001good afternoon thank you for joining us this is the education committee today is monday march 24th 3 o'clock p.m you're in clearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on youtube you will find links to viewing options for all senate meetings on the live and on demand video page of the legislature's website this zoom meeting and youtube live stream event will include this three o'clock pm 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 wednesday march 16 at 3 o'clock p.m in this conference room and a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website i'd like to take this time to
002remind 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 with us today is our senators jupiter and favela i'm sure the other senators will be joining us shortly and starting with house bill 193 hd1 relating to early learning to testify we have colleen momohara on zoom pulling there please thank you for joining us vice chair senator kim is there colleen momohara she is not there moving on to kathleen algar
003kathleen please go ahead uh aloha uh chair for dhani and vice chair kim and committee members um thank you for the opportunity to testify on hb1939 you have my testimony in support i just wanted to reiterate um how important these two positions are for the executive office on early learning uh they have um uh the programs they oversee are wide and we feel that uh having these two positions will help ensure they can meet their statutory obligations and that all of our early care learning programs will be supported thank you thank you kathleen that is all the testifiers that i have is there anyone here in the room that wishes to testify in this measure and colleen momohara is still not present is that correct thank you members any questions of our testifier if not
004moving on to our next bill house bill 1941 hd1 relating to education requires department of education to establish grant programs to provide funds for the planning and implementation of community schools through a two-year pilot program to testify interim superintendent keith hayashi in person good afternoon chair kadani vice chair kim and members of the senate committee on education i'm kara tanimura interim assistant superintendent for the office of strategy innovation and performance on behalf of interim superintendent kitayashi department of education the department stands on its written testimony in support of focusing on the whole child when providing educational experiences for our students and appreciates the legislature's amendments to implement this program as a two-year pilot to help gauge current demand thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you on zoom we have hsta laverne moore aloha
005chair and members of the committee laverne moore speaking on behalf of also tui junior president of the hawaii state teachers association the hawaii state teachers association supports this bill community schools provide not only tremendous opportunities for learning and success for students but they also offer hope opportunity and transformation to entire communities there are schools built with the understanding that students often come to the classroom with challenges that impact their ability to learn explore and develop their greatest potential because learning never happens in isolation community schools provide healthy meals health care tutoring mental health counseling and other tailored services before during and after school the hawaii state teachers association asked your committee to support this bill mahalo thank you laverne is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure if not members questions tara please
006and um superintendent's um recent testimony he may know that his concerns are that the grant program that's created by this bill is prescriptive in nature and may not meet the unique needs of its very multi-faceted communities um does the department have any amendments that they wish to offer on this bill i think um i can take this back and meet with superintendent and we can offer some amendments to make it a little bit more open-ended and flexible okay yeah i would appreciate that information thank you moving on next bill house bill 1942 hd1 relating to student transportation requires the department of education to establish a tiered student bus fare rate system to include free bus passes for students and households that qualify for free or reduced lunch under the free and reduced price lunch program
007and also appropriate funds we have no testifiers i'm sorry but we have testimony from superintendent hayashi is randy online on zoom no okay um also two other uh comments anyone in the room wish to testify in this measure members questions if not moving on house bill 2248 hd1 relating to schools amends the definition of private schools under the compulsory attendance law to require unlicensed but accredited private schools to annually submit health and safety documentation to the hawaii council of private schools or the hawaii catholic schools office [Music] to testify on zoom bill bossert please hi i'm mayor kadani and vice chair kim and members of the committee i want you to know that act 227 now in its second year is working very well and thanks to the legislation that was passed originally and we
008have discovered this slight deficiency that's a low pole and um we'll stand on our testimony and asking you to support this minor change to the act thank you phil that's the only person that signed it to testify members questions anyone in the audience wish to testify on this measure not moving on house bill 2000 hd1 relating to education appropriates funds to the school facilities authority for the construction of preschool facilities to testify sherry nakamura thank you um sherry zoom we have alan oshima testifying for school facilities authority hi alan hi chair kidani vice chair kim and members of the committee we stand on the test free file testimony i am testifying as a member chair of the sfa board uh in place of ed sniffin the designated executive lead who couldn't make it today we
009are in support ask for some flexibility as uh funding is made available uh primarily because just building uh dedicated preschool facilities may not fit with uh strategic plans as we build facilities we are certainly supportive of early education as part of the school facilities thank you alan next to testify colleen momohara also on zoom colleen is not there next to testify laverne moore for hsta aloha chairman members of the committee laverne moore speaking on behalf of ulsa tui jr president of the hawaii state teachers association the hsa supports this bill and i want to say that culturally our asian and pacific islander children are taught very young to be seen and not heard this is a time when their brains are being developed their speech patterns are being developed and their motor coordination so allowing
010us to have preschool for them develops the critical skills needed to be successful in school hsca supports this mahalo for the opportunity to testify thank you laverne next to testify kathleen algar also and zoom hello hutcher and vice chair um you have my testimony in support um we just want uh just ask for clarification the way that the bill is currently um written and just says preschool programs we know that through act 46 um the expansion of early care and learning programs is going to take both our public preschool programs and then also early care learning programs and other facilities like in the libraries and so we're asking for the committee to consider replacing the term preschool and using something that's more inclusive which is early care and learning programs instead thank you thank you
011kathleen and she is testifying on behalf of hawaii children's action network speaks uh next to testify howie burgess kamehameha schools on zoom aloha oh aloha hello uh kidani vice chair kim and members of the committee i'm cali burgess director of community and government relations at columbus schools and i'm here to testify on behalf of ks in support of hp 2000 hd1 um because you know we're all aware that act 46 of 2020 and act 210 of 2021 were pivotal and ensuring that every child in hawaii gets access to quality early learning and so our request is that we remain steadfast in our commitment to achieve the state's benchmarks that were set in these acts and since the the start of the pandemic hawaii has lost over 3 600 preschools and at least excuse me preschool
012seats and at least these six preschools and many more family child care providers and so we believe that hawaii's keiki just deserved better so we asked for your support of hb 2000 hd one mahalo nui well look how we that concludes the uh testifiers is there anyone in the room that wishes to provide testimony if not members are there any questions of the if testifies that concludes our hearing and um i'm going to go into the breakout room please thank you so the recommendation of the committee on these uh bills before us for house bill 1939 hd1 recommendation is to pass with amendments we are going to defect the date to july 1 2051 and the reason to defect the date is basically uh to look at the appropriations amount of how it tricks into
013the budget questions members key recommendation is to pass house bill 1939 hd1 with amendments a chair votes eye vice chair votes eye senator de la cruz is excuse senator canoha senator fabella with four members present all voting i recommendations adopted thank you members next bill house bill 1941 hd1 recommendation of the chair is to defer decision making to wednesday march 23rd in this room two to nine at three o'clock p.m hospital 1942 hd1 same recommendation deferred decision making to wednesday march 23rd in this room two to nine at three o'clock p.m [Music] for house bill 2248 hd1 relating to schools to amend the definition of private schools under the compulsory attendance law um recommendation is to pass with amendments defecting the date to july first 2051. members questions if not cheerful sorry house bill 2248
014house draft one um vice chair votes eyes any members here present voting in a opposition any members voting with reservations and with senator de la cruz being excused the recommendation is adopted thank you and the final bill house bill 2000 hd1 recommendation of the chairs to pass with amendments to defect the date to july 1 2051 also noting in the committee report that charter schools should also be considered with regard to pre-k facilities members questions chair votes eye cheerful science house bill 2000 hd1 pass with amendments any member voting with reservations any members voting in opposition hearing none with one member being excused senator de la cruz your recommendations adopted thank you this concludes our hearing