing in and saying this is you know what we want in our district because while it's good to have it's not always should be first on the list and and that's why at least I hope in some small way the board policy that that kenura and I put put together um will help because from the Department side the priorities you know this for decades have been kind

069of a black box nobody knows what's on the list or where it is and how it gets shifted and that list is made public and it's part of the overall conversation including with the legislators then we can uh get not just better projects but hopefully more efficient like cost efficient projects so thank you thank you U Bruce I wanted to ask you um what the board's timeline is to name the new superintendent we've had a couple delays and the board has moved it back yes and it's uh not doing anyone any good to you know Wonder uh when this process is going to end and so that we can you know get down to business finish the strp plan um you know it would have been nice to have more uh input on the budget

070I don't get me wrong uh super interim superintendent Hayashi has been uh very rigorous in um spending time with us uh he's kept us here asking questions many nights but um I I do appreciate his willingness to learn but we need to make sure that we don't delay it any further so that we can um get down to business and and start agreed and you just mentioned intentions and what's the old line I'll paraphrase it the road to heck is paved with good intentions um in terms of the amount of time it's taken there was a couple factors um that the board considered um one was it wanted to get the input of you know the community advisory committees and the superintendent it wanted to H cast the broadest net uh you know for candidates

071so that we could see everyone who was interested in the job who's qualified and third rightly or wrongly uh the decision was made it probably wouldn't be a good idea to change in the middle of the school year um all that being said I agree with you it probably has gone on a little longer than ideally it should and so to answer your question specifically there will be a um a committee meeting um in the first week of May uh uh uh to approve essentially the um some processes and then on May I believe it's 19th the finalists that are selected by the um the committee uh the search committee which has done an enormous amount of work will be interviewed by the full board and it is the expectation that at are about that

072day assuming that the candidates are acceptable to the board that a new superintendent will be selected I hope so um certainly by so a month from now we a month from now and um you know and I do commend and uh interim superintendent Hayashi for his his patience you know and his commitment to the students and his commitment to keeping the schools open he was put in a difficult if not impossible situation and um you know I think the school's benefited from you know what he's done in that extremely difficult situation yeah I think it was a difficult and impossible situation myself to not have a strap plan you can't hire a fire so you have the same people that you're working with whe you know good or bad that's you know whatever right and

073that I mean you're 100% right on that and that that's the whoever the new superintendent is that's job one is to assemble his or her team right a team that is um you know got not just the experience but has the ability as as Miss Nakamura likes to say to develop the internal process is necessary to change change the mindset within the department that we're here to support the schools that's what we do and and is willing to accept new procedures new ideas and um it's a difficult thing it really is the very you mentioned the Strategic plan and we need to get on that but the very first thing the Board needs to do with a new superintendent is help her or him develop the kind of team that's necessary to uh drive this

074forward and remediate the learning loss thank you for that and I appreciate your willingness to continue to serve Bruce thank you you've been a great asset to the board appreciate it further questions I'll just do a quick one I can M chair um hello Bruce just real quick just going off of one of your statements you made you know you spoke about the the trauma you know of the kids mental health and coming back to school how that's all going to all play out and and really um you felt strongly developing better metrics to address the student's social emotional well-being um you know and you you said it's going to take time obviously to get a a a better understand understanding of what really is going on and there was a uh you know an

075upfront um what is it an upfront I guess um data collection at first I handle but it didn't fully Encompass what you thought which I feel exactly the same way um but how do you see the board helping the department accomplish this in in getting B better data collection not only for a lot of this types of stuff but obviously throughout a lot of the other things you spoke about in your responses better data collection to better handle how we move forward in the future so um the the data tool that was used by the department and used by by a lot of lot of school districts you know is the Panorama tool that's given to the students and um you know again I just know from talking to teacher my own wife who teacher

076at mono high school that um not that the students didn't take that seriously they did um as they do all testing and there but it didn't encompass everything of what they what they what they were feeling and and in particular I mean the sense of disconnectedness and disengagement that students felt you know that the um from a learning and participation you know it was almost like an out-of-body experience and and that has uh created all kinds of disruptive and unproductive Behavior so as I mentioned there are there are tools um you know that that uh the national association's board of education Advocates there's other ones that I know that are available and we you know it's a two-prong process we need to work with the Department to to find the proper tools have the students

077uh you know provide the data and then work with the Department with regular reporting on on programs um you know that can address this you know as as K said and I'm so happy that he's staying on the board because he's such a great asset a lot of this is peer driven right you know um peer groups and and the kinds of opportunities to participate in in peer activities that just simply haven't been there the last two years we have plenty of money we have the Esser funds the uh the complex areas are directing those the Board needs to put all that together require regular reporting by the department and the complex area superintendence and make sure that money is available even for small things at the schools high schools intermediate schools programs activities nights

078food for students you wouldn't believe Senator what a big deal it is just to provide snacks for students to keep them there learning all that kind of stuff we need to pay attention to and make sure is being done and so and and that the public can um learn about and offer its ideas because you know we've heard some of them today the public has great ideas and over the last couple years uh the department you know arguably hasn't listened to all those ideas and and I want I want us as the board want the department to listen to those ideas to help those students in their social emotional learning thanks Bruce thanks chair thank you thank you much appreciate it moving along GM 802 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education

079gorial nominee Nicole mclen for turn to expire 6:30 20125 to testify Susan Picola Davis please helloha Aloha thanks for hanging in there Susan it's like a board of education I mean a depart yeah board meeting It's Gonna Last all day right so Nicole Aloha and get ready for your opportunity to participate in making our public schools great public schools for all of Hawaii's kakei be prepared for long hours prior to every meeting you will need to put aside some personal time to read the minutes and all the written testimonies during the meetings you will be actively listening to oral testimonies from your constituents it is important to know that your board membership comes with high expectations from the public part of this includes holding the Department of Education accountable be ready to ask questions for

080clarity from all presenters on the agenda it is a very important job you are undertaking with its ups and downs thank you for accepting the nomination I noticed in your resume that you have qualities that the board would definitely benefit from thank you Susan your time is up sorry next to testify Rick eged president Wy key Improvement Association not here in Support also Ivan lwan it's Ivan here in support and a bunch of testimonies received all in support Mak thank you for joining us please make your opening statement Aloha Cher kidani Vice chair Kim and honorable members of the senate committee on education it is an honor to be here today before you seeking confirmation of my nomination to the Hawaii state board of education this is a tremendous responsibility that if confirmed I will

081take very seriously I have had the pleasure of connecting with each of you um and your office staff over the past weeks as well as a number of your colleagues in the Senate and I found our conversations to be insightful and productive I'd like to Mahalo you all for sharing your most precious resource with me your time as well as the colleagues and friends of mine who took the time to support me in this endeavor I'm grateful for all that this body has done and continues to do for our Ki thank you for the opportunity to be heard before you today and I humbly ask for your support in this nomination to the Board of Education mahalo Mahal Mak I hope Susan Picola Davis didn't scare you off she did but it is true the

082board meetings have been very lengthy but look kimana and Bruce are back so so it can't be all that bad I mean it's a tremendous responsibility to sit on the board uh as legislators and and on this committee you feel that tremendous I'm not going to call it a burden responsibility and um so we're very happy when new faces you know come up come up and and uh are willing to take up the mantle and and serve our students our community um and you know thank you for coming to to uh sit with me and talk story and I'll ask a few questions um for the general public also because I actually have gone over these things with you already but in your response you talk about needing clear metrics to determine success for the

083Department of Education what are some key metrics or indicators you would like the doe to use to measure and evaluate Student Success I think many of the other Akamai folk before me had a lot of man that I think is of value K's five um sort of metrics if you will but I think if I could uh chair kidani expound um I think one of the things when we think through strategic planning and metrics is really looking at the the indicators that were already set in the 2017 through 2020 plan and ensuring that um we have some accountability in those um look at areas of opportunity for growth and Improvement um because as I understand it really with the exception of two um many of them fell short in terms of success and those indicators

084so I would look at um doing a a deeper dive on on how we can improve that as we move forward into strategic planning for the future um for our Kiki but I think in general the indicators that have already been laid out in the plan are spot on thank you so you in your response the written response to the committee you talk about the need for targeted and Equitable programming to fill the gaps what gaps do you believe exist in the do now what proposals do you have to fill those gaps I think access is a is a a a big thing uh equity and access um when you're when you're considering Public Schools it is a deep passion of mine to ensure access it's something that we deal with in the health care

085sector um and I do see as I've shared with you and others lots of synergies between Healthcare and education when we're considering the well-being of families um and Ki and so um I do think looking for ways to bridge gaps in terms of access needs to be something that the Boe and the doe partner together uh hopefully with the legislature as well but uh developing programs and uh strategies around identifying those gaps and ways to develop Partnerships to address it um is a passion of mine thank you for that um I appreciated your response that you highlighted increasing Workforce Development opportunities in the the health care field for our students how do you see the board helping build these Partnerships and Workforce Pathways with the doe and private sector Partners thank you for that uh

086question chair I think um as again folks before me that are Akamai have shared I definitely believe that there's an appetite in the business Community uh both for-profit and nonprofit to partner with Ki uh to ensure um a better bridge between education and career Readiness um so I think again um not to double down on the point but I do think that there's opportunity for the Boe um to consider creative and innovative solutions or to um build upon the successes that many other Boe members have have begun um in terms of developing Pathways um there are lots of private schools that have begun pathway programs for KiKi um and some doe schools that have done a phenomenal job as well I for consideration I'd only be looking uh at ways to expand that opportunity uh

087as as appropriate um and notably I would be one to advocate for those opportunities to the underserved Kiki thank you for that I think um the legislature has been been a strong proponent of of these Pathways um even our career technical education our uh Alternative Learning Centers and you know as many of you have talked about uh students needs um we also know that not every student can sit in the classroom for six hours a day and and you know learn and so there are other ways that we are looking at to you know to make sure that um they have the education and skills they need to move forward in life I think um uh Pathways aren't excellent example of of how they can do this and there are several schools in the state

088that are doing we saw when we visited the Big Island um one pathway where they were teaching um the students how to be surveyors and they were so excellent I was just so amazed we have um at white paho high school they have a health Academy and I was kind of Blown Away a couple years ago when uh first lady Biden was here to push for vaccinations um Hawaii Pacific Health rolled up in their brand new bus that was suited for the vaccination purposes and every employee on the bus that was doing vaccinations were graduates of Wahu High School the year before hired by Hawaii Pacific health and making earning a a decent uh wage and the assistance on the bus were that came onto the bus were the students that were currently at White

089High School in the health pathway and and this is you know how it's meant to work and I think the ideas that our educators are bringing to the table with the help of the Board of Education um is significant because I think you know in the days that when we went to school we did have what what is now called Pathways we had auto shops and you know sheet Meadow Woodworks and and whatever you know for a long time they stopped but uh we know that our um local community has a hard time finding um you know um employees to fill these jobs and I've known that some of the auto body shops have to you know bring people from the mainland because they don't have um workers here who know how to do that

090and and so we need to find out what the community and what the businesses in our community need and to be able to help help them you know fill those needs through our student population so I appreciate your your willingness to sit on the board and yes it is um hard work but it's interesting and you will be part of guiding the lives of of future students and I think that should give you great satisfaction and I am very thankful that you're willing to serve members any questions just quick hello Mak and again uh not only to you but to the rest who have reached out and asked for meetings um prior to this hearing you know I appreciate that and it really goes a long way to know that you guys are you know

091willing to reach out and and have those build those relationships with each and every one of us especially on this committee to better get to know you and better see how uh you would uh be on the board and and serve on the board so I appreciate that even though I wasn't able to meet I know you've most of youve tried multiple times but um I do appreciate that you know um my whole thing is and I know K is a huge advocate I know our neighbor Island members are hu huge advocate for um the neighbor islands and uh the rural communities and I know aahu has extremely diverse uh communities as well that are represented over here and in one of your responses you said that you know we can bring a one- siiz

092fits-all type of approach um to supporting our kids teachers and schools we need targeted equ Equitable programming that actually fills those gaps like how do you you know see yourself being on the board working with other members from the neighbor Islands or or representing the rural communities how do you see yourself um being able to understand and comprehend the complexities involved in you know let's say the kid the the the kids being taught in C you know have very limited resources um extremely old facilities you know 1880s I think the the school was or originally built so how you see yourself like understanding those types of issues and being able to really look and say like oh yeah these are the types of things we need to look at you know the one size doesn't

093fit all right that Community needs something different than that Community than that Community thank you for your question Senator kuha I think I'm going to give you a simple response but I will elaborate so bear with me I think simply put it's really just about talking story and and listening is really all that it is it's uh making a commitment to lean on expertise either on the board or in those different underserved areas which again that's similar to others that currently sit on the board that's a passion project of mine um I do strongly believe in the underserved communities and making sure that no child as Bruce pointed out you know feels like a second class citizen simply because of of circumstances that they had no power in choosing right so I think we do

094exist to serve all Kiki um I think relationship building asking the questions having the conversation and listening allows us and affords us the ability to make good policies that um to to some degree tailor um to different areas and we all know this growing up in Hawaii a solution on aahu is is not applicable um on Havi Island and so we really do have to approach it that way it's a Statewide system of course but but um I think we do have to be mindful of all of the different nuances even on aahu Senator kuha you know it's you know an island and different than the neighbor Islands but even on aahu different areas are far different than each other so I think having that context and being mindful of when we uh create policies

095and and and when we affect change that we understand impacts Beyond just our own ether and that um to your point I do think that's of value to ensure that what we're creating we check those outcomes as well thank you thank you m chair thank you for the questions couple first all thanks um to come and uh share with me a little bit about yourself and I just get one question I know we talked about um for the new school superintendent and um if you was on the board of the selection um we talked this about um the process that they're doing now um and previously and of course I mean personally I don't agree in um you know we have a lot of talent here I was reaching out and saying that to you

096what what you would do or what you would recommend doing differently than the previous boards that been selecting our superintendent over the years that what you what you would bring to the table doing something different I I thank you for the question Senator faella I I want to commend um those that have been on the board prior to me I don't think that that is a small task by by any measure um that effectively has impact on 170,000 Ki Plus+ um so I don't envy them however yet here I am um so to answer your question I don't know what um I would have done differently in that setting because quite frankly I wasn't there but in terms of uh should I get confirmed um and have the opportunity to select I do believe and

097I'll say this senator faella do believe that as local people we all have a collective kulana to be a little bit better about um as a mother let me answer it this way as a mother I tell my Kiki all the time that you can do or be anything I'm constantly telling that I will admit to this body and others tuning in that I'm not the best at modeling that kind of behavior I think there is um something to be said about ensuring that when we have local that we should uh promote local and what I mean by that is um we need to be better about modeling that behavior to Kiki we need to show an example to KI that in positions of power that they can achieve that we can't tell Ki in

098school that they can but we're constantly pulling from elsewhere that doesn't um comport with Ki um that aside obviously qualifications is a baseline And so you're qualified or you're not qualified for the job but I think what I would say about the super intendent is that um should I have the opportunity to select I would consider looking at uh an individual's ability to to understand the nuances it goes back to Senator kana's question a one-size fit saww and how do you really operate within hav which I think we can all agree is extremely unique so I would be looking for someone who has the capacity to understand hav for who we are um because it is it is an important position and it's a complicated space that we live in a beautiful but complicated space

099thank you thank you chair thank you thank you very much for your appreciate it our next nominee GM 803 submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial nominee Lauren Mor arti for a term to expire 6:30 2024 um you can come forward Lauren but we do have some people waiting to testify and I'm sorry that we have gone so long but your one of the testifiers Mana white Peters had to leave she was testifying in support next is Susan Picola Davis Susan please Susan's there yes I'm here Susan I'm still here I'm not gonna go through the same the same thing that I did with M because I believe that this what I've said fits for all of them and it wasn't meant to scare them off it was meant for them

100to understand that sometimes it's more than what you think and I'm happy that three people are here today that will be joining the board what I wanted to say and I'm going to say it for Maka I noticed that you had some great qualities Community Building internal external communication she launched the Queen's Facebook page she just developed strategic plans and implemented them and she oversaw Hospital metrics to ensure alignment with Hospital strategic goals high qualities that our Board needs Lauren she's Community oriented she's abil she has an ability to streamline thank you very much and strategic Vision again all qualities that fit right in with what your position is on the board thank you for thank you Susan sorry to cut you off again next to testify Diane Peters Newan committee members I'm Diane Peter

101you have my testimony I stand in strong support of the nomination of Lauren Mor yardi as to serve on the board of education I would just um maybe summarize and um focus on the fact that as the first US ambassador of native Hawaiian ancestry Lauren brings forth not only a very strong local perspective on Educational Systems but also a Global Perspective and I also just want to highlight her personal passion for education so thank you very much for this opportunity to weigh in thank you um Diane and if they look alike I believe they are sisters it doesn't take away from any part of the testimony Dian if she looks familiar happens to be the CEO of the American Red Cross Pacific Islands region also a rotary club downtown I'm Rotary Club Milani Sunrise thank

102you okay next to testify Mana moriarti Alani Senators F in kuha I've known the nominee for um as long as almost everybody in the room is my mom I've learned a few things from a lifetime of observing Mom Mom's a big picture thinker but she has a grasp of the the details she's willing to ask the tough questions in a respectful manner to get things done mom gives freely of her time and talent and mom makes plans and follows through mom has given Decades of her time where she volunteered to serve on the boards of Institutions providing educational and and extracurricular programs for thousands and thousands of kids this was volunteer time while she was raising two children and in an award-winning career as a manager and a diplomat in the United States Foreign Service

103mom makes plans and follows through when mom retired from her Foreign Service career she spent weeks in introspection reflecting on what it was she was going to do with the next phase of her life and she decided did she came to two conclusions it would involve Hawaii education and she fallen through she had a 15year plan 15 years ago and that plan involved the Board of Education of the state of Hawaii she committed and she followed through Mahalo for your consideration she's the right person for this job that's so amazing I think this is the first time I've had a child testify for their parents [Music] oh that is so awesome thank you so much for joining us Ambassador Mor Ari and thank you for your willingness to serve please go ahead and Al um

104I'd like first as a citizen of Hawaii to thank you Madame chair members of this committee um for what you do to support education nothing is more important than educating our next Generation Um I'm also grateful to governor eay for having nominated me to serve on the board of education I'm really excited um to that kuliana I would bring my passionate conviction about the importance of Education uh experience in meeting at strategic levels and in large organizations uh and Lessons Learned From volunteer uh teaching and from service on nonprofit boards I come from a family that long valued public service and education um my mother who came from k um gave me the Hawaiian name kah and I was called across the waters to serve for almost three decades as a US ambassador and career

105Diplomat and I was called home again to serve um I served on the school board in Beijing China was a dean at the Daniel kinoi Asia Pacific Center for security studies um and hold degrees from the University of Hawaii and a master of arts and teaching from shamanite when my husband and I were diplomats and residents at the East West Center our children attended Public School in Hawaii I believe strongly that every child should have the opportunity for an excellent free public school education our Public School in Hawaii should be firmly rooted in the culture history values and many strengths of our diverse people of society um at the same time success in the 21st century requires appreciation and understanding of events and Trends beyond our Shores uh if confirmed to serve on the board

106of education I would listen to and seek wisdom from people with knowledge and experience um it's been really exciting to listen to this testimony today both your questions your depth of knowledge and what I've learned just listening in a few minutes to those who've already served um I would weigh my decisions and actions against the standard of how will this benefit the students is this the best way to benefit the students I would work hard to serve Hawai way make I ask that you confirm me to serve as a member of the Board of Education Mahalo thank you very much for your willingness to serve Ambassador in your response to the committee you talk about how numbers themselves cannot tell the whole story while acknowledging that benchmarks are still important to assess progress can you

107elaborate more on what you mean by this and how you would evaluate the success of the deal so one of my practices um has always been when I have to make a decision to seek the best possible data um to help to assess costs to help to assess options um but numbers can't tell the whole story yes we can use them both to tell objective facts we can also use them to uh get an idea of perceptions but they can't tell a whole story um so one of the things I always like to know is what's behind the numbers like what was the actual survey question so we can get an idea of well did that perhaps skew in some sense the numbers we're getting um I believe though it is important to have numbers

108whatever data we can have because it can help us to spot Trends see outliers and then ask additional questions to try to understand what lies behind the numbers that we do have uh perhaps to seek more data or better explanations it can also help us to um look at what's happening elsewhere and understand is there's something we can learn from there or they can learn from us obviously each situation is different with respect specifically to education numbers someone the you know maybe easier to know do kids go to school I'm a student teaching at Castle 9th grade social studies and we lost kids in the ninth grade who stopped coming to school that some important statistics they're not coming to school it's telling us something but we would need to know what's behind it and

109why they're not coming teachers a lot of discussion here today about teachers so are teachers ready to teach can we not just can we recruit them and retrain them but are they ready to teach in the ways that we need for going forward so those are basic kinds of things some of the things I'm most interested in and have tried to do some re research on um are hard to measure things like grip perseverance ability to overcome difficulty those are hard to measure I think we're just now starting to see more research coming in from that and some of the research that'll be available as we see the results of covid um te way different jurisdictions have reacted to covid may give us insights into what worked in some places and then we can figure

110out whether there's anything we can learn from um what others have learned so it's a kind of long answer and I think the bottom line in terms of exactly what I would want to see in a is if I were confirmed for the Board of Education would specifically depend on the kinds of issues that the board as a whole working with the doe decides are the things that the Strategic plan needs to focus on thank you for that you also noted that the responsibility of the board of educ ation extends Beyond just the doe system to include the charter commission and the public library system if confirmed to the board how do you anticipate interacting with the charter commission and the state librarian well of course I'd be guided also by the experience of those

111who've come before me and would help me to understand the important issues but the first thing I'd want to do is go meet them talk to them see what's important to them what their concerned about what keeps them awake at night what opportunities they see and then I'd want to talk to the people who use what they offer or could be using what they offer to try to understand those perspective as as well uh and finally I'd want to understand um both the history here I'm sure there's good research I here we have a great research Department in the board of education but also um what have been experiences elsewhere um with similar types of um commissions I understand though of course that for example on the public charter commission our state is way ahead

112most of the rest of the country in how um public charter schools have really taken off and become part the integral part of our education system what a novel idea talking to people you prioritize the formation of new of a new strategic plan as something the board must take up immediately what kinds of metrics or data would you like to see to be part of that strategic plan I would prioritize that um I think that once you have a strategic plan in place it makes other decisions easier um the exact metrics that would be used though I think need to reflect what is in the Strategic plan um no point just collecting data to collect data for me to suggest something um but I would want to collect data against whatever the Strategic targets are

113within that plan thank you for that very good members further questions you did a good job like your answers W thank you thank you thank you very good Senator thank you madam chair Al and you know thanks for being here and um first of all I think you know all the everybody every individual here is fantastic and it's great to see the passion in each and every one of you and you know just looking at your impressive resume it's just I don't even know if I'm you know over here you know but you know I had one question I know you spoke about earlier that um you like to build upon your own expertise in formulating uh policies that recruit develop Empower and retain effective teachers as well as uh expertise in assessment um you

114know can you explain some of those policies you think of you you've gained and learned throughout the years to help recruit develop Empower and retain effective teachers thank you for the question uh research has has shown that one of the most important factors to Student Success is having an Effective Teacher and when I think back um as to what made a difference for me when I really wanted to learn things it was often having a teacher who was passionate and knew both how to interest me and also to teach me um so I think teachers are absolutely um critical and really really important to learning one of the things that you see I don't know if you've heard of Shany nin in India mean the teacher teaches underneath the people tree but it's one of

115the it's recognized as among the best schools in the world because it's the teachers and the students who are working together um so when I look around the world I see the importance of effective teachers I also see for example in a lot of other societies they pay the teachers like you pay doctors and the teachers get the kind of respect that you would give to what we think of as these type of professionals that's what I'd like to see how you get there is harder uh this isn't a prescription this is you know I got to wait till I hear what analysis has already been done and the other things that have been tried but if you were to ask me as citizen Lauren not information already what I would do pay the teachers

116more sorry legislators if you were going to give me back my if you going to give me back my $300 they're talking about you're thinking to give us each for our taxes go give it to the teachers already no no there's nothing more that we would rather do than pay the teachers I'd rather give it to the teacher however we're the only state in the Union where the counties do not run education and give no money to this the state so the the education budget takes up 22 to 25% of the state's budget um and you know I I wish there was a way I mean I've tried doing a lottery for Education that didn't go um I I don't know what else we could try but you guys come up with good ideas and

117let's let's do something so that was a f answer manager I I am I am right there with you guys you know so that was a fast answer and I also one of the things I came away with my conversations was how much support how blessed the citizens of Hawaii are in how much support in time and effort and money that our legislators really do put the attention on on education um and I also know from my listening looking as well as today there are other needs as well facilities Health um but you're asking me about teachers and I must say I think teachers is really really important thank you I think we agree further questions M only because Senator kadani part of the lottery um because of course we want to give our teachers

118as much as we can give them because they word every penny um for for me I I just want to come with this this idea I'm not sure we can do it here but this is something that maybe you guys can take away so one of my great friends is a principal now in one of the schools in my community but he said where he came from um like how Senator kadani said some of the cities help out with some of the schools but he came up with an idea not sure if it can be done in districting on utilities like cable order electric and um designated to Teachers Pay it's like say every month I'm going to pay a dollar more to my water bill for teachers salary I mean I don't know if

119they can do that I figured since she said lottery I bring it out of my head I'm not sure we can but there's a way that we if we got to put our money where our amount is if we want the best for our kids and we of the best teachers then sometimes we got to DV up I'm not saying everybody can but if you choose to up in every month they run your bill off not to a dollar let's say your bill is $198 and they run them off to $200 or whatever every month they run off your bill and the money goes into I don't like I said we can because I knew to the teachers uh fund or money to raise for that do you think that something that you guys could

120consider at the Board of Education something like that thank you for the idea I think there um I wouldn't give you an opinion right off the bat because I want to see what you know what the cost of implementing and what the advantages are compared to Alternatives but um thank you for the idea and I guess your idea also in responds partially to your question as well Senator k um so I gave you a general answer and in the end the answer actually is twofold it needs to be a strategic Direction choosing where the priorities are is it teachers is it facilities is it the Health well-being where are the priorities and how I think it's Kimo was saying do they fit together but in the end it's also the implementation is in the details

121of okay exactly what are you going to do and how's it going to work and how are you going to measure it um and so um that would be something that if I were confirmed um I would be excited and interested to try to really you can help write the bill next year great great idea I don't I have no problems with that thank you very much Ambassador enjoyed your discussion our final GM 805 last but not least is submitting for consideration and Confirmation to the Board of Education gubernatorial nominee Ken kah for a term to expire 6:30 2024 Susan T Cola Davis helloa still with us thank you Susan of course I just want to thank Ken for bringing his expertise and background from the Department of Education to the board um I know

122that and I'm sure that our board member Bruce boss is excited to have you if you get confirmed which you will on board with the board you have budgetary strength and experience that will help the board understand some of the nuances of Department of education's budget process you need to have the ability to discuss and clarify aspects of the Department's budget and how it relates to students teachers complexes I'm talking about the school level the budget always needs to focus on the students the board focuses on the students so that's my last word it's all about the students nothing else thank you that's a good last word thank you Susan that's the only testifier that we have we have several uh pieces of written testimony all in support can thank you for being here thank

123you for your willingness to serve please go ahead thank you very much chair members of the committee um first of all thank you very much for your consideration of the nomination after well on December 31st 2021 after 42 years in the Department of Education um my wife thought I was going to do all the things on the honeydew list which didn't sit to well with me but okay fine um but there are people that came forward and asked you know if I would be willing to put in you know application to be on the board of education and I'm very very happy to have been part of the education system of hoi I had good mentors people that supported me and you know it was a situation where I felt it was time to to

124give back and so at this time I stand on my written testimony and await any questions that you may have thank you Ken Ken in your response to the committee you talk about using annual program reviews to determine viability of programs can you elaborate more on what these reviews would look like and how they might be implemented within the de I think um within the department you know again there's various programs you know that we fund or legislature funds um special education Alternative Learning um E I mean you know we we work the budget you know I help with those things yeah so because of that I think one of the things that needs to be done is a review of the program to see the viability one of the programs and to ensure that

125the money being set aside supports you know what's going on within those programs and also are the Personnel sufficient to run the program are there needs that are coming up where additional bodies need to be you know brought in as well as is there additional funding that needs to be provided and then looking at programs and determining are those programs still viable programs if they're not you know what can be done to either one beef those programs up or two to ensure that those programs possibly you know be cut or redescribe and repurpose you know to meet the needs of students thank you Ken you also talked about expanding the academy and career pathway models to the elementary schools to maximize engagement expectations of students um I do note that I know the interim uh

126superintendent um has someone working already on this as as part of um you know more programs of for middle and and uh elementary schools and I'm really excited to hear that and and to see more of this but how can the board help other complexes expand the academic career Pathways to the middle and elementary schools I think it's a it's a mindset you know it's within complexes having you know principles understand that those kids that are in elementary school will slowly work their way to middle school and then onto the high school so I think uh in our discussion Senator we talked about how if we look at white pahu you know complex how um interm Superintendent at the time as principal of whiteo high school was able to bring together the people within the

127white power complex to work together to see what kinds of needs there are because they understood that students will move their way from elementary middle to high school and I think those things need need to be communicated to to principles to start working together to decide for the complex and the community what is important you know what is the focus and how are they going to do those things thank you very much for that Senator do you have any questions for actually don't have any questions um that's fine we've we've gone beyond our time um and we've lost uh we've lost our members anyway thank you all so much for being here today um I I'm just so impressed with all of you I think Bruce and and K are excited because they can see

128the quality of you know next new members that will come on to the board I um just am excited uh to for all of you and just cannot thank you guys enough for being willing to serve um look forward to uh letting you guys know next when are we meeting again oh sorry when do I ever listen to you okay so we will have decision making on Monday April 25th in this room at 1:30 is that the time we've given okay and I'm so sorry you guys do not have to come back we can do this on Zoom is that correct yeah be live broadcast on YouTube as well so so I'm so sorry that we can't do decision making today thank you very much this meeting is adjourned