House Standing Committee on Education

Okay. Good afternoon. This is the Committee on Education. This is our part two of our informational briefings for the new year of 2025. Today we're going to be hearing from three departments; The Executive Office of Early Learning, The Hawaii Teacher Standards Board and also the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission.

And we will take these in order, as I just articulated. And then at the end, Members we can ask questions also in that order and so first, we have EOEL Director.

Hi, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair Laica and Members of the Committee. I'm Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. I'm here today with our Government Affairs Specialist, Jennifer Chow, and our Communications Specialist, Tara Castrovinci.

So the Executive Office on Early Learning is charged to work across departments and organizations to create a comprehensive integrated early childhood system for the state. So we have two primary functions. One is to assist with the coordination and improvement of the early childhood system as a whole.

The other is to administer, administrate, the Public Pre-K program. And we also host the Head Start State Collaboration Office Director in our office.

So here's our vision and our mission. And what we strive for is that every child in Hawaii has access to high quality early childhood development and learning experiences which lay the foundation for lifelong well-being. So in our office, when we think about what success looks like, we look at leading and lagging indicators.

So leading, what are things that we can do and what are some lagging? How do we know we've met it? So we look at seats and options available to families across the islands, how many children are enrolled, how many children meet priority categories, the qualifications of our workforce, the quantity of our workforce and also looking at teacher student interactions in our classrooms.

So some notable measures and outcomes and results for our office. So in the last two years we opened 55 new EOEL public Pre-K classrooms. We we awarded about $260,000 in early childhood stipends to 103 participants.

And we have, at this point in time I said 12, but we're now we have actually 18 completers and we were selected to be a part of the Rapid Statewide Survey project and we are in partnership with Vermont. And you can see on the screen right here that this survey is actually currently available to any family who has a child that's younger than 6 years old.

In partnership with the Early Childhood Action Strategy, we applied for and received and were accepted into the Children's Funding Project Fiscal Mapping effort. And so right now we are in the midst of working with other departments and even the counties to take a look at funding streams for children from 0 to 24.

So this includes state, federal and any other resources that they can map out. Additionally, we worked with the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board to expand the counseling license that's awarded by Chaminade to include Pre-K so that we can ensure our Pre-K children have the support while they're on campuses.

EOEL is very happy to also support Family-Child Interaction Learning Programs. We currently have two sites at Nanakuli Elementary School in Kailua and you can see their contract information here.

Again, we do host the Hawaii Early Childhood Educator Stipend Program and that's the one where we said we had given out about $260,000 and we now currently have 18 completers as of right after December. EOEL also supports new pathways and accreditation support for the field.

So you can see that the University systems are now adding additional pathways into the early childhood field. And on the community based side, we are in partnership with the HAUYC to support accreditation for the community based providers. EOEL has also supported the Early Childhood Conference.

So this is a inclusive conference that's hosted by the DOE, but in partnership with EOEL and then in partnership with Hawaii P20 we do have the Preschool Development grant and we are looking at support and we are supporting infant and toddler care as well.

So for federal funds we do have the one FTE position which is the Head Start State Collaboration Office Director. And then again for EOEL Public Pre-K we now serve 3 year olds in addition to 4 year olds. That was new, relatively new and these are the sites that we opened.

So, EOEL is now up to 92 classrooms on 74 campuses. To date we have received over 3438 applications for this current school year. And I just wanted to re-highlight the priority categories that are stated in our statute.

So, children who are placed to their individualized educational programs in a gen ed setting, second language learners, children in foster care, children who are experiencing unstable housing, and the priority again is for children whose family income is no more than 300%.

EOEL is not exclusively for children who meet these categories, but we do give priority and preference to to children in these categories.

One of the things I wanted to highlight is that we have been doing a lot of outreach and so when I first came to the office we were able to find, I would say, only 11 children who were experiencing unstable housing. With our expansion, we found 44 last year.

But this year we've had over 171 applicants who are experiencing unstable housing. And I, I think that that's a good partnership with everybody who we've done outreach with and our partnership with the DOE's Homeless Concerns Liaison Group. This year EOEL opened our very first Hawaiian language EOEL Public Pre-K sites.

And in preparation to be ready for this, we hosted a retreat. We pulled together different community based providers, including charter schools that host Hawaiian language preschool, to learn more from them so that we can support the effective administration of this program.

I'm going to kind of skip over this unless you want me to go through, but it's just generally how we, how the process that we use to develop our budget and to prioritize the schools.

But basically we look at willing principal leadership spaces on campus, the makeup of the school communities and what other options are available, to children on campus. Our budget requests right now are to open up 50, five zero, new classrooms over the next two years.

So that would require 50 teachers, 50 educational assistants and eight early learning state office teachers who provide the coaching, mentoring and professional development support. This is just another way to look at our budget request. And this is the trajectory of the Executive Office on Early Learnings Public Pre-K since its inception.

So you can see a sharp incline and that is due to the support of the Legislature over the past few years. The faded out red on the far right is where EOEL could continue our trajectory should our funding request be supported. And thank you for making a difference by investing in early learning.

And that is the end of my presentation and I'll take any questions that you might have for me.

Okay, thank you so much. We'll take questions at the end.

Okay, sorry. Thank you.

So next we have Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.

All right.

Good afternoon Chair Woodson. Good afternoon Vice Chair. Good afternoon Committee Members. Felicia. My name is Felicia Villalobos. I'm the Executive Director for the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board and I'm here on behalf of the board. To my right is Dr. Mitzi Higa who is one of our licensing specialists.

To my left is a National Board Certified Teacher, Tracey Idica, who's also our licensing specialist and I have a couple of staff members behind me. Also like to acknowledge the board members that are listening online right now and staff. I appreciate all their hard work they do for children in licensure. So my presentation. Yes.

So HTSB's mission and vision is outlined on this slide. And one thing I do want to point out is that very top circle provides every child in Hawaii with qualified teachers. Qualified, defined by the board. Qualified, defined by the board is licensed. And so, oh, so it looks like it's not moving.

There it is. It's going now.

Oh, it's a little, little delay. So I'll go back to that. So for that top bubble, a qualified teacher equals a licensed teacher. So that makes, that means they have gone through the whole preparation program, they've been vetted and they're qualified to teach in the content area in which they are licensed in.

Next slide, we have a 17 member board. It is a pretty large board, but if you look at the slideshow, it's comprised of a lot of in service educators, majority of them are teachers. We also have administrators and other educational stakeholders.

So that's nice to have teachers making decisions on licensure because they interact with the licensed teachers day in and day out and this is their profession. HTSB performance during the 23-24 school year, we have our numbers on there showing again, at the time of last year we had only a team of eight.

That includes myself, licensing specialists, licensing clerks and a secretary. And you'll see we pretty much manage over 20,000 licenses. So that's including not only folks currently teaching in Hawaii in a HIDOE school or a charter school, that can also mean they have a license and they're teaching at a private school.

They can be teaching in a different country or they can be teaching in another state and they are just keeping their license active. One of our biggest things that we like to do is provide excellent customer service because our customers are teachers when they go for licensure, licensure renewal, adding fields.

And so our priority is, we know teachers have a limited amount of time throughout the day and so we want to ensure that we're meeting their needs for ensuring that they get communication quickly and efficiently. I do want to thank the Legislature for giving us more positions. We are now up to 12.

I know that's not a large number, but we do have some initiatives we want to talk about regarding what we're trying to do next. On the next slide should be HTSB's budget. We only run on 1.4 and so one of our biggest budget costs is personnel, of course, our second is our licensing management system.

This is the system where teachers can go online and apply for a license, adding a field, renewing their license so everything can be done online. No longer paper pencil. We don't have to keep the files of paper pencil anymore. It's all online.

And thanks to the Legislature, applications and licenses are free and so it's easy to manage with our online system. Now, our online system needs to be updated every so often. So as technology changes, so does the need for our licensing management system for teachers to access it and educators to use it.

And I forgot to mention, even administrators hold onto their license and they renew it as well. One of the initiatives that we are taking on is both Pre-Apprenticeship and Registered Teacher Apprenticeship. And I'll go into more of the details of Pre-Apprenticeship and Register Apprenticeship later in my slideshow here.

But it is one of our, the HTSB's, biggest initiatives moving forward besides licensing. We also do National Board Certification and we also put down or put together work groups that are important to making decisions. The board always relies on the experts in the content area to make decisions to recommend to our full board.

For example, we have a Hawaiian work group who looks at Hawaiian licensure. Currently we have a CTE work group who's looking at the CTE rules and regulations. We have an online work group that finished and they came up with recommendations.

So we always pull from the field and the experts and pull work groups together to then recommend how to update things or different requirements that are needed for the board to make a decision on. Which is nice to have those experts. The next slide is some of our licensing data and I just didn't do from last year.

You'll notice that this licensing data is from 2018 all the way to last year, 2024. And again, like I said, it's over 20,000 licenses that we manage. So throughout the day and you'll see the different categories for not only licenses, but permits as well. And one of the largest numbers is emergency hire permits.

An emergency hire permit is someone who has a bachelor's degree and it could be in anything. And they're put into, they're given a permit, they have three years to satisfy requirements for licensure and then they're given a license after that in that content area.

So emergency hires does also mean that if I have a background in another subject area and I want to be, they can put me in a science classroom and maybe I don't have a science background. So hopefully they're going through a program that leads to science licensure as well.

And again, with the teacher shortage, we'll see that emergency hire number is a higher number when there is a larger shortage. One of the things, again, the next slide, or the same slide, sorry, next slide, is Hawaii Preparation Programs. One of the things the board has authority over is educator preparation programs that are approved by our board in our state.

And you'll notice the numbers from 2018 all the way 2024. The need is over 1,200 teachers a year. And unfortunately, our educator preparation programs are not keeping up with the numbers just yet. But hopefully there's initiatives on the horizon that could help fill preparation programs.

Another thing we found out through the years is data. Data should drive everything. And so educator preparation programs, we're having a hard time tracking data when someone leaves their program and where they go 20 years, 30 years down the line. HIDOE can only keep data for their own employees. So once they leave, the data's gone.

We found as a licensing agency, we can keep the data and ask for it when they renew their license, when they add field. So we put licensure survey questions on every application now. And you'll notice some of the questions are what high school did you graduate from? So now we can make that trend.

If they graduated from Castle High School 30 years ago and they're renewing their license, we can keep that trend. We can also ask them, what educator preparation program did they graduate from? So working in collaboration with P20, who's excited about this idea, and they're the data gurus out there.

So we're working with them to give them, in partnership with the data sharing agreement to give them this data so then we can have more comprehensive idea of where everyone's going. And it could be like a University.

They're no longer in the classroom, but maybe they're administrators, so now they're leaders or maybe they left the state or maybe they're coming back into the state. We have a lot of college students who want to come back to teach. After going to UNLV, Oregon State, Colorado, they come back and teach.

So we're trying to get a comprehensive look of where everyone's going. Now it's just started, so it's going to take us a few years to get all that data together to present. But we're excited about the opportunity to share that data with all stakeholders.

Now, our Pre-Apprenticeship program, if you'll notice on the next slide, this is our vision and possibilities. Right now, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board is working with Educators Rising. Educators Rising provides curriculum and opportunities for high school students to do a Pre-Apprenticeship program and hopefully, crossing our fingers, will lead to a Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program.

And what Educators Rising does, it excites kids about becoming a teacher. Now, not all kids will become a teacher in Educators Rising, but we found and heard from stakeholders across the nation. They may go into education fields, speech pathologists, school psychologists.

So it's not only the teaching route, but other educational routes because it gets them excited about teaching and working with students. So you'll see my vision is to provide high schools with Educators Rising curriculum. All high schools, and we even have intermediate schools that are interested in developing a program, whole district and state competitions.

With Educators Rising, they have competitions that you do within your own state, which leads to national competitions. And then again, that would allow our high schools to compete at a national level in education, provide college scholarships.

If you're a part of Educators Rising, there's opportunity for scholarships that they can use to go into an educator preparation program to further their career and want to become a teacher. They host a signing day, which I am excited about.

Like athletes, they sign to a University, an educator preparation program, and they make a big deal out of that. So I'm hoping one day our state can hold a signing day for people who want to become a teacher and join an educator preparation program.

The developed pathways to Pre-Apprenticeship, like I said, will hopefully lead to Registered Teacher Apprenticeship. Now that's a vision and the reality of where we're at is the next slide. So working with the, in collaboration with, the Department of Education, we got their blessing to pilot the Educators Rising curriculum.

And you'll notice on the right, there's seven high schools and one school is actually on Kauai holding a chapter. So the Hawai'I Teacher Standards Board is putting funding towards this pilot. Right now there's over 300 students that are benefiting from the Educators Rising curriculum.

And what our goal is of the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board is to work with stakeholders to expand it to all high schools. And even high schools who don't have a teaching as a profession pathway, they can start chapters. Intermediate schools, expand it to charter schools, working with the charter Commission.

And we're actually in the middle of that conversation right now. But all of this is always going to take funding. Funding to put this type of curriculum, to put together competitions, to fly people to a national competition is going to take funding.

I do want to shout out or acknowledge Tammy Yoon and her principal at Pearl City High School. They actually were putting into Dive into Education events and they did two already. And it's bringing the students who are in that CTE TAP pathway, teaching us a profession and get them excited about teaching.

There's breakout sessions and she did this in partnership with Hawaii Education Association or HEA and other stakeholders who are helping her put this together. But this should be something that's done annually and everyone involved in it to help her out. But she had the vision to start this up, which is great.

Now for Registered Apprenticeship, we are at the foundation or beginning stages of it. Again, this is the model we're looking at. Other districts in the US Are using a similar model, but again, their model is at a district level and as you guys know, we're one entire district. So it's, it's a larger machine that's working.

So one of the things. One of the things for employment is a paid job. So one of the visions of this registered teacher apprenticeship is not only targeting the educational assistants, teacher assistants, but it's finding people who have the heart for teaching. Could be a coach, a bus driver, someone who's actively involved in their school.

If there are teacher vacancies, there are usually educational assistant vacancies. And so how can we qualify them to be employed by the Department of Education or charter school in that area of an educator assistant or a teaching assistant? And then they're getting paid on the job because that's the.

They're employed at the Department of Education, but under the guidance of a mentor or a master teacher. And so that's the on-the-job learning part of it, just like another, just like a regular apprenticeship program. So they're actually under the guidance. They're not an emergency hire.

They're not teacher of record by themselves for our first part or our first pathway. They're actually in the classroom learning on the job. And then also while they're on the job, they're enrolled. So we have to have the colleges be a little more flexible with enrollment and when they give courses.

So some states have done it where they give courses after school, on the weekends. And so they're able to take college credits, working their way towards earning a license in a content area. And in between that, providing them wraparound services.

College can be hard to navigate and someone who has left and maybe this is their second career, needs guidance on how to register for courses, test prep. And with partnership with the Department of Labor, we can do things like provide transportation, childcare, because we know other states are doing that. So those are the wraparound services.

We're also excited to work with INPEACE because they pretty much have mastered the wraparound services. They work them in cohorts, they help them test prep, they help them have study time where they can just focus on their courses. And so again, this is the vision of it. The next slide shows where we're at.

And so because this is such a comprehensive idea and we need all stakeholders, we're still at that very first step one clipboard. Because we're working with educational assistance and the journeymen are union members HSTA, the whole consultant confer needs to happen between the Department of Education and the unions. Now, unfortunately we're not a part of that process.

So that process is happening right now. Another component of it is the contract before with the Department of Labor. And so we're working on that for we're looking at $4.6 million. So we're still at step one and we know it's going to take a while. I wish this could happen overnight.

We're excited about it, but we're going to need everyone on board and it's going to be after this step one. It's bringing everyone together to talk about the ins and outs. And there's some things on this slide show that were probably things we had never thought of yet. We're going to all stakeholders to say, oh, what about this?

Oh, this might be an issue. So it's going to take all of us to get it. So it's almost like a piloting and we know that 4.6 is not going to get us very far.

We're going to need funding that sustains especially if we're targeting high schools because that's a long pathway from a high school diploma to a four year degree which leads to certification. That's a long pathway, but it's worth it because then we're pulling people from the community in that community and rates are showing that people are staying.

If they go through apprenticeship program for teaching, they're staying in their community and with the incentives and paying for education, they're coming out debt free. So hopefully we're changing that narrative. Instead of people saying, oh don't become a teacher, you're going to have a lot of debt and doesn't pay much.

We're hoping to say no, no, no, become a teacher. They're going to pay for all your college. You get to stay here, you're going to make a living wage. We're hoping to change that narrative with this and that's all I have and available questions at the very end after Charter Commission has presented.

But we do want to invite you folks. There's a National Board celebration happening that we do every year with our, in collaboration, with partners and it's March 1st and we'll be sending out invitations, formal invitations via your emails. So thank you so much.

Thank you so much. That's always a great event to attend. Thank you.

Oh, I also provided you other documents with data from AIR and our annual report. That's this one, our annual report, and then AIR, the American Institutes of Research. So what we did is we partnered with the Department of Education, and I'm not sure if they shared this with you just yet.

They actually partnered with this institution that did a map and they can drill down to the shortage areas. So we're looking at down to the school and the shortage area, the turnover rates.

And so the AIR data I provided you folks is a chunk of the contract that we took to really target apprenticeship and where we need to start at. And one of the things that we're showing was the content areas. Elementary education is now surpassing special education and needs. They're the highest critical shortage area.

And that's unique because that wasn't happening before. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to talk with you on a one-on-one basis to go over that AIR data because it really pinpoints districts, complex areas down to the school turnover.

So it's really great data to use to start our registered teacher apprenticeship and who we should be targeting first in what areas.

All right, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, next we have our last presenter for today, the Charter School Commission.

Aloha, Chair Woodson and Committee Members, Mahalo for this opportunity to share some of our information of the Hawaii Public Charter School Commission. My name is Makala Pua Alencaster and I currently serve as the chair of the Commission. And Joining us is Dr. Ed no, who's our Executive Director.

I think you folks have a handout that provides some slides that we'll be able to go over with you Members.

Do you all have the handout? And because it's not shown online, can you kind of explain in detail what you're discussing? Thank you. I'll try.

I'll try my best. Yeah. So the first maybe in the future.

Then have it on the slide so everyone can see it.

I know, I apologize. These were a lot of the slides were in our annual report presentation to the board and we'll make sure we get that in time next time.

Thank you.

Okay, well, looking at the second slide that's entitled Charters at a Glance, it breaks down an overview of our current numbers of charter schools. And you can see that the. The bulk are on Oahu here on Oahu island, as well as Hawaii island, and then Kauai, Maui and Molokai also.

So we have 38 charters on five islands, really representing a very diverse, unique ray of educational opportunities. The chart below, it gives you idea of the grade levels that are being serviced. So the majority of our schools right now are K12.

We have some that are strictly secondary, either 6 to 127 to 12, or 9 to 12, some that are elementary, middle school. And then we have also 11 just preschools that are attached to our charter schools. Currently our enrollment is 13,054 students. And that's a growing number of students being enrolled.

And I just like to add that that number is hampered by facilities restrictions. So many of our schools have lengthy waiting lists that they're unable to accommodate.

17 or more of our schools have identified themselves as Hawaiian focused charter schools, six of whom are Kayapuni, Kaiaolelo, Hawaii schools who are continuing the work of some of the Department of Education initiatives along the lines of language and culture revitalization and reclamation.

But many of our schools, but that may not be strictly Hawaiian focused are have incorporated a lot of the teachings and learnings from our charter schools as they share among themselves to really be able to be responsive to community needs and aspirations. All of our schools right now are on what we consider contract 4.0.

So we've had evolution of our contract throughout the life of the Commission.

What that means is that you get a most of our Schools are on a five year contract and what we did with this last reiteration of the contract is expanded what has been mandatory of Strive High recordings and reporting so that we have what is also considered the mission aligned initiative which is required.

So each school has a unique mission and vision that they operate under. And so we've provided the flexibility for schools to then report how they're learning and teaching. And being accountable to their mission and vision is part of their whole accountability system. So something unique and really valuing how schools have developed and are being implemented.

Again, 11 of our schools also have early learning programs and you'll hear more about some of those initiatives as some of our new charters are being early learning standalone, so they won't necessarily be connected to existing charter school, but they will be a charter early learning program.

Continuing the charters at a glance at the bottom of that page really gives you an idea of the range of diversity amongst the different schools. Again, Hawaiian language and immersion schools, we have schools that are blended programs, meaning some of the courses are online and then coming and being on campus as well. Virtual programs really.

All of our schools are very community based, student centered and a few of them are considered lab schools. One of them of course is University lab school. And then we have under Kahakaula Keelikulani, a number of Hawaiian language schools that are part of the laboratory school of the Hawaiian Language College at uh Hilo for this year.

Looking at the demographics of our schools, you can see we have a large percentage of native Hawaiian students. 37% is more than the Department of Education as a whole as well as University. And at the University level they consider themselves to be indigenous and Hawaiian serving institutions with less population percentages of serving Native Hawaiians.

The next level is the white Asians are going down. So we try to keep track of who we are servicing at our different schools and communities. Then the final one on the bottom of that page with the enrollment trends that continue to grow year after year. Executive Director no will take over from here.

Thank you so much, Dr. Alencaster. And also we acknowledge all of our commissioners on that last slide just because we value their support. With us today is also. Sorry, my name is Ed Noh. The Executive Director of Charter Commission today with us also is our Deputy Director P.J. Foer, our Director of Finance Administration, that's Danny Huskinsellas Jr.

And our early Learning Director Diane Goya. And continuing that enrollment trend, it's really about chartering in Hawaii. It's celebrating the fact that 30 years ago legislation began in this State. And it's impressive because the first charter school movement happened in Minnesota in 91. And then we see Hawaii as an early state adopter in 1994.

And what we tried to show there is this timeline of the different legislative acts that really began this movement and empowered schools to meet the needs of their communities. And as Dr. Alencaster highlighted, the number is definitely could be more, but due to facilities, due to other constraints, this is where we are today.

I think it speaks volumes to the power of choice when families can look at programs that meet the needs of their, their children and their unique needs. So what we see there in the timeline is again, through brave and courageous and innovative legislation, we have schools that are thriving under this, under this new contract.

It helps schools to identify who they are and define the students that they are helping to create, to go out into the world and serve in their communities, whether it's home or beyond. And just to keep in mind, those are the years that they were authorized.

So that's why you'll see there's two schools that make actually 40 schools total. Namahana was in 2021 and Parkway Village is 2024. So those would be schools 39 and 40. And so again, really exciting news.

We do have Education Week coming up in the spring where here at the Capitol, we will be highlighting charter schools and their students and the work that they're doing. And we also are celebrating this by inviting the former Senator from Minnesota who did author that first legislation, former Senator Ember Rygart Jung.

So we're excited to have her here as well, beyond just the numbers. And I think Dr. Allencaster touched on this of the Strive High data, it's not only the mission aligned, but we're also looking at the impact that our schools are having on student growth.

So the slide there is trying to depict this idea that while charter schools, some are slightly behind Department schools, the growth rate is they're rowing at a fast rate or paddling at a fast rate. So what we see there is we have 80%.

So 28 out of the 35 charter schools that were at or above the student growth percentile, keeping in mind that the typical year growth is at 40%. So we had an average growth percentile of 50%.

And if you see there at math, 74% and then a 91% of all schools 2032 or 35 that had recordable data, like with a and size more than 11 is recorded that they were at or above that student growth percentile in at least one subject area.

So when we looked at potential and growth, it also really starts to become a little more apparent when we look at the achievement gap. So the achievement gap, this is compared to the state. So we looked at charters over time and this is just one snapshot.

But I can tell you when we looked back even 34 years, this, that the achievement gap was being addressed at a better rate than Department schools.

So you see there for English language arts that 80% of the charter schools were at or above the achievement gap to address the gap between high need students and non high need students. And so that is something that I know our schools are very proud of.

This is more anecdotal, but we do believe the smaller class class size, the personalized learning, the mission aligned initiatives, not only engage students, but really helps to connect them to their communities. And then we see that gap even addressed further in math where 86% the charter schools were at or below that achievement gap in math.

And this really starts to come together when we do look at not only the early years, as we look at those indicators, they try to capture the literacy rates for those indicators at third grade 8 and 11.

And we begin to see by the time our students are getting to the secondary level that these gaps are even achievements start to come together and we see in many cases that they are not only meeting Department schools, but exceeding. So the next set of slides is actually from Hawaii. P20.

Executive Director Steven Schatz came to our Commission meeting and shared charter specific data. And this was also something that was exciting.

This was after our annual report, but it was definitely something that I know commissioners and our schools and our public were really interested in this because this is where we begin to see all those, the learnings and all of their experiences come together as we again matriculate them into career college or wherever they want to go and make an impact in the world.

So what we see here is that compared against statewide that we had charter school students 11th grade with 3% percentage points over their counterparts in the Department. And we also see that reflected in science, another 2% gain.

And when we go look at college readiness benchmarks, we not only see a higher participation rate amongst our charter schools, we also see the achievement rate in English and science in particular, and in math, they trend at the same line. And so just wanted to mark that as really important data points as we look at the trajectory.

And we also looked at dual credit and I apologize that it was not in that next slide, but we also see per capita more charter school students participating in dual credits and this is noteworthy because what we began to discover is the dual credits that they are taking, they are either subsidized by their schools and, or paid in full by the, by families.

So this is something we definitely want to explore and have further discussions. But even given those constraints, we see a higher participation and the results show and when it comes to college enrollment, you'll see compared to nationwide schools, a little uptick there compared to statewide schools, not only in nationwide, but also for any four year college.

And then I also wanted to show the uh, enrollment rates for four year and our community colleges that they also do match the Department schools. So those are areas that again, we wanted to make sure we, we look at because it's not just what we're doing with our students now, but where they go next.

In the next section. These were, these were reports that we did submit to the finance Committee hearing is also at the Ways and Means and the Senate Education Committee. So I just wanted to make sure that we're sharing the same information regarding funding overview for EDN 600 and EDN 612 per our fiscal biennium budget briefing.

So just in terms of a background slide, we highlight here that our charter school per pupil funding is derived. It's only statutorily part of how we receive the funding, but they're derived by, through these different EDNs on the Department of Education side divided by the DOE enrollment count.

And so then when that per pupil number is formulated, we then multiply that of course by the number of charter school students. And as you saw, the number of students over the years has risen and now we are at 13,054 students.

And so when we put that into our per pupil formula, as you see under EDN 600, you'll see that per pupil is currently at $11,055. And I want to make a note, when I was a charter school leader, we started, our per people was at $5,900 and that was back in 2012.

So I think we're recognizing that, that when we invest in education for our public school students, you know, there are going to be this impact that we can really celebrate. So we have here two main buckets. The EDN 600, EDN 612, the one through 302D28.

So that is by statute, it is a lump sum, it is not differentiated. So everything goes into this for the schools. They are given their funding on a per people basis. And because it's not differentiated, this is where all the operations, the personnel, facilities is all from this one bucket612 is then the charter school Commission and Administration.

And under there is the Early Learning in Hawaii Keiki. So we just wanted to make sure we highlighted those two main program IDs and also to apprise you the fact that we do have some budget requests and one is to address the teacher differentials. These are the hard to staff and Hawaiian immersion.

Again, as I explained, the EDM 600 is only, the only mechanism is on a per pupil basis. Whereas some schools may not have teachers in the hard to staff category nor Hawaiian immersion.

So the real, the only real way to address that is if we transfer those funds to EDN612 where we will have more targeted discretion on how those funds can get to those schools not only appropriately but expeditiously. So the other one is just really a per pupil adjustment placeholder. No real asks for that.

And under 612 we're just reporting our operations for the Commission. The Early Education learning. Sorry for the listening audience. 1.8 million at the Commission. Early education learning is 9.1 million. And the Hawaii keiki ready to learn at 1.5. And again, these are the budget requests that we have put forward.

And we have as I mentioned, Danny Vasconcellas Jr. Here with us for Director of Finance as well as the angoia for Early Learning. And, and then our Deputy Director can help answer questions about the Hawaii Keiki. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Okay, we will now call back up who we had first.

Members, questions for [unintelligible].

Thank you so much, Director for your presentation. Just wanted to ask, zero my gosh. Just wanted to ask on the status of the early childhood state plan, if there's any update to that, what new approach will you be taking? What plans and how do you specifically want to address, you know, the impact. Right.

Of this new, like, strategy on, you know, kindergarten readiness and like, your long term, like, vision?

Okay, thank you so much for that. So currently, through our preschool development grant, we were able to Fund a comprehensive needs assessment. So we're finalizing the comprehensive needs assessment also taking into account, hopefully we'll have the information from the, our fiscal mapping project and also feedback from our, our families.

In addition to what the feedback we've already received from our comprehensive needs assessment. Our original state plan included the building blocks and that seems to be. Well, right now that seems to be the primary components that I believe the, the early childhood field still wants to stay connected to.

And so we did secure a contractor to help facilitate the next creation of our, our state plan. So we're in conversations about that right now.

But what we're doing is hoping to take the results from the comprehensive needs assessment, taking a look at what resources might be available through the fiscal map and also the feedback from families in addition to other things like workforce surveys and what have you, to try to see what we can update in our current state plan so we can chart a path forward not only to achieve the, the requirements of meeting 100% of the children who are currently unserved, but also in coordinating the broader early learning system as well.

Right.

But since we're due for a state plan, do you know, do you have any sense on the timing on that?

Yes. So we're hoping to finish it by the end of this year. End of this year, yes.

Thank you. And then you mentioned a little bit on the, you provided some numbers as to where. I know we're. It's really based on space. I guess that's the number one driver. But are you looking at other types of measures to look at, you know, equitable access?

And are you looking at like what underserved communities like in particular?

Yes, absolutely. So eoel, we look at our EOEL public Pre K numbers and then we're also tracking the statewide participation through patches patch and DHS's data. And so specifically when we look at locations for EOL public Pre K, we are looking at the demographics of the school community.

So do they have children with early childhood special education services? Do they have children who receive Free and reduced meals? Do they have children who have unstable housing? How many children are in their early childhood special education class? Kindergarten? What are their access and opportunity scores?

And so we kind of look at all of these different pieces and sometimes it is not only income that we look at, it is other factors. And there could be children who count across multiple categories.

So for example, a student who could be within 300% of the federal poverty level could also be a student with special education services where their services should be provided in a gen ed setting. And likewise, you could also have that same student who, who is also beyond the 300% of the federal poverty level.

And so I think we take into account all of these factors, again, just trying to meet the needs of, of schools. And we believe that school level principals know best about their community makeup.

Right, you mentioned. It brings me to one of the statistics you mentioned. Right. The almost. Was it 22300 I guess, percent increase in the number of UN students experiencing unstable housing. Yes. Like what is what has been talk about, like how, which are the different like agents?

I mean, how do you work with the Department of Education on this? And what, where is the gap in how we're kind of providing, you know, wraparound services or like supports for students who are going through this process.

So I think through our outreach we've been very intentional and I want to say thank you to the county coordinators who have invited us to participate in their events. But we've been able to actually go to many different communities to let many different communities know about all the opportunities that are available to them.

And so we also received feedback that our application was too difficult and too cumbersome. So we took a look at our application to streamline it. And we also created an online application system and that was direct feedback from partners who also go out into the community to help get their families connected to programs.

And they wanted to make sure that they could access the application on iPads and, you know, other kinds of things.

So we were looking at the formatting of our application process and it was directly, we've adjusted directly based on feedback from the people who are communities who are actually, you know, going out about and trying to help service the people whom they're in contact with.

And then just last question, if you can share, because you're doing a lot in this area, some of the different ways that you're addressing our workforce challenges. So different specifically how you're partnering with our higher education like institutions to create more pathways into early learning care careers.

Absolutely. So one Thing I want to say is really grateful for. Let me just start with let's say, uh, West Oahu. So let me start out from that side. So from, uh, West Oahu, they're actually looking at creating a new pathway for early childhood education.

So I appreciate that they saw this need and they're trying to step up to address the need. Uh, MANOA has created a new early childhood pathway that is from Mc birth to 8. We're also looking at, at a field options. So as Hawaii Teacher Standards Board said that we want teachers to be licensed.

So for example, I'm licensed, I'm one of those people who are still licensed that is not actually in the classroom. So but I'm elementary licensed. And so if I wanted to go back then I'd have to add a field. So we're looking at those options to add the field of early childhood onto my license.

And so there's, there's a new pathway for that. And then coming over to let's say Chaminade. So Chaminade is they're offering online modules, they're adjusting the frequency with which they offer the classes and they partnered with Kamehameha Schools to offer Educator Mu'o Educator Stipend program and they have state approved teacher education pathways.

They're also supporting Montessori and through Honolulu Community College and they have the PACE program. So PACE is like you can take, they call it like a workshop that can be converted into credits. And so trying to figure out if there are people who are exist in the existing who are working.

Of course, if there are people who are working who want to join the field of early care and education, how do we help them without making them stop work just to go back to school?

And also if we have people who are already in the field, how do we help them to advance their credentials so that they can have a career advancement as they wish. And so one other thing though, or a couple of them.

So as Hawaii Teacher Standards Board mentioned, we are looking at the teaching as a profession and learning support professional pathways in high schools. So we've reached out to those individuals. I did participate in their Dive into Education event, which is really exciting.

There's a huge, huge cohort of students who walked to Leighard Community Colleges early childhood space and I let them know about the early Childhood Educator Stipend program, contacted their folks and also I've been in contact with Felicia to see like how could we actually build the EA pathway for early childhood educators through our high school students.

And so those are some of the Ways and then Community Based Wise Kikyoka is the first registered apprenticeship program for early childhood educators.

Thank you. Thank you Chair.

Thank you Vice Chair Member. Any other questions? You have a couple quick questions here regarding your FC ils. Can you explain a little bit about what those are and how does the Department choose locations to establish those programs? Good question. I know there's not that many, but. Yes, yes.

So thank you. So. So Community Based Wise, There are many FCs but Eoel has funds to support for.

And so basically what we did was we looked out again to principals who have space and who are interested in hosting the programs and have identified a need in their community to build the capacity of the people who are providing the caregiving for children who are from birth all the way to kindergarten entry.

So family child interaction learning programs are multi generational programs that include a caregiver. Sometimes it's a parent, grandparent, auntie, uncle, whomever it may be. And they attend with their young child. And so when they attend they learn developmental practices, they learn about caregiver interactions, they learn about child development.

The children also get a high quality early learning environment. And at some centers they also do lots of skill building for the the adults who may be there. So we've heard some that do resumes or taking interview, learning how to interview or financial management or behavioral health pieces.

And so, so again EOEL selected our sites and then we put out our bids for those sites and so is based on principals again principal interest looking at the needs of their community. We actually did have four identified sites at first.

However, two of the sites, the, the spaces that they wanted to host the programs in were no longer available as the year kind of got closer, you know, to the time to where we would be actually be able to host the program. So we had to put it back out again.

So we are hoping to fill the next two slots in time to open up for next school year.

So this is primarily driven by like principal participation and when you identify there's a sufficient overlap then you pursue it further.

Yeah, so, so we take a look at where FCIL programs exist statewide and then we kind of narrow it down to some communities and then we take a look at the same school wide demographic data as I had shared before.

And then we, we send notice out to each of those principals and we see who responds with interest.

Okay, that makes sense. Okay. Other questions? If not, I'll continue. So I want to acknowledge the great work that you do because I think sometimes or oftentimes that there is a Healthy tension between the Legislature, some of the departments and some of the learning boards. And that's okay. We saw some of that in our last informational briefing.

But what UEL has been able to do with your pre K program is exceptional. And I just want to make note of it because when we talk about educational delivery systems that are really world class, when I'm going to like some of these national conferences, UEL is brought up a lot and sometimes it's featured.

And that's because of the system that you have put in place. And so when we say that we want kids to be ready to enter into kindergarten to learn, particularly your pre K classrooms provide that platform. And we are grateful for that. And that's not only just articulated through your own metrics.

When you look at like readiness, defined as being able to 9 out of 10 of your brain participants, over 90% they actually meet or exceed the preparedness metrics going into kindergarten. But also like national organizations, like near, they have like what's it called, Annual report card.

And then one of those components that they look at is quality of educational delivery. Hawaii is one of I think 45 states that get a 10 out of all those 10 metrics. And so that is very exceptional.

But if you can please just explain a little bit about how you're able to get to that high level of quality in terms of like your pre service prep program and how you support new teachers going into like mentoring and induction and even like the continued support thereafter with regards to the relationship between the master teachers and the educators.

Both the teacher and the EA or Ta in the classroom. Yeah, just a little bit.

So our pre K team is, is wonderful and it's currently led by two educational specialists, so Kuule Kaluhiokalani and Caitlin Llewellyn. And we have a team right now of early learning state office teachers. So one of the things that EOEL holds is that we have a one to six school ratios.

So each early learning state office teacher is paired with six schools and they're responsible for the coaching and mentoring of the teacher and the EAs in that space.

In addition to this, when we do the onboarding, there's a communication with school level leaders about the expectation of them and their teams to participate in professional development days and professional learning communities. And so they there are actually 10 total times, touch times in addition to times when we go to the campus and so we support.

So of course the coaching and mentoring is differentiated according to the needs of the person in the classroom. So you can have from Very beginning teachers to very experienced teachers who might have extremely challenging behaviors that that school year.

And so our coaches go in and help to coach, mentors, support, co teach, whatever it may take to be able to support our workforce because we don't want them to leave. And teaching is very challenging. And so I, I'm really grateful for the support that they do offer.

Additionally, they do, we do host, you know, gold assessments of our students and then we do do the class observations with a debrief with coaching and mentoring after those twice a year. And so that's essentially what it looks like to be a part of eoel.

That's great. I appreciate that. Until after about two or three years, how many times does the average teacher interface with the resource teacher, the master teacher that's providing support for them?

We say that they interact with them at least every month. So, so at least everybody gets contact at least every month. So whether it's face to face or it's online or what have you there. And of course it's probably more frequently than that, but we do have logs, contact logs that we do kind of keep.

So we could actually run the data on how often different people are needing support and what people are needing support for. And based on that, they kind of evaluate it to see what kind of supports professional development adjustments need to be made like during the year and also after the year, moving into the following year.

And just to clarify, so the eight additional FTEs that you folks are requesting, that's for that particular role or is that for something different?

Yes, it is. It is. So because we will be opening up 50 new classrooms and at a ratio of one to six, that's why we would need the eight.

Okay, perfect. That makes sense. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Any other questions? You don't have to ask a question, but if you want to, you're the only person I can look at because.

Like ask a question, I should ask a question instead of just being the mean looking guy in here. It's not so much a question as much as it is a statement. Just to kind of follow what chair was saying in terms of, you know, thank you for what you folks are doing.

It's vital to the overall goals of education for our children. The one thing I just want to make a comment of is I'm glad that myself and some of my colleagues helped to increase these MVA forms that you guys are getting. And I think we need to reach out to Toby Portner to try to boost this up.

So our, the homeless liaisons we are supposed to be going through our MV1s for DOE enrolled students and identifying potential pre K candidates for programs like this or for early Head Start. Let's try to see if we can get these numbers a lot higher.

But we definitely need the classrooms and we need the resources for the teachers in order for you folks to thrive. So thank you, Codes.

Thank you.

Thank you, representative. Any other questions? That's it. Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay. Htsb, thank you for being here. Still, we're not doing that bad. It's only 3:15. Feels later though, doesn't it? Yeah. Not because of you guys. Yeah. All right, Members question for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you so much again for your presentation. So you had mentioned, I mean, I know you do a bunch of surveys and a new survey, right. That you're going to be implementing on. Was it on the pre apprenticeship? I can't remember. zero, no, it was licensure preparation. Yeah. Prep program.

So just question like, how do you basic. So one within your staff of I guess now 12 like and support that you provide to 20,000, you know, up to 20,000 teachers. Like how. Who administers the surveys?

And then how do you, what do you, what as you analyze like the different information, like how, when you collect this information, how is, how does that information gets shared either with DOE or the other entities that you partner with to deal with the teacher shortage crisis.

Any other challenges that we have to face when it comes to our workforce? Challenges?

Yeah. To give you some history, applications were done, paper, pencil, when we moved to an online system. And actually it was pre pandemic. So that was perfect. The online system had all the applications and their steps in the process. So we started initiating a licensure survey. Only to a couple of license fields. It wasn't to all applications.

And then what we did is we contracted with someone from, uh, west Oahu to help us align the data. Not only that, but look at the questions. Are they, are they valuable questions? Do we change them up? Are they answers? Answers in which we would get valuable data from. And so from there we took their expertise.

And now starting actually January 1st, we expanded the licensure survey to all applications, permits included, license included, everything. So it's one of the steps. So you cannot submit an application until you complete that survey. And so now that January 1st of 2025, it's on everything.

Add of fields, renewals, emergency hire permits, CTE permits, Hawaiian permits, student teacher, it's on everything right now. So now we're working with because like you said, we only have a staff of 12 now we're working with P20 and any other stakeholder who can help us look at the data and quantify it then we can present.

So we're hoping to share that again, you want to look at data trends over a few years. So we're just beginning that process now and hopefully in a few years we can have more data and showing. Exactly.

Because we know the Department of Education goes out and recruits and where are they recruiting at, are those elements working and how long they're staying in the profession and where they're from.

So are the teach are the students coming back from college who are from here, graduated from a high school here, are they coming back and how often and how long are they staying in their career?

So we're still working on that, but we're excited that we're in the beginning steps because I think we're the agency that can actually grab that data and it's almost, it's a requirement right now on their, on their application so they can't even hit submit without going through that survey. So we're excited about that.

But yeah, we'll give it to you folks as we get it. But again it's in the beginning stages.

And is that design, is that pretty typical? Is there an opportunity for folks who are not able to complete the survey within a specific time, able to return to it or just trying to look at on the technical side, folks who kind of it's going to be newer, a new process for them.

I don't know how long this survey is so they're unable to like continue and from where they left off or like right is it. I hope you know you also look at like if there's somebody to. I mean I always look at like our unemployment system. Right.

There's like people who feel very intimidated by it and then there's people who try to re engage with them and say go back and then you have to do it in certain ways.

So yeah, we don't have a lot of survey questions so we don't want to like 30 minutes later like click no. Yes. No. Yeah. So it's not a long survey and it's just one of the steps. We started at 10. I think we're a little bit higher than 10 questions but nothing over 20 and looking at quality.

And on the survey it does say that is it is anonymous because we're just looking, capturing. We're not going to figure out who the person is that graduated from Castle high school and went to unl. But we're not going to capture all that. We just want to see where the numbers are fitting.

And it's some pretty interesting numbers, especially targeting pre apprenticeship. What high schools are outputting teachers? Not knowingly. Right. And then we can get our pre apprenticeship programs in those high schools as well. So yeah, it's not a long survey, it's pretty short.

And the applications expire after six months and usually everyone can get through it in a short amount of time. The entire steps, it's validating ID and who they are, how they completed a program and then hitting submit. So it's not an arduous process at all.

And what do you know if our current teacher shortage is still at around 1200 annual?

Not anymore. I know the Department of Education has made an effort to fill vacancies and I think it's going to have to do with numbers. It's filling vacancy is one thing, but are we counting emergency hires as filling a vacancy? Someone who is not yet licensed teacher. So for us the vacancy is still there.

Even if you fill all 1200 positions, if you're filling them all with emergency hires, that's not a qualified licensed teacher. So it's those two things. Yes, they're being filled, but are they filling being filled by qualified licensed teachers who are hopefully are in a preparation program to become a licensed teacher?

And what are we doing to kind of reduce our reliance on the emergency hires?

On the emergency. Well, trying to get them through a program through one of the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board approved program. And some of them because they have a bachelor's degree and that's part of the requirements for emergency hire, they're trying to do a postbac or a master's degree.

Now it would be helpful if we could pay for that degree. Right. Because they're doing on the job learning right now and on the job service. But the only thing different between that and apprentice is because they're not under the guidance of a master mentor teacher. They're pretty much by themselves.

So doe, we just spoke with doe's Teacher Leadership Institute and they're providing them mentors to help them along because it's hard to struggle as a licensed teacher who went through a program. I believe it's even harder someone who just came from college with a degree and no preparation. So DOE is proactive in that place.

And are you also finding like that in terms of like the shortages in the high need areas? It's the same trends like special ed, Kayapuni education. Yeah, those Emergency.

Now it's elementary education, secondary math and science. Yeah, we're still seeing the same trends and again working because we know a lot of the Hawaiian language immersion schools are with the charter school and charter Commission in that area.

So working with them as well as to, and speaking to about educators rising, how can we get those students because it is an indigenous language and working with a national organization, how can we support those teachers? Some of them have Hawaiian permits that come out of the high schools with Hawaiian language immersion because there's such a need.

So how can we guide them as well to become a licensed teacher debt free.

And thank you for the update on the registered apprenticeship. Seems like very promising new programmatic area. So we're looking forward to receiving updates. You mentioned doe, but will you also be partnering with higher ed?

Yeah.

Zero yes, definitely. So what we're looking at with the uh system is because they have the community colleges as well in that system. So if I'm taking English 101 or I took English 101 already in a community college, I don't need to take it at a four year. It's already. So they're looking at pathways right now.

They don't want to duplicate efforts but how they can make a smooth transition from community to the four year. And even in high school some of them are taking dual credits already. So how can they go in as already a sophomore and taking those prereqs of education courses?

So yeah, I'm excited that uh, Manoa and other folks are working together to build those pathways.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Vice Chair questions.

I guess just, just to follow up on the vice chairs. So the registered teacher apprenticeship program. So fantastic. Obviously we need to get teachers at all levels but a big thing is retention. So if they go through this program, is there anything that holds them here to actually stay in Hawaii and teach after they completed it?

That's a great question and thank you for bringing up retention because that's a biggest issue nationwide. We can prepare millions of teachers but if they only stay one or two years that it just doesn't help the problem. So different states have done it differently and we're looking at different states.

Some states they don't put like you have to stay in a community 55 years or don't have to give back. Some states are putting 23 years on give backs. So that's something we're going to have to work with all our stakeholders to see in the contract.

When someone becomes a registered teacher or apprentice, do we put in the contract that they have to stay out of school for a certain amount of years to give back. We know that one program actually doesn't do that and they still stay because you're pulling from the community. They're not going to go anywhere.

So again, it's going to be working with the stakeholders. Now, we went through the State Apprenticeship Council already and we're just waiting for. We are the sponsor, but we still. It's not official just yet because the consultant confer between the Department of Education and the unions.

And so once that process is solidified and done and completed in a positive way, we can bring stakeholders together to now kind of navigate and build it out. So that's an excellent question about retention. Do we mandatory something or mandate something or are they going to stay?

And again, working with Inpeace because In Peace has been doing this on the coast for quite a while now and asking them too, like, are your folks staying in the schools? And I think the answer is yes. And some of them are even going into Administration. So beyond teaching, becoming teacher leaders within their community.

So, yeah, it's going to be a partnership thing, but retention is utmost importance.

And just one more question. How come none of the high schools from the Honolulu district signed up for the Educator Rising?

Well, it's a small pilot and again, we have to make sure it goes to the principals and to the teachers. So I think as word gets out of all the resources that Educators Rising can provide, and right now, unfortunately, the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board and you saw our budget, it's not large.

We're piloting it and hopefully again, we can get more funding to spread and expand and to include more schools because we even have interest from intermediate schools that lead into the high schools that are kind of interested now in that pathway. So it's going to take funding and resources to expand it out.

And I think with the TAP teachers talking to each other, and I want to say thank you to Dr. Janet Kim and her team. They actually bring the teaching as profession teachers together and have conversations monthly. That word will kind of get out about, zero, yeah, this is a great resource. Let's start doing competitions together.

It's just the foundational work we're doing now, but it is going to take resources, which is funding.

I retract that. I see Farrington on the screen. Okay. Okay. Sorry to the grubs out there.

My PowerPoint.

Okay, thank you. I was going to say a remark about Oahu centricity, but I won't. I will not say that, by the way, just to piggyback quickly with regards to the partition program, how long is the consultant confer going to take? Do you think the two unions? Are there more than two or just the two?

It's The2. It's HGA and HSTA with the Department of Education right now. We actually have a meeting planned coming up because I think they have some more questions, and I'm not sure. I've never been with negotiations and how that process works.

So we just kind of sit and wait until they're working things out, and then we're invited to an upcoming meeting to discuss it further, just to clarify some questions they may still have.

So you don't know how long it's going to take?

I don't, but I'm hoping it's quicker or sooner than later. Yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about how you choose the membership of your working groups when you're looking at.

Various topics to. To move forward within. Yeah.

So we look at stakeholder groups for like CTE work group, which is going on right now. We tried to pull a charter school. Someone from a charter school has a cte, I guess ACCN number. We look at a Department of Education school. We look at a practicing teacher that's in the CTE field for quite a while.

We look at educator preparation programs who can Recommend in the CTE fields. We look at like P20. We look at different stakeholders in the CTE field across the state to come together for ideas. Same with the Hawaiian work group.

We look at practitioners, educator preparation programs who can license in the hawing fields and so on and so forth. So it's always pulling the experts from the educational community to come in to speak and put their opinion in it.

And who chooses the membership of those groups?

We actually put it out to like an Executive Director. So we say, okay, so we do a laundry list including the unions. HSTA has expertise as well and anything to do with the union. So we put a list together and we ask the directors or the presidents and ask them. This is what we're trying to do.

This is the initiative. And so is there anyone on your team that would be valuable. We actually get other people that want to join on too. So when we come across questions as a work group, there may be questions with employment.

So then we start inviting other people like the Office of Talent Management because they had talk about employment. I can't answer that. So they can. So they're invited to a work group.

So yeah, we just look at stakeholders and we ask the top branches of those Executive directors, presidents, top of their departments and see who would be a part of that work group and what we're trying to do. And then they usually nominate or put someone and then it goes through a new business item through the board.

Okay, thank you for that. Regarding emergency hires, what is the process to lock, license them as actual, as, as licensed teachers, as prepared teachers? Yeah, they're not actually teachers, but they're in the classroom.

They're in the classrooms.

Yeah, they're emergency hires. But what is the process of support to get them to licensure?

Support. So we guide them to the 14 educator preparation programs that are approved by our board and we let them choose. So it's up to them to contact. Because our preparation programs are so different. Some are online, some offer scholarships, some.

And it just has to fit with their schedule because as you know, emergency hire, you're working during the day, so you have to find A program that can work with your schedule. You also have to find a program that has a license field in which you want to be recommended in.

And so for us the support is just. Here are the 14 educator preparation programs and we support our Epps as well. And so we're hoping that the Department of Education, since they employed them or charter school is providing that additional support. I mentioned earlier the mentors, so ensuring that they have mentors along their way.

All of them have mentors. I don't know if all of them, but I think a large majority of them. When I met with the Teacher Leader Institute, I didn't ask for exact numbers, but they saw that it was a need as well.

With the emergency hires and because there's such a large number of them, I'm not sure if they can help everyone. But sometimes in a school as a teacher for 15 years, sometimes it's the Department chair that takes on the responsibility as well.

Not only for emergency hires, but anyone coming out of preparation program because you want to guide them and help them.

And support them, meaning the Department chair is a mentor.

Sometimes, sometimes it could be a mentor that's assigned to them by the Department of Education as a district coach, an in school coach. So for the Department of Education, I don't know how they. I think there's a whole gamut of things that they're doing that's great.

For the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, we don't offer mentorship, but that's something that we're hoping to do with registered teacher apprenticeship.

Okay. And regarding the registered teacher apprenticeship, to go back to that, I think it's an excellent initiative. I know there's a lot of moving parts as you alluded to. We are at the beginning stages of that.

Is there still being consideration given to the three year period in which the applicants, the candidates work with, work under and with the master teachers in the classroom?

To me that's very important because when you look at data, it shows that if you are able to mirror some of that practice that is, you know, very highly effective, then that is, is also a means in which those, those teachers, once they go through the licensure process, are able to deliver that similar educational delivery system.

