STAND. COM. REP. NO. 154

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 984

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 984 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to reestablish an interagency working group based on Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, with the overall goal of ensuring a standard level of service statewide.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education and IMUAlliance.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that revisiting the requirements of Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, is necessary to work out solutions to a backlog of facilities repair and maintenance concerns in neighbor island schools.  Resources and geography make servicing neighbor island schools unique, but the Department of Education and Department of Accounting and General Services agree that dialogue is necessary to evaluate the outcomes of the Act 51 transfer of resources, identify current issues, and develop solutions.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing the requirement that the interagency working group submit a report in 2017; and

 

     (2)  Changing the date the interagency working group will dissolve from June 30, 2017, to June 30, 2016.

 

     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. 984, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 984, 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,

 

 

 

____________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair