STAND. COM. REP. NO. 995

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1643

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1643, 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 clarify and strengthen the laws governing new century charter schools.

Specifically, this measure amends the charter school laws by:

(1) Clarifying certain aspects of Hawaii’s charter school laws and updating the definitions of "public schools" and "new century charter schools";

(2) Creating a more rigorous standard for the chartering of new schools;

(3) Allowing local school boards to participate in the Department of Education (Department) listings;

(4) Ensuring that qualified personnel may move more freely between the Department schools and charter schools;

(5) Enabling the charter schools to propose their own weighted student formula;

(6) Requiring collective bargaining increases allocated by the department of budget and finance to the charter school administrative office;

(7) Exempting the charter school administrative office from the state procurement code;

(8) Clarifying that the charter school administrative office is attached to the Department;

(9) Allowing the executive director to be hired through a multi-year contract;

(10) Allowing nonprofit organizations to submit a letter of intent to the Board of Education (Board) to convert a Department school to a charter school;

(11) Requiring the charter school administrative office to have the same relationship with a newly converted new century conversion charter school as with any local charter school board;

(12) Prohibiting any chief executive officer, chief administrative officer, executive director, or otherwise from serving as an officer of the local school board; and

(13) Convening a working group to review the state Auditor's recommendations regarding the charter schools' exemptions from state laws.

Your Committee finds that charter schools are relatively new to Hawaii. As the charter schools, Department, and other stakeholders involved learn to work with the existence of charter schools, appropriate changes in the charter school laws will be necessary to facilitate the operation of charter schools in a more efficient manner. Your Committee believes that this measure will clarify existing ambiguities and discrepancies in the charter school laws to ensure the sustainability and successful operations of charter schools.

Upon further review, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Organizing the bill into six parts to reflect the addition of the contents of three other measures as follows:

(A) Part I – purpose section;

(B) Part II – accountability, personnel, and weighted student formula - containing the contents of S.B. No. 1643, S.D. 1;

(C) Part III – containing the contents of S.B. No. 1663, S.D. 1, which establishes and provides funding for a per pupil allocation funding mechanism based on the consolidated annual financial report and on known, quantifiable, supplemental requirements;

(D) Part IV - containing the contents of S.B. No. 1664, S.D. 1, which allows charter school employees to be covered by the State's workers' compensation system;

(E) Part V - containing the contents of S.B. No. 1659, S.D. 1, which enables Department of Education charter schools to receive federal grant moneys under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This part was further amended to add an amendment to section 302A-443, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to clarify the administrative hearing procedures relating to the education of handicapped children; and

(F) Part VI - miscellaneous provisions;

(2) Amending Part II to update the purpose in section 1 to reflect the contents of S.B. No. 1643, S.D. 1;

(3) Adding appropriations with unspecified amounts to parts II to IV for the respective purposes of those parts;

(4) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2005; and

(5) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

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. 1643, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1643, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair