STAND. COM. REP. 2537

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3238

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 3238, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Implement education reform and decentralization measures; and

(2) Appropriate necessary funding.

Your committee has amended this measure by adding the substance of S.B. No. 2055, S.D. 1; S.B. No. 2057; S.B. No. 2059, S.D. 1; S.B. No. 2062; S.B. No. 2069, S.D. 1; S.B. No. 2111; S.B. No. 2172; S.B. No. 2318, S.D. 1; S.B. No. 2755; S.B. No. 2757; S.B. No. 3205, S.D. 1, and S.B. 2070, S.D. 1, as parts VII through XVIII respectively, to:

(1) Provide that the salary schedules of principals and vice-principals and of all other educational officers shall be based on a twelve-month term of service; provide retention bonuses for principals and vice-principals; and make an appropriation for the additional two months' salary for high school principals (SB2055 SD1);

(2) Make an appropriation of $1,400,000 for additional faculty positions at the University of Hawaii's College of Education (SB2057);

(3) Establish academic achievement, safety and well-being, and civic responsibility as the agreed upon goals for Hawaii's public education accountability; and define civic responsibility (SB2059 SD1);

(4) Make an appropriation to provide for one full time educational officer and one full time clerk in the Professional Development and Educational Research Institute (SB2062);

(5) Support and recognize outstanding teaching by providing the Hawaii teacher standards board with continued funding for implementing and administering a program of support for national board certification candidates in the public schools (SB2069 SD1);

(6) Improve student achievement by continuing to support and fund parent-community networking centers, which create important partnerships among the home, school, and community (SB2111);

(7) Provide funding for full time student activities coordinators in all public high schools (SB2172);

(8) Provide instructional support that is adequate to ensure superior performance in any assessment instruments by funding one permanent half-time teacher's aide for each public school third grade classroom (SB2318 SD1);

(9) Support statewide after-school care programs for public school students in kindergarten through grade six by establishing a revolving fund for the collection and disbursement of moneys to pay for the administration and operations of the after-school plus program (SB2755);

(10) Allow the Department of Education and Board of Education to address increasingly complex legal issues in a timely manner by retaining their own attorneys without approval by the Attorney General (SB2757);

(11) Improve student learning by providing funding to reduce the ratio of students to teachers in kindergarten to grade three to not more than twenty-five students to one teacher (SB3205 SD1); and

(12) Build and support the teaching profession by providing funding to convert two existing Hawaii Teacher Standards Boards positions to permanent positions (SB2070 SD1).

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3238, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3238, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair