STAND. COM. REP. NO. 444

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1143

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1143 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to require collaboration between school principals, faculty, and school community councils in the development of school academic and financial plans.

 

     Additionally, this measure:

 

     (1)  Appropriates funds for the reduction of kindergarten class sizes;

 

     (2)  Appropriates funds for establishing new teacher advisors/peer assistance mentors in schools; and

 

     (3)  Clarifies the manner by which teacher representation on school community councils is determined.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that collaboration is a key component to developing a successful school academic and financial plan.  Under the existing law, school principals are tasked with the development of academic and financial plans for review and approval by the school community councils.  This measure contemplates the development of academic and financial plans collaboratively by the principal and the school's faculty, as well as specifies further limitations on a principal's authority over the implementation of the academic and financial plan.  Upon further review of the measure and the testimony provided, your Committee believes that the process currently supports adequate collaborative efforts, while also providing for clear accountability on the part of school principals in the development and implementation of a school's academic and financial plan.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the manner by which teachers are selected for representation on school community councils requires clarification and flexibility to allow the exclusive representative for the employee organization to determine an appropriate process.  This measure addresses that concern.  Your Committee is also mindful that selection of a student representative at the primary school level should contemplate situations where no formal student council exists to provide student representation.

 

     Additionally, this measure addresses your Committee's concerns that kindergarten class sizes should be reduced to ensure that our students are receiving adequate attention in the classrooms and that a mentoring program is necessary to provide advice and assistance to new teachers.  Your Committee believes that kindergarten classes should be reduced to reach an eighteen-to-one student to teacher ratio and that junior kindergarten classes should also be reduced to achieve a ten-to-one student to teacher ratio.  Furthermore, your Committee determines that the new teacher advisors/peer assistance mentors should be established to provide mentoring services to the new teachers at the complex area level.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing the provisions regarding the principal's authority to develop and implement the school's academic and financial plan;

 

     (2)  Including language that allows a school principal to determine the selection process for student representation on the school community council when no student council exists;

     (3)  Specifying that kindergarten class size should be reduced to an eighteen-to-one student to teacher ratio;

 

     (4)  Specifying that junior kindergarten class size should be reduced to a ten-to-one student to teacher ratio;

 

     (5)  Specifying that the establishment of new teacher advisors/peer assistance mentors should be done with the target of achieving a ratio of fifteen new teachers to one new teacher advisor/peer assistance mentor within each school complex area;

 

     (6)  Making the appropriations in the measure applicable for both years of the 2007-2009 fiscal biennium; and

 

     (7)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1143, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1143, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

 

 

 

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair