001Good afternoon and welcome to the Hawaii State Senate. I'm Jared Kohokole, chair of the health committee. I'm joined by fellow health members, vice chair Senator Baker and Senator Favlla. Uh I'm also joined by co-chair on the committee of education, Senator Kedani. Would you like to introduce your members, Senator? Thank you. To my right is my vice chair, Senator Donna Marcado Kim, and at the end to my left is Senator Favlla. And I'm not sure if the others are on virtual zone. Oh, sorry. This is Senator Drew Canu also to my left. Well, you're so short and small. I just didn't see Okay, this meeting is being livereamed on YouTube. In the unlikely event that we need to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on
002Friday, April 1 at 1 p.m. in conference room 225 and a public notice will be filed on the legislaturator's website. Uh, we're here to consider STR 29 and SR23, requesting the Department of Health to work in partnership with the Hawaii Food Bank to develop and implement a vitamin supplement distribution program for public school students. First up, we have the Hawaii Food Bank. Oh, I don't have any live registered testimony. So, the following individuals uh testified. Hawaii Food Bank in support. Jennifer Ozuma Tupalc with comments. Kendrick Setu in support. and Gerard Silva in opposition. Uh, since we don't have any live testimony, well, is there anyone in the audience or on the internet that would like to testify? Please. [Music] Aloha. My name is Dr. Don Sand. I'm not a physician, but I'm a a mouth
003doctor. I've been in the trench shoes with the community uh community healthcare centers for seven years and I'm also the new ambassador to Noah um to Hawaii. I'm the Noah ambassador to Hawaii. It's not a sailing company. It's National Network of Oral Healthcare Providers. So we we want to bring more resources to connect the mouth to the body in this case nutrition a food bank to the body. So, we would like to be in collaboration and represent 5,000 con constituents in mainland, but they want to have a branch chair. They want to collaborate with you senators and house of representatives. Thank you so much for what you do to our people. Uh my name is Dr. Sand. I'm talking in behalf of Noah. Thank you very much. Uh Senator, any questions for the doctor? Yeah,
004I guess Senator Kim. So, you're testifying in support of this? I'm sorry. I'm new to this. I haven't My family hasn't been here Senator since my great uncle, Senator Joe Edaki. I was born Don Bagaki. Okay. But are you are you speaking in support? Oh, I'm just saying I'm not good at this, but I'm going to get good. So, we're in support. Yes. The more collaboration with the food bank and the health committee. Definitely. We love oral health as well. So how do you envision us getting this vitamin supplement distribution to the students? Well, I believe everything that we do in Noah is first education, but not the kind of education that Western society thinks here's a brochure, you know, brush your teeth or take your vitamins. It's the way Native Hawaiians and locals learn.
005It's I call it a threedimensional Okay. I just wanting to know for the resolution you're supporting it and it talks about distributing a vitamin supplement program to the students. So how do you see that in being done? You sign a a ohana I mean a hero in the ohana a hero in the community. Those are community workers and they work in relationship to educate and they want to do it. They're lining up. They're begging for it. If we bypass that and give them like a social media website thing or we give them a brochure, it's they don't even know if you want it. So, it's through community, through well-trained community people, including in the ohana, there's a hero. That's the one that takes people to the eye appointment, the dental appointment. Thank you. Is the
006healthy food at Whole Foods. Thank you so much. Please uh check in with the clerk so that we have your name for the record. Oh, yeah. Sure. Dr. Don after the hearing. I will be this. I apologize, sers. I know you're That's okay. You're just fine. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for what you do to our people. Thank you for testifying. Okay. Uh do we need to recess for decision- making? Yes. Okay. Recess. Okay, we're going to reconvene for decision- making on this 3pm March 30 agenda as to consider uh STR 29 and SR23. After having conferred with the co-chair and the members, I'm going to recommend that we defer this measure and ask that the food bank and the community partners uh work with the department of health independently to scope
007a program with a little bit more detail and then uh we certainly can consider this program and a more concrete appropriation uh in the future. Uh any discussion? Okay, on that note, we're thank you for joining us. Welcome to the Senate Committee on Education. Today is Wednesday, March 30th, 3:15 p.m. We are in hearing room 229. This meeting, including the audio v video of remote participants, is being streamed live on YouTube. You will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on demand video page of the legislaturator's website. This Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:15 agenda for the Committee on Education. In the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to major technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any
008outstanding business on Friday, April 1st, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. and a public notice will be posted on the legislaturator's website. I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings, we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill. For people participating remotely, please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify. When I call your name, unmute yourself and your time will begin. After your minute is completed, staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manner. Thank you. First item on our agenda is Senate Concurrent Resolution 209 and Senate Resolution 202 urging the Department of Education to report to the legislature regarding the amount of public school space available to
009be used for preschool classrooms and the number of public school teachers certified to teach early childhood education. to testify. Intern Superintendent Keith Hayashi. Hello, Chair Kadani. Uh, Kdani, uh, Vice Chair Kim, uh, Senator, uh, Roy Iikera on behalf of Keith Hayashi, Superintendent, and the Department of Education. The department stands on his written testimony in support of this measure and is available to answer any questions. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you, Roy. Next to testify, I don't have anybody next to testify. There we have um comments and support from several uh community members. But other than that, there is no further testimony. Members, are there any questions? I have a question for Roy. For Roy, please. Uh so Roy um you folks can do this without a resolution, right? I mean yes we
010can. And in fact the last couple of years uh we've had inquiries into our capacity to uh absorb uh early learning. Um many of our elementary schools um you know some of them have uh in especially early uh for prek purposes you know we've looked at what our facilities uh can handle. So uh we certainly can do that assessment and uh provide a report. So in the priorities is it early kindergarten, early age or pre kindergarten would take preference over preschool or is that one and the same in your mind or I think the department will u will have to evaluate you know again where we are with uh providing that support and both uh in terms of facilities as well as the curriculum and getting qualified teachers. Do you even have room in the
011schools? I'm sorry. You even have room in the schools at this point? That's an assessment that uh we can do. You know, we um in especially for schools, elementary schools where we have excess capacity because of just uh smaller enrollments uh we may have room is we just we also need to look at the appropriateness of these facilities for you know children three, four and you know five year olds. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Um Roy, further discussion members. Thank you. Moving on to the next item. STR 218 SR211 urging the Department of Education to incorporate media literacy into the existing state public school curriculum. To testify, interim superintendent Hayashi. Good afternoon, Chair Kedani, Vice Chair Kim Marcado, I'm sorry, and Senator Makanova. Um, Raymond Fujino on behalf of interim superintendent Hayashi. We stand
012on our written testimony in support of this resolution. Thank you. There is no further testimony. Although is um there is another one in support and one in opposition. Oh, two in support. Okay, members questions. Yeah, I have a question. Roy, I mean Ray, I have specialist Faith Ishihara who's part of our computer science team. Thank you. Are you folks doing this now? Yes, we are. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, we are doing it right now. And um it's exciting because you know computer science isn't just coding. It has five core concepts and impacts of computing includes this whole um media literacy, cyber bullying and um balancing of media time. So is it in all of the schools? Um we're in we're working with the 15 complex areas and each area has a lead that um we
013meet with on a regular basis and there are um putting together an implementation plan. Okay. So, there's nothing new you're going to do if this resolution passes. Um, well, not really new, but just expanding um scaling up so that more and more students actually have that opportunity. But you can do that now. You don't need a resolution, right? Is that a goal that you guys are looking at? Expanding. Um, yes, we are. Uh, we already have act 158 and 51 in place and that is for every student K12 to have opportunities. And so, um, that's what we're all working toward. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Further questions, members? Thank you, Ray. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And our final item is STR 168 and SR 160 requesting the school facilities authority to adopt and
014publish administrative rules necessary to implement Act 72 session laws of Hawaii 2020 as amended by no later than July 1, 2023 to submit and and the governor to submit a related report uh to testify by Oh, we have no testimony. Um, there is only comments by Alan Oshima for the school facilities agency authority. Members, any questions? Any comments? recess. Reconvening the committee on education. Thank you for your patience. [Music] The recommendation of the chair is going to be to defer the first item 209 and SR202 as the testimony from DOE advised that they are already doing this and we can look forward to report within the next before the next school year I think. Thank you. Um, also recommendation of the chair is going to also defer STR 218 and SR 211 as the testimony
015from the DOE is saying that we are already doing this and we look forward to the expansion of the program as um funds allow. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. And the recommendation of the chair for SCR 168 SR160 regarding the uh school facilities authority to adopt and publish administration rules. We are going to pass this as is members any questions? If not, uh, vice president for the vote on STR 168, SR 160. Chair Bzai, [Laughter] I just promoted you. Say thank you. Vice chair for the vote. Um, Senator Con resolution 168 and Senate resolution 162 pass un amended. Chair votes I. Vice chair votes I. Senator Dela Cruz is excused. Senator Fidel, I. Senator Favlla, hi. Four members voting I, one member excused. Recommendations adopted. Thank you. That concludes the meeting on
016education.