001calling the committee senate committee on education to order 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 pages of the legislature's website the zoom meeting and youtube live stream events will include the three o'clock agenda for this 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 january 31st at 3 o'clock pm 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 on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier
002per 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 manner should you experience any technical difficulties when it is your turn to testify we may have to move on to the next person due to time constraints so your understanding is appreciated and we would like to remind you that the committee has your written testimony we apologize if the closed captioning does not after accurately transcribe the audio broadcast if you wish to review the written testimony submitted please go to the legislature's website you will find a link on the status
003page for the measure and we have some senators joining us theo video virtual and to begin our agenda we have three issues on the agenda and we will start with senate bill 2-2 i'm sorry 2-8-2-1 relating to mental i'm sorry [Music] this is our first meeting excuse me senate bill 2821 relating to menstrual equity it requires the department of education to provide venture products free of charge to all students on all public school campuses requires a state public charter school commission to provide venture products free of charge to all students on all public charter school campuses makes appropriations let's see for our list of testifiers start with superintendent keith hayashi hi good afternoon chair kidani and vice chair mercado kim members of the committee i'm heidi armstrong from the department of education testifying on behalf
004of interim superintendent hayashi the department stands on its written testimony supporting the intent of the bill and we offer comments for your consideration thank you thank you assistant superintendent appreciate it next to testify yvonne lao good afternoon cher kim vice chair mercado kim and members of the committee thank you so much for including the charter schools in these bills we we testify and support and stand on our written testimony along with our written comments thank you thank you yvonne next to testify um why state commission on the status of women executive director kara jabola parous thank you chair vice chair and honorable members uh you have our testimony and strong support before you really the only thing that i would add is thinking you personally chair for your work over the past over a year
005to make sure that this is a priority you know folks who think that gender inequality is a relic of the past or mostly resolved can look no further than the neglect stigma and lack of investment around menstruation in the state it was really heartbreaking to um to conduct the survey where we had 361 respondents across hawaii with money movement and compounding that with the findings of the fact that our girls and students are using you know resorting to leaves socks newspapers to fill the gap when they don't have menstruation supplies you know we found very clearly that there is a tangible impact of a lack of period supplies on education education is being interrupted by the fact that we don't cover these supplies and thank you karen sorry your time has expired next to testify
006is executive director of the movement hawaii nikki and yi aloha chair kadami advice your kim and committee members mahalo for the opportunity to testify my sisters and i strongly support sb2a21 we ran a statewide pilot in six schools here is the problem we found that 8 out of 10 students had difficulties getting period products as a result they're missing class leaving school early or not coming at all students can get their periods as young as eight or nine that's potentially ten years of consistent education loss we are here as their voice today our pilot proves implementation can be done in a cost effective and highly impactful way with improvements across education health and mental health this is not just a bill built on lofty aspirations but an issue that countries and states are tackling you
007have the power to fix something that can potentially shift the trajectory of half the student population these students are the future of hawaii thank you so much nikki and i wanted to share with the public that it was nikki and her support that helped you know bring this to our attention and really support your efforts and thank you for your help and i'd like to ask senator uh vice chair of the committee senator kim if she wanted to add anything because last october or so several of the women senators went to tennessee for a conference that uh vice chair kim resi presided over as president she can tell you about the support of that committee thank you chair yes we have the national foundation of women legislators have an annual conference and one of our
008sponsors is kimberly clark and they are leading the way in providing some of these products to some of the states and certainly we are trying to get them to come to hawaii and do that as well but the national foundation women legislators also took this measure up at our conference and um and so this is something that many of the states are adopting and the women legislators across the country are taking a lead on this so we're joining with the rest of the country so thank you jeff thank you for that senator kim um and again thank you for nikki and the myi movement next uh to testify is um a person a teacher that i met i guess it was last year or the year before i can't remember and she introduced me to
009a bunch of her students in her classroom and she is um at ilima intermediate school she and her students will be testifying um her name is sarah atlanta laffin we call her millie and her student is ryzelle who nicole escarto who will also be testifying are you there millie yes we're here can you hear us yes we can okay my name is sarah emilian palestine we're at elima intermediate and i'm going to share my time with riselle and the students today we had a lot of students who wanted to talk to you about the three-year journey on this issue so i will let them take it away hello my name is this is my second year working at the menstrual equity legislation and the third year for our school to work on the mental equity
010legislation to face pure poverty for schools it has known this as a problem for a long time but it's taking us a while to get adults to lessons i'd like to start off with a question what do the following items have in common newspapers cipher leaves folder paper napkin socks toilet paper and old rag do you know what they have in common all of these items are things that students in hawaii have potentially used as medical products when they don't have access to clean and safe period products take a moment to let that think in this is unacceptable because using anything that's not necessarily in tune or on the body your administration can make students sick students who menstruate are using these things because they don't have access to the period products that they need
011at our school we built a menstruation station three years ago after students were bullied for leading onto their clothes during their period now that now any student can get the product that they need our teachers miss millie used to buy products for certain money that's not expensive because if you didn't know students are paid very little now we have great groups like evolution money movement and i support the girls who are keeping items but then we realized something what about the schools that don't have menstruation stations it hurts to think that students that kids in our own state in our own neighborhoods don't have what they need when they are meditating this week we met with thank you millie and thank you for sharing your students with us and teaching them uh educating them on
012the legislative process very much appreciated and for your help in bringing this to our attention also next we have michael golia jr testifying for stonewall caucus of the democratic party of hawaii michael uh good afternoon senator um on behalf of the stonewall caucus the democratic party of hawaii we stand in full support of this legislation and we just want to use a little bit of our remaining time to thank uh miss milley and all of her amazing youth advocates that have been out there on the front lines of this issue having to deal with it having to educate their fellow students and teachers and administrators about this important issue and we want to thank them for being giving us such a bright light to showing the bright way to the future that we have these
013wonderful advocates now at such a young age that there will be amazing adults when they are able to vote so on behalf of the stonewall caucus we thank you for hearing this bill we encourage every senator to support it as it moves forward mahalo michael next to testify we have rachel oye rachel hi senator they're not present thank you next to testify osa tui on behalf of hsta aloha i'm laverne moore speaking on behalf of osa tui president of the hsta we strongly support this bill we stand on our written testimony and good work millie proud of you as a special ed teacher at mckinley high school i wanted to know that we teachers use our own personal money to supply our girls with this tampons and and pets because we want them to attend
014school hsd wants you to pass this bill to ensure access to these products regardless of financial situation mahalo for the opportunity to testify on behalf of our teachers aloha mahalo laverne thank you so much and next to testify we have david somoleski this year as a high school teacher in the doe i found out my transgender student had a horrendous incident of body dysmorphia when they didn't have menstruation products so their cycle started instead of having a simple and discreet place to grab the hygiene product required for this basic human need that explained the situation to multiple adults until they found who was covering the health room that day could actually give them a path i implore you to use embassy and imagine how devastating would be for this already high risk population to have
015to deconstruct their identity to multiple individuals and find quote unquote female hygiene products last year i taught third grade at a state-funded charter school at recess my nine-year-old student came up to me and told me her period started and she didn't have a pad i brought her to the health room only to find they didn't have a single menstruation product available i left my crying student in the room they proceeded to run around door to door to ask all the female teachers if they had a spare pad no one did this is unacceptable so the who that makes up the teachers of hawaii has the duty and obligation to our keiki and students emotional and physical safety and failing to provide ready and available administration products we the state are failing at a coulion to
016provide the necessary learning environment for our students mahalo thank you david for that testimony and for kerry next on the agenda barbara bobby joe barry hi chair not present thank you next to testify tiffany edwards hunt also not present thank you courtney hamakawa aloha i am courtney hamakawa private citizen and department of education homeless concerns liaison and i wholeheartedly support this period product bill making a dollar out of 50 cents is a popular line but one that is just also true and real for many of our low income and homeless families here on the big island as most must choose between food electricity or water but there is often little or nothing left for pads some children have been making makeshift pads in the school restrooms with toilet paper others who have the courage to
017ask for a pad are audaciously charged 50 cents after suffering the embarrassment for asking for one please support this bill to stop the shame and bring compassion to our needy girls and women in our community i implore you to please support this bill to bring positive change to the lives of our young girls and women in our community thank you very much the i'm sorry thank you very much courtney next to testify is sarah kern aloha chair vice chair and honorable members my name is sarah kern and i'm a kauai resident in strong support of this bill i would like to use my time to take you through a quick empathy exercise it's a little strange but hopefully impactful please take a moment to imagine yourself at a meeting with colleagues in your office and
018you are hit with a bout of uncontrollable diarrhea maybe you forgot to bring your own toilet paper today or worse you can't afford toilet paper at all so you must make your way all the way across the capitol building to the health room when you get there you notice a colleague in the room who hears you mumbled to the nurse that you need some toilet paper she charges you 25 cents and embarrassed you waddle as quickly as you can to the nearest bathroom at this point you can feel that your underwear is soiled and you're just hoping it hasn't stained through your pants i hope you all can make the connection that this is what many of our students who menstruate are experiencing this is why some students stay home from school for a couple
019days each month this is unacceptable and this session you have the power to change it mahalo for the opportunity to testify thank you sarah next to testify nikos liverens good afternoon madam chair vice chair members my name is nicole celebrant specifying in my individual capacity um no young woman should have to bear the shame and humiliation of going without menstrual products and the doe uh determined that about half of its students came from economically disadvantaged households prior to the pandemic so post pandemic we're not quite there yet we're going to see those numbers uh increase and who does this impact um census income data indicate that native hawaiian uh philippine x and pacific islander households are far far below you know other groups in terms of income so thank you for uh for considering the
020spill and i strongly urge its passage mahalo thank you so much nicole next to testify jamie lee kapana vice chair kim and members of the senate education committee my name is jamie kopana i am testifying in strong support of sb2821 because i believe that students first priority while in school should be learning and not making sure they have period products growing up i lost my mom at a young age this definitely made me ashamed to talk about my periods because i didn't have anyone close around me to make me feel comfortable i was also going through the foster care system and group homes for a year or two growing up i remember how ashamed i felt if i needed to ask for period products while also going to school it was a hard time for
021me to adjust and it made it even harder during that time of the month i know firsthand how hard it can be to deal with from a student's perspective because of this i feel it's my responsibility to speak up and ask that you pass this film to make period products for you sorry i'm trying to get on free for um students many may feel this a topic only for girls and women but that's not true um we need to be able to teach boys uh not to dismiss it because it's only a girl problem sorry i'm getting caught thank you jamie next to testify aria raya riya aloha um my name is raya abang and i'm a senior at james campbell high school i am in strong support of bill 2821 requesting the department of
022education to make menstrual products free on all hawaii public and charter schools because after partnering with mutti movement and placing a money spot in my own school i've had girls and menstruators alike come up to me thanking me with such appreciation and gratitude sharing their own testimonies their own experiences of you know having to leave school early starting their cycles unexpectedly for getting their products at home or maybe they don't even have the money to afford the products that are sold at our school on instances like these we have to use paper towels and toilet paper which aren't made for menstruation knowing that there is money allotted for our school supplies and academic needs i believe period products should be on that list thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of this bill
023thank you raya and the last testifier in on our list is pat brady cash aloha senator kidani and senator kim happy new year happy new year community alliance on prisons testifies in strong support of this bill it is so important the testimony that came before was just staggering and so important this is a public health problem and i really hope that you pass this bill we really need to teach boys and girls how important health is thank you so much and i look forward to um you're passing this bill mahalo thank you very much kat um members that is the last of our public testimony but we have over 200 testimonies written testimonies all in support of this measure and at this time i wanted to take a short recess reconvening the committee on education
024we have five members present two are here and three are virtual and we would like to do decision making on senate bill 2821 now rather than wait to the end of this meeting only because the students of lima are probably still watching and would like to know how successful that they're going to be and all the hard efforts that they have done so with that um senate bill 2821 the recommendation is to pass with amendments and we're going to insert some preamble language to the bill and also note that some of the language that was written by nikki any of the movement will also be and uh also found in senator acacio's bill 2546 that we will be using in the in this bill and noting in the committee report for consideration in the next
025committee an appropriation of one million dollars to support this bill with that members any questions if not vice chair for the vote the recommendation is to pass senate bill two eight two one with amendments uh chair kidani chair votes eye vice chair of outside senator de la cruz hi hi senator kanoha hi senator favela aye madam chair five eyes the measure is adopted thank you and sarah and your students nikki all of you thank you so much for your hard work we have a bill okay moving on to the next item on the agenda senate bill 2819 relating to teacher compensation makes an appropriation to fund an experimental modernization project pursuant to section 78-3.5 boy revised statutes to make necessary discretionary salary adjustments first to testify superintendent keith hayashi good afternoon cherokee vice chair mercado
026kim and senators keith ayashi interim superintendent the department supports senate bill 2819 i strongly support our teachers and agree i'm sorry i strongly support our teachers and agree that they need to be appropriately compensated for the years they have dedicated to the department our schools and especially our students the current distribution of teachers on the salary schedule is inconsistent and compressed contributing to senior teachers leaving the profession we must improve efforts to retain our teachers with years of experience and highly effective ratings to enable mentorship opportunities for newly hired teachers this has the potential to transform a generation of educators in hawaii's public schools into highly qualified and effective educators the department is committed to working with hsta to effectively address teacher compression issues to impact recruiting and retaining efforts a positively thank you for
027your this opportunity to testify i am available to answer any questions thank you superintendent next to testify yvonne lao for our state public charter school commission thank you chair kidani vice chair mercado kim and members of the committee i stand on my written testimony and strong support of this measure and also our written comments regarding the bill itself thank you very much from the charter school commission on behalf and on behalf of our public charter schools who also deserve to ensure that their teachers are compensated accordingly thank you next to testify for the special education advisory council is martha ginon and i believe sinclair ideally sinclair are they on how about susan rocco hi chair kidani we actually did not submit testimony on this bill we submitted testimony on the next spill 28 20. okay
028thank you we'll wait to that okay next to testify o satori tui president hsta aloha chair kidani and members of the committee on behalf of thousands of teachers mahalo for taking up this important bill which addresses whole swaths of teachers who have been denied longevity salary step increases over the years after years of this problem not being addressed many affected teachers have already are beginning to qualify for retirement and see little reason to stick around they love their students but that's just not enough to make up for years of sacrifice every experienced teacher we can retain is one less that we need to recruit passing this legislation will also address those with as little as two years of service under their belt teachers are actually taking home less pay this in next school year despite
029contractual verbiage that speaks to annual incremental step increases and that teachers not at the top would receive steps if they had an effective evaluation we do have a couple of requested amendments that are in our written testimony and once again mahalo for recognizing that this is a problem that needs to be resolved which will have direct and immediate benefits for hawai'i's keiki aloha thank you also next to testify is he a coalition director sherry nakamura aloha senator kidani senator mercado kim and members of the committee coalition stands on its written testimony in support of this measure thank you very much thank you sherry next to testify julie reyes oda is julie there julie hi i'm here but mine was on um 28 20 also okay we'll hold you for then thank you julie sorry next
030to testify elizabeth wiggins elizabeth wiggins tiffany edward hunt recess calling to order the committee um reconvening the committee on education sorry for the mix-up folks we are taking testimony on senate bill 2819 relating to teacher compensation um i don't have the correct list with me so if there is anyone on that wishes to give um public testimony can you make yourself known i had martha and i believe sinclair or susan rocca but they they are for another bill and that was uh and sherry nakamura was the last one that i had on here can you see the names i can't see it from here is there logan okita yes ma'am go ahead please proceed thank you aloha everyone i'm logan o'keefe a national board certified teacher at nimitz elementary and vice president of the hawaii
031state teachers association this is my 16th year as a teacher in hawaii i am in the middle of our salary schedule at step 11 along with 2568 of my colleagues many of whom have more experience than i do i have missed step increases a few times during my career and will hopefully reach the top of the salary schedule near my 25th year of teaching if we receive a step increase every other year going forward teachers who i admired as a high schooler 20 years ago still have more to give to hawaii's keiki but are ready to throw in the towel and retire because they can't imagine reaching the top of the salary schedule after all of these years please address our salary com compression so that we can keep qualified educators in our schools mahalo
032thank you logan next we have amanda langston amanda aloha hello can you hear me yes aloha cherokee donnie vice chair kim and committee members my name is amanda fong langston i am the president of the hawaii public charter school network um the network supports the intent of sb 2819 with strong recommendations for change to include support all teachers with cost of living increase in alignment with the current inflation rate of 6.9 percent and support all teachers with a step increase to the traditional collective bargaining process delete as negotiated between the state public charter school commission and the exclusive representation of collective bargaining unit in a memorandum of understanding to address compensation this section violates 302d under charter school law as the individual right of the governing board to have the right to negotiate with the
033unions thank you thank you amanda next aaron kubo yes hello committee my name is aaron kuble and i'm an 8th grade social studies educator heal intermediate school recognizing years of experience and service is important to demonstrate the worth of qualified teeth educators and keep them from retiring or quitting for other jobs having that recognition reflected in their salary with incremental step movements is one way to convince experienced educators to stay where we need them in classrooms teaching our keiki we need to pay educators better by decompressing the salary schedule and place them where they deserve to be reflecting the years of experience second you need to continue to move teachers consistently upwards on the salary scale otherwise they will end up in the situation again with thousands of educators compressed and underpaid such a move
034will almost be enough to keep up with hawaii's current inflation rates if nothing is done many educators are going to leave the profession either by retiring or because they can make more money for less work and stress elsewhere and the students we serve will suffer as a result please vote and support us senate bill 2819 thank you for your consideration thank you aaron and the last testifier is lisa morrison thank you aloha i'm a teacher at maui high school and after um after nine years at maui wanna actually the intermediate school i moved up so it's been a real joy to connect with students that i taught before and it's reminded me how important the consistency of relationships between teachers and students are to their full educational development there's a comfort and security for students
035when they return to the adults that they know and trust at school i can't provide quantitative data on the value of this but i can tell you that it's absolutely worth the money to pay teachers according to their years of service and expertise because the reward is priceless and the payoff is lifelong i had teachers i loved and learned a lot from when i was in fourth grade and at the time my mother was very active in events at our school and 20 years later when she passed away those same teachers sent me a lovely condolence card what struck me is that they wrote it together because they were still there in the classroom making a difference for kids all those years later please support proper compensation for teachers so students can continue to enjoy
036this thank you very much lisa that ends our uh the testimony but we do have over i think it's close to 150 written testimonies all in support so with that members let us go to the next bill which is senate bill 2820 relating also to teacher compensation let's see sorry yeah now i hope this is the correct list to testify superintendent kitayashi good afternoon check your dhani vice chairman kara kim and senators keith ayashi interim superintendent the department supports senate bill 2820 which funds various teacher differentials i strongly support efforts to recruit and retain qualified teachers for every classroom as they are critical component to ensuring student achievement the areas of special education hard to staff geographically located schools and hawaiian language immersion programs have typically been challenging to recruit and retain qualified teachers while
037also containing large percentages of the department's most at-risk vulnerable students addressing the multitude of issues related to covin for simultaneously employing effective recruitment and retention strategies will require require collaboration with hsta and all interested stakeholders including the legislature the department is committed to working with its partners to identify and execute solutions that positively impact all students securing qualified teachers for every classroom is vital to achieving optimal student achievement thank you for this opportunity to testify thank you superintendent next yvonne lao thank you chair kidani vice chair kim and members of the committee we stand in strong support of st 2820 and deeply appreciate this committee and the senate's recognition that our public charter school teachers also deserve to be compensated accordingly i stand on our testimony and support thank you thank you and next martha
038guinan and ivali sinclair special education advisory council uh chair kidani i'm susan rocco and i am testifying on their behalf from the special education advisory council thank you so much for this bill because seac is very much in support of pay differentials particularly for special education teachers over the last two years we've seen a tremendous increase in available qualified teachers in the classroom and our kids who are performing at the lowest point of all the subgroups really need that consistent support from teachers that know what they're doing so thank you for this thank you susan next to testify also tooie president hsta hello cherokee donnie vice chair kim and members of the committee thank you so much for taking up this important matter plainly put shortage differentials work and have benefited our students tremendously recent
039data from the department has confirmed this with increases in recruitment and fewer vacancies to fill addressing special education geographically hard to fill areas and one immersion takes care of some of our neediest and vulnerable populations of students who have time and again been neglected by the system through no fault of their own providing these shortage differentials technologies that these students are entitled to highly qualified educators just like their regular education peers their peers in urban areas and their peers in non-immersion settings doing the right thing takes investment and passing this bill would be a worthy investment indeed we do have one requested amendment that is contained within our written testimony mahalo thank you osa next to testify shari nakamura director haye coalition aloha kidani vice chair mercado kin and members of the committee again a
040coalition stands on his testimony in support of sb2820 thank you very much thank you sherry next to testify julie oda julie hi i'm julie ray izoda i come here today as a math teacher at nanakuli high and intermediate school i'm a classroom teacher and i've always been my whole career the bill listed issues teacher issues plaguing the teaching confe profession and identified some but not all of the issues that cause teacher vacancies i support this bill is this is the sped differential dollar amount left out for a reason if not can the bill be amended to include the amount if the legislature believes that the state should offer shortage differentials for sped immersion and hard to staff locations to address the high number of vacancies why for only one year is it possible to amend
041this to a five year plan vacancies don't happen in a vacuum we're not the only state to have this problem but due to our isolation we're different from the continental states i hope that all of these education bills aren't coming up due to elections that are happening in november teacher compensation is an important topic that needs to happen as we talk about recruitment retention and morale taking on these issues is the right thing to do regardless of elections thank you for putting teacher compensation up for discussion next to testify elizabeth wiggins hi chair the not present to testify tiffany edwards hunt also not present thank you i believe that is all the testifiers that we have but we do have 144 written testimonies with that um shortly says okay reconvening the committee on education we
042are now on senate bill 2819 and the recommendation of the committee is to pass with amendments and the amendments are to take the suggestions from hsta and insert an amendment to remove the current classifications from statute and making future classifications subject to collective bargaining we will also amend the charter school appropriation to require an mou to be negotiated between each charter school governing board rather than the charter commission also noting in the committee report for consideration in the next committee ways and means an appropriation as noted in hsca's testimony members any questions with that chair votes eye recommendation is to pass sb 2819 with amendments chair votes i vice chair vote side all members present recommendations adopted manager thank you and for senate bill 2820 recommendation of the chair is also to pass this with
043amendments the amendments would amend the charter school appropriation to require an mou to be negotiated between each charter school governing board rather than the charter commission also noting in the committee report for consideration in the next committee an appropriation as no testimony and as uh some technical and non-substantive amendments also members questions and before we take the vote i just wanted to note and thank uh superintendent hayashi for the discussion uh that he came to me with and having us take a look at this again and to take the suggestions from hsta as well as the of permission so thank you uh superintendent so members 2820 pass with amendments chair votes eye chair votes eye on senate bill 28 20 pass with amendments is there any member president voting with reservations any member voting in
044opposition hearing none all five members voting in affirmative recommendations adopted thank you vice chair meeting is adjourned you