STAND. COM. REP. NO. 782

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 847

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 847, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHERS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend statutory requirements for teacher bonuses to reflect new benchmarks implemented by the Department of Education.

 

     Specifically, this measure:

 

(1)  Repeals language authorizing an annual bonus for national board certified teachers at schools that are restructuring or not making average yearly progress, under the No Child Left Behind Act, and adds language authorizing an annual bonus for national board certified teachers at schools in a focus, priority, or superintendent's zone or schools designated title I under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and

 

(2)  Provides an additional annual $5,000 bonus for national board certified teachers who continue to teach at a school that has transitioned out of a qualifying designation.

 

 

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Education, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, HE‘E Coalition, and twenty-eight individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure will allow the State to continue to provide bonuses to national board certified teachers in light of changing Department of Education standards and federal legislation.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the provisions relating to bonuses for national board certified teachers at schools designated or formerly designated as title I under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

 

     Your Committee notes that if the bonuses for national board certified teachers at title I or former title I schools is a priority incentive for the Hawaii State Teachers Association, those bonuses may be negotiated for inclusion in the next collective bargaining agreement for bargaining unit (5).

 

     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. 847, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 847, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair