001good afternoon thank you for joining us on committee of education february 5th 2021 3 p.m we are in conference room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote this meeting including the audience 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 the three o'clock 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 at monday february 8th 3 o'clock p.m and a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website i'd like to take this time to remind
002our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to one minute per testifier per bill for the people participating remotely all testifier audio will be muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when i call your name staff will unmute you 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 we start with senate bill 1271 relating to early learning establishes an early learning educator stipend program to be administered by the executive office on early learning to address the shortage of qualified early learning early childhood educators in hawaii requires stipend fund repayments for the early childhood educators typing program to be deposited into the
003early learning special fund here to testify on senate bill is lauren moriguchi director executive office on early learning lauren good afternoon chair vice chair and members of the committee eoel is in strong support of senate bill 1271. we thank the legislature for the passage of act 46 last session which increases access to early care and education and for your recognition of the need for qualified early childhood educators in hawaii in 2018 there are 4 200 early care and education workers by our current projections we'll need to double our workforce over the next 12 years to reach the goal of expanding access to all three and four-year-olds this stipend program will help to increase the workforce by providing funds to cover tuition and fees while reducing financial barriers for those who are amongst the lowest paid
004workers i'd also like to emphasize that this bill leverages private funding and doesn't require appropriations as we recognize the dire economic situation the state is currently facing thank you for this opportunity to testify on this bill and i'm happy to address any questions you may have thank you lauren members questions if not next to testify robin chun testifying for kalan kalani ohana early childhood education higher education faculty robin hi chair robin is not on the zoom call thank you very much moving on item number two senate bill 467 relating to the board of education requires the board of education to hold no less than six community forums annually with at least one forum in each county requires a board to include an open forum for public comments on non-agenda items requires a report to the
005legislature on implementing open forums we have written testimony only and no testifiers to speak orally members any questions on this legislation if not moving on to item number three senate bill 1384 relating to education provides that the prohibition against serving two consecutive terms not to exceed eight consecutive years pursuant to section 26-34 a hawaii revised statutes shall not apply to the representative of hawaiian medium early learning providers term limit repeals on june 30th 2025 to testify lauren moriguchi executive office on early learning lauren thank you aloha chair vice chair and members of the committee uel offers comments as this bill has not yet been considered by the early learning board or elb elb is our governing board who represents the diverse field of early care and education hawaii therefore the board's perspective on this bill
006is of utmost importance following the discussion at the next meeting on february 11th we'll be able to provide more substantive comments which are reflective of the needs expressed by board members thank you for your consideration and this opportunity to testify today thank you um lauren we plan to move this bill along and you can provide us those comments after the board has met members questions next to testify les mommy fisher office of hawaiian affairs vice chair and committee members my name is naomi fisher public policy advocate for the office of foreign affairs and oha stands on its testimony and strong support of senate bill 1384 and we thank the committee for considering this bill to support hawaii media providers and aid in the perpetuation and normalization of hawaii in our state starting with our growing
007keiki so we urge you to pass this bell and mahalo again for considering it mahalo members questions if not members that's all the uh oral testimony and we have several written testimony that you may read moving on to item number four senate bill 1287 relating to the food service branch requires the department of education food services branch to coordinate with the principals and vice principals of department schools to determine which school meal program offered by usda is the best fit for the student body and campus of each school we have one oral testifier randall tanaka assistant superintendent for department of education randy please hello senator cherokee donnie vice chicker kim thank you very much for this time we stand by our testimony we appreciate the opportunity to serve our communities uh especially during this this
008tough time but we stand by our testimony hello i will answer any questions you may have thank you randy members questions if not question question drew senator kanu asked next chair um randy i no i appreciate the testimony of getting by department but you know like i i appreciate the efforts you know to serve the the meals to our kids during this you know tough time i was just kind of you know there were some issues rolling out a lot of these programs in the beginning especially you know like uh this was important to play as as we were going through you know especially in my district kona and kauya um huge areas the kids had to go literally go to the schools you know could take you know like 45 minutes to an hour
009to get to you know certain schools and you know i'm glad they did do pilot projects to send meals to uh the the homes of the kids in certain uh instances but oh it likes sometimes it didn't really all work together and you know how um the collaboration with the the principals and each school i was just trying to you know give a sense of how you guys you know even though you said you you collaborate with the the um superintendents or the kaz's and then each principal i i didn't think that always happened so so i will tell you that that's a true statement in the early periods when we were designing and responding coming out of the easter break there were constant discussions on where and when and how we rolled it out
010some involvement with the casters and the principles and hawaii island has obviously some unique challenges just by distancing so as we began to mature the program or getting in there we expanded and we had a number of discussions you know of ari waimea in a number of different places so we began to broaden the program the other thing that we learned from this experience is the single serve to serve breakfast and the lunch at the same time so they wouldn't have to return at the same time about midpoint baylor university in the united u.s department of agriculture rolled out a plan to box meals and send directly and that was was very helpful but there were some limitations to that program in terms of rural communities and qualifying it and the department of education had
011to apply for and then the parents applied for after we got the qualified locations so clearly a lot of learning during that period hopefully we don't go through this again but the geographic dispositions of the schools we choose will be much broader and the single serve will clearly help we have had discussions about serving three or four meals at the same time and that is also in the list of programs we would run in honolulu um it was less complicated because it was closer but uh clearly a learning experience for us and we will take all that into consideration thanks randy and what was the what was the issues you know with um uh rolling out the the the meals that were sent to the families the actual homes of of the the kids that
012was a program put together by baylor university and the us department of ag it had some limitations on what areas we could do it so hawaii island and kauai was the two locations that we could do it in that in that envelope and then timing right the application process and sometimes by the time we got people applied it was like two or three weeks and that that was a tough quote it had limitations on funding but uh some of them by the time it got rolled out the program was done because they ran out of money gotcha and then you know and you can hear that you can see that the nexus 4 um uh you know making this bill in the first place but you know i just also want you know thank you
013guys for accidentally moving muted myself how should i say it's a critical part of how we serve our communities especially the kids so it is a high priority of the superintendent and the deputy and my staff in food service so like i said i hope we don't have to do this again but we're better prepared thanks chair thank you randy moving on to senate bill 1385 relating to education requires the department of education to develop a reorganization plan to provide students and schools with centralized food and transportation services requires the provision of locally produced food to increase in an unspecified percentage annually for five years to testify randall tanata assistant superintendent department of education please hello senator kudani vice chair hello kim it is um how should i say it this is something that should
014be a common practice for us for a number of reasons we haven't been as successful as we need to but we are doing a recalibration on how we're going to go about doing this a lot has to do with the arrangement with the farmers and what i've come to learn is farmers want a farm so this processing of paper where we're going to be much more aggressive with them and helping through their process we're going to also work with the farmers to grow the stuff that our kids want to eat and that's a relationship between not only what they grow but what our recipes our menus are like so and and that has to be in alignment with the federal standards and the health standards that we put forward we have nutritionists on on board
015we're in fact in the interview process for two more which will help us be in alignment with that but we will aggressively work with randy you muted yourself sorry oh but we're going to work real hard on it we have targets there's some internal alignments that we have to do from an accounting standpoint so i know exactly what we're buying from who we're working real close with our brokers whether it be hams produce or waihata and the other collections across the state but centralization is going to help us be more effective in that use of local products thank you members questions our next testifier is micah municata director of government affairs for ulu pono initiative micah good afternoon chair kidani vice chair kim hi kumarukata speaking on behalf of the uh initiative just wanted to
016express our support for this effort um you know it's been a long road with anything farm to school and you know you folks have definitely been at the lead of all that so truly appreciate your leadership senators and in approaching this issue very promising words from the previous speaker and you know we we hope that we can establish some sort of local sourced uh food goal within our statutes to really start to implement some of these things across the state um there's been a lot of great efforts in pilot programs in kohala and even mililani chair in your district so i mean there's been a lot of successful stories that can be said and we'd just like to see this expanded statewide so truly appreciate these efforts and thank you very much mahalo micah members
017questions moving on to item number six senate bill 702 relating to education funding requires the committee on waits to submit a report to the legislature detailing any changes to the funding formula within 30 days of the change to testify brian hallett assistant superintendent for the department of education brian please good afternoon chair chair khandani vice chair makato kim brian hallett uh testifying on behalf of superintendent kishimoto the department stands on its written testimony with comments but i would note that we are asking for clarification on when the clock starts for submitting a report to the legislature given that the committee on weights uh is not a decision-making body or final decision-making body that they're required to propose recommended changes to the board of education for approval thank you brian um we have no other testifiers
018members questions we'll address your issue brian in our deliberation thank you moving on to [Music] item number seven senate bill 468 relating to school impact fees repeals the school impact fee exemptions for non-residential development and housing subject to the transit accommodations tax when seeking development in a designated school impact district requiring county subdivision approval county building permit or condominium property regime approval of the project to testify randy tanaka assistant superintendent department of education randy please hello cherokee donnie kim thank you very much we stand by our testimony we as as the superintendent has outlined the impact fee is really to help build our schools in the areas of impact so we do have some concerns but we we leave it to the wisdom of the committee to decide obviously but please note our testimony hello
019thank you thank you randy members questions if not next to testify tom yamachika oops sorry senator phillips switching over i got a question i don't remember too clear but with the amount of development that we have in our community you know we could probably pick your ice cream gold so uh is this going to help uh any future development in uh i have a kapolei region senator favela thank you for the question um impact fees come in two forms in in cash or in land so the majority of our acquisition has been in land which allows us to build the facility if we don't have the land so that's that's where the impact fee has come most often we've we've come to learn that there are some restrictions on this impact fee and the example
020i'll give you is waipahu high school is trying to develop a health academy and we were hopeful that some of that impact money could be used because it increases classroom and education capacity well that funds we come to find has to be related to the the tod and you know you can stand outside of waipahu high school and look up and there's the rail right but waipahu high school is not in the tod zone so we can't use that money so we're working through some things we'll find find use for the money um but uh there's some some unique challenges but back to the point most of the acquisitions we have had is in land well there is each house was sold in never beach it went into a highway and uh school improvement fund
021uh i'm not sure where that went and um too many years have passed we've been trying to look for but i'm bringing up um the development in whole pe paying 1200 to 13 1300 for every home to the doe and in paranoia is that for a new high school the new middle school i know they're building the elementary school now what about the existing schools that right now that community and other communities are being impacted um is they're not getting any funds you think let me get back to you on that but for my first impression and understanding of it it has to do with using the funds to to build schools fund schools or get the real estate like i said we require for more of that is high on the list because we
022understand the growth in kapolei campbell community and there is a great need for for more classrooms so so let me get back to you on the specific specificity on what impact fees we have currently and where we expect to apply that you should also know also known as i'm sorry go ahead hello i appreciate that go ahead as as the sfa becomes into its being they will be we will be transferring that impact fee responsibility to the sfa as they develop the schools so they will have uh the oversight of that fund okay the question that i need from you guys going forward with the doe and the facilities and the land and the school and all the other great things that the developer wants to bless us with um can we work on capacity
023because you know we already knew 1990s that camo was going to be overcrowded and here we are 2020 and we just got a new building kapolei is overcrowded and we know senator kadani's you know so the capacity of the new high school elementary even the new middle school of honor only you look at that school that's not big enough but a community so some of the kids are still going to go either ever makai or what i heard from makai because kapolei middle school is going to go off the track and some of those kids are going to go there so emma beach in a whole even though we know uh on hollywood middle school is in there beach 6706 is still going to be impacted by the developer so can you please uh can
024you find out because eva elementary is getting dirty cracks and i i think they need to be located to be building more buildings for them and stuff having portables so the school is part of us so ken thank you randy appreciate it and i know you will thank you for this time chad appreciate it thank you senator thank you randy thank you next to testify tom yamachika testifying for tax foundation of hawaii hello chair um tom is not on the zoo call today thank you members further questions moving on item number eight senate bill 703 relating to suicide prevention training to testify heidi i'm armstrong assistant superintendent department of education good afternoon cherokee dhani and vice chair kim mercado kim i'm heidi armstrong from the department of education testifying on behalf of superintendent kishimoto the
025department stands on its written testimony supporting the intent of sv-703 the department currently operates under at 270 which became hawaii revised statute 3028-856 this statute already requires the department to provide youth suicide awareness and prevention training to teachers teachers assistants administrators and school counselors the department recognizes the critical role of educators in addressing suicide prevention and we do appreciate your attention in this area thank you for the opportunity to testify on this bill thank you heidi may i ask how much training is provided we have every school can select we do have a vetted list that has five um programs that would meet this criteria um we vetted this list in collaboration with the department of health and the prevent suicide hawaii task force we're required to report um to give a report of september
02615th of every year for the previous year's um progress in this so last year was the first year because of the pandemic and other things we did extend the deadline for this for schools to report on this to october of and we did have 186 of our schools of the 257 schools completing this training for the 1920 school year we training did stop in the fourth quarter which impacted which does impact our numbers we are collecting data on the training for this school year and will be ready to report it on september 15 of 2021. thank you so how many programs you said five of your programs would meet this criteria of this bill but how many programs do you have there there's five programs there are several other programs that that do qualify they're
027just not on this list that was vetted by the department the department of health and that hawaii prevent suicide hawaii task force um that includes cognito and and assist so there's two additional programs that our schools are using that that are not on the existing vetted lists so yeah so a couple of the as i look at your program some are two to three hours the safe talk i don't know you don't list the time youth mental health first aid is six to eight hours suicide prevention 101 is 60 to 90 minutes persuade refer online suicide prevention training is approximately one hour so those first two would not meet the requirements of this bill are are your principals and counselors required to take more than one of these courses or only one um they select
028from one of these courses and we do have the list of the courses that they are using so do you have a breakdown of how many principals and counselors take which course yes would you provide that to this committee please yes yes we'll definitely do that thank you heidi members any further questions if not thank you heidi moving on to item nine relating to education establishes criteria for industry certification awards to public high schools and appropriates funds to the department of education to incentivize public high schools to encourage students to obtain industry recognized certifications requires a department to submit an annual report containing specified information about the progress of the incentivization to testify terry ushijima interim assistant superintendent for the department of education terry please good afternoon cherokee dhani vice chair mcconnell kim and members
029of the committee i'm tara shijima interim assistant superintendent with the department of education testifying on behalf of superintendent dr kishimoto the department stands by our written testimony and support the intent of senate bill 509 the department respectfully requests that in addition to the awards to the high schools that the appropriation noted in the measure also provide time and resources to assist in modifying existing data collection systems in order to meet the reporting requirements in this bill the department continues to be committed to strengthening and advancing opportunities for students to earn industry recognized certifications thank you for your support in this endeavor i'm available to answer questions thank you terry members any questions if not moving on to our final bill senate bill 508 relating to education requires the department of education to establish and administer
030an ocean safety and stewardship education program for all fourth grade students to testify terry ushijima in terms assistant superintendent for the department of education terry please uh thank you chair kidani um again usujima interim assistant superintendent testifying on behalf of superintendent kishimoto the department stands by a written testimony in support of the measure's intent and respectfully offers comments given the department's ongoing efforts to promote ocean safety and stewardship education and the flexibility for schools to design their own programs the department respectfully suggests that this measure is not necessary at this time thank you for the opportunity to testify i'm available to answer questions thank you thank you terry how many schools offer ocean safety education um we we don't have specific data however annually we do submit a memo that is distributed to our schools
031that remind them of the importance of ocean safety and it also provides information on how to uh use one of the programs provided by our partners the ocean safety and stewardship awareness program by the nakamakai um of our partner and we have some schools that may participate in other programs such as the hawaii equip aquatics foundation we know that in the past kailua elementary and liquelike chose to use this partner as their choice to meet their school needs [Music] if you don't have the information terry is there possible to get it from the kamakai um the nakama kai is a online resource and i have our health special our pe specialist who may be able to provide more information is that all right if i ask him to to provide some information yes please [Music]
032hello hello chair committee members um yeah so basically annually we have a memo that goes out promoting the nakamakai resource with the video and activity book and we recommend that all fourth grade students view the video and do the activity book by the end of the school year so that's kind of an annual memo that we send out to the schools as far as we don't have a set data to look at that tracks how many schools actually administer it um we have we can um you know look into gathering that information but at this time we don't have that available as far as how many actually completed um yes the committee would appreciate that information if you could gather it thank you very much so terry i guess i don't understand um your comment
033that resources will be needed if you're already providing this through nakamakai i would suggest that maybe the city and county ocean safety division would also be helpful in a resource to do these kinds of discussions with our fourth graders anyway members questions if not thank you terry thank you okay we've come to the end of our agenda we are going to recess for decision making one reconvening the committee on education friday february 5th 3 o'clock agenda members thank you for the discussion for senate bill 1271 chairs recommending to pass with amendments noting the suggestions from the attorney general's office to amend section 443b-9 to also allow a collection agency that is contracted by eoel to collect a commission also technical and non-substantive amendments questions members not share votes eye chair votes eye on senator bill
0341271 with amendments vice chair of woodside senator de la cruz all right senator kanoha aye senator favela [Music] and i'm chair of five members voting i your recommendations adopted thank you senate bill 467 relating to the board of education and uh requires the board to include open forum for public comments on non-agenda items recommendation is a pass with amendments taking the amendments offered by the board of education in their testimony questions members not chair votes eye share votes on senate bill 467 is there any member voting no any member voting with reservations if not all five members voting affirmative your recommendation is adopted thank you senate bill 1384 provides the prohibition against serving two consecutive terms not to exceed eight executive years pursuant to section 2634a shall not apply to the representative of hawaiian medium
035early learning providers term limits members chairs recommending that we pass any bill 1384 as is any questions if not share volt's eye votes on senate bill 1384 any members voting negative any members voting with reservations hearing none all five members voting is affirmative your recommendations are documented thank you senate bill 1287 relating to food services branch requiring department of education food services branch to coordinate with the principles and vice principles of department schools to determine which school meal program is offered by the usdh usda is the best fit for the student body and campus of each school recommendation of the chair is to pass as is members questions if not chair votes eye chair vote science senator bill 1287 any members voting no any members voting with reservations hearing none all five members voting i
036recommendations adopted thank you senate bill 1385 requires the department of education to develop a reorganization plan to provide students and schools with centralized food and transportation services requires provision of locally produced food to increase in an unspecified percentage annually for five years recommendation of the chair is to pass with these amendments clarify that centralization only applies to transportation services not food services however reports shall look at food service delivery models customized to the needs of schools broken down by complex area also the report must include information on how reorganization will look for efficiencies by reducing food waste increase school meal participation and promoting a healthy menu the report shall also include projected cost savings and increased student benefits such as healthier diets and increased nutrition knowledge and also insert a five percent increase in locally
037produced food that is purchased for schools menu school menus until twenty twenty members any questions if not share both sides chair vote science senate bill 1385 any members voting no any members voting with reservations hearing none five members president all thank you moving on to senate bill 702 requires a committee on waits to submit a report to the legislature detailing any changes to the funding formula within 30 days of the change recommendation of the chairs to pass with amendments to clarify that changes must be reported 30 days after the final report is made members questions if not chair votes eye journal tie on senate bill 702 any members voting no any members voting with reservations hearing none five members all voting in the affirmative there are recommendations thank you senate bill 468 relating to school
038impact fees repeals the school impact fee exemptions for non-residential development and housing subject to this transit accommodations tax when seeking development in a designated school impact district requiring county subdivision approval county building permit or condominium property regime approval of the project recommendation of the chair is to pass as is but noting in the committee report the concerns of the doe regarding collection of the fees members questions if not chair votes eye chair votes on senate bill 468 any members voting no new members voting with reservations hearing not all five members voting i recommendations adopted thank you senate bill 703 relating to suicide prevention training requires two hours of annual in-service training and suicide prevention for all teachers principals and school counselors recommendation of the chairs to pass as is questions members chair votes eye share
039votes on senate bill 703 any members voting no new members voting with reservations hearing none all members voting i recommendations adopted thank you senate bill 509 establishes criteria for industry certification awards to public high schools and appropriate funds to the department of education to incentivize public high schools to encourage students to obtain industry recognized certifications requires the department to submit an annual report containing specified information about the progress of the incentivization the chair is recommending that we pass this bill with amendments to replace dlir on page 3 subsection b with hawaii p20 and also making technical and non-substantive amendments members questions if not chair votes eye care votes eye on senate bill 509 any members voting no any members voting with reservations hearing none all four members five members voting high thank you for senate
040bill 508 lust on the agenda requires the department of education to establish and administer an ocean safety and stewardship education program for all fourth grade students recommendation is to pass as is members any questions if not share both sides share votes on senate bill 508 members anyone voting no anyone voting with reservations hearing none all five members voting on adopted thank you members this concludes the hearing of our education committee meeting adjourned you