That was a lot of words, but.

Yeah, they're actually yes, if you find the right journeyman to partner a apprentice with, they are going to be more than day one ready. And then it depends on the pathway they're taking.

So if they're starting off in high school and they're working their way through their AA into The four year, they're going to be on that journey for quite a while. And so partnering them with a master mentor teacher who's excited about education.

And we're looking at National Board teachers, teacher of the years, and again, getting them trained because working with another adult is a little bit different than working with your first grade students. So again, working in partnership with, uh, Manoa and Dr.

Janet Kim, we're going to start piloting some mentorship programs to get folks to be quality mentors and working with another adult for a long period of time. Now, again, you might have folks who already have a bachelor's degree who just need that postbac extra year for teacher licensure, though their pathway is a little Shorter.

Again, we still need to partner them with the journeyman or a master teacher who qualified, who's been trained. And again, when they come out, they're more than day one ready.

So that period is going to be different depending upon the applicant, the candidate.

We're going to try to meet the applicant where they are at.

And you're saying that if they have a degree, then it's only one year period.

It depends on the educator preparation program. It's usually a year. But if they want to get a master's degree, that's a little bit longer. Just a postbac licensure program is it can range for a year, year and a half, but again, if they want to go for that master's degree, it's a little bit longer.

Okay. Similarly, so with regards to preparedness and improving learning outcomes for kids, we know that the National Board certification process is a way in which we help our teachers increase their effectiveness. How does the board or you folks help support that process for educators?

Can I bring up Traci Adika? She works primarily with our National Board certified teachers, and she has a lot to say. She's doing some great work.

And I know it's voluntary, but it's just an amazing program and it's yielding terrific results in Hawaii and of course, across the country.

And it is an amazing program and it's one of the ones that I think is so incredibly valuable, and we're lucky that the state recognizes that as well. Right now, one of the groups that we've been working with is out on the Leeward coast of Oahu, and we'd like to see it expanded.

And that's something that we are actively working on to get additional support on each of our islands, because we do realize right now we're just on Oahu and we're Also just on the Leeward coast, but that's definitely a high need area.

What group do you work with?

I work with Inpeace.

Okay.

And so In Peace is a non profit out on the Leeward coast working to improve basically the life of the. Primarily the native Hawaiians out on the coast, but actually anybody out on the coast, if they're working on the coast, they've expanded actually even now into Kapolei and Ewa Beach, which is nice.

We've got a little wider range. But what they do is provide me a space to go out once a month and do a face to face mentoring session with the candidates. And. And that face to face, particularly in the community right where they live, I think is really important.

So it's an extra layer of support that they get. We do have a national board collective, which I think I've shared with you folks before, where we have representative nbcts on all of the neighbor islands with the exception of Lanai.

We're still trying to get a Lanai rep on our board, but ideally we'd like them to be able to also host cohorts and mentorships in addition to ones that are already offered through HSTA nea.

Some of the other candidate support that's out there, but having those face to face with someone in the community seems to really make a difference.

So that's how you're getting candidates interested in the program. But do you actually support them through that process?

Absolutely. The mentoring part is ongoing. So from the time they decide to sign up, we bring them in and I work with them. We even do an onboarding in the summer which is pretty comprehensive overview of what National Board Certification is because it's a lot more than a lot of them think.

Some of them think it's just a test that you take or just a paper that you have to write. They don't realize all of the layers of it because there's a content knowledge assessment where they have to do, you know, their essays, their multiple choice exams. There's two portfolio entries.

One is based on videos of them actually teaching their class. But they have to analyze what they did, why they did it, what their goals were and put all of that together. And student work entry where they're looking at what were their goals for their students.

So we work with them in terms of seeing what is it that you're going to have to do. So you make a good choice starting the process and then how can we help you as we go through it.

And how many teachers actually go through the process. Define as if you can give like a rough percentage, they make it through the entirety of the process from within.

The total number of teachers in Hawaii.

They receive their National Board certification.

I think they initiate it. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's still relatively Low. I would have to pull the percentage up because with our. Is it 13,000 teachers? Yeah.

Not too fun as the amount of teachers, but just the amount of teachers that actually start the process, that finish it.

Zero, and finish it. I would say, and this is just anecdotal. Right. Things, but probably close to 80% start it and finish it. They don't all. But finishing can mean multiple years. So it can take them from one to five years to certify.

There is one teacher that I just commend because she struggled with National Board certification way, way back, probably 10 years ago. She started the process and this was way back when there wasn't the kind of support that there is now.

She didn't certify, but when we brought Jumpstart into the state she decided she was going to do it again. So she did that and then she was in my monthly cohort.

What is Jumpstart?

It's an nea, HSTA National Board. It's a support, but it's a readiness, I guess. So it's a pre candidate kind of immersion into what the National Board process is, similar to what I'm doing out on the Leeward coast with their onboarding. It's the same kind of concept to get them ready. So she went through that.

She came to my cohorts every month and this is a local teacher, Samoan descent, and she was determined that she was going to achieve but she wouldn't share her work. So she'd talk and we'd see these amazing things that she was doing with her at risk kids. And she didn't certify.

She went through the whole process three times. And I am so happy to let you know that year before last she became a National Board certified teacher. Now if you include her tenacity. Right. In sticking with it, she's unusual. She was not going to give up and she knew that she could.

But I think what was the turning point for me seeing how that impacted her was she didn't speak up before in her faculty meetings or when she'd have something dealing with her at risk students.

She said now she speaks up because she knows she's a National Board certified teacher and so that has given her that ability to, to move forward.

She also discovered that she needed to share her work with her cohort because it was after she shared her first portfolio entry and allowed it because we don't force them to, to let us read their work. They have the option.

Why wasn't she sharing it? She's shy at first. Okay.

Yeah, she's shy. She didn't think it was good enough. She. And when I read it, I went, there's. Where is all the stuff that you've done? She had done this one amazing project with her students where every single one of her students had a family Member in jail.

And so she did a field trip taking them to the prisons to talk about what it was like in prison and set all of that up with her at risk kids. But when she talked about how did she use her knowledge of her students, she talked about setting up her classroom.

She didn't tell the stories of what she was doing. So by being in the cohort with us and we were able to go, there is so much that you, that you're doing that's absolutely amazing and you are an accomplished teacher. You just haven't proven it yet. And I think that's true for so many of our candidates.

They have to be able to tell their stories and to understand that you have to be able to share what you're doing that makes a difference on kids. Because it's all about the impact on.

Student learning and our candidates support it financially. To go through that process, application fee, and then also to go.

There's. There's a twofold process with that. The candidates on the coast, this is where In Peace is such an invaluable partner. They take away that financial barrier because In Peace pays for the initial components for any teacher that's on the coast that is committed to staying on the coast.

So they do look for that now because they did find that when they first started doing this that teachers would get certified and then go somewhere else. They want the community Members, they want the teachers who are going to stay there.

Not just they came in for a year, they get In Peace to pay for their certification and then they leave.

Why is this only on the leeward coast?

Because that's In Peace's target area. But like I was saying, they have expanded. So they are now expanding to not only Kapolei and Ewa Beach, but, but they're soon to expand, I believe to Kauai, the entire island and yes, and the, the east side of the big island. So those are their next two expansion parts.

One of the other things that National Board has done is realizing that the finance Part is a barrier. Right. Because it's about $1900 for all the components. It's now a pay as you go, so you don't have to pay for everything up front. Like when I did it, I. I had to take out a loan.

Took out the loan, did it. And then the DOE reimburses, which a lot of people aren't aware of. So once a teacher achieves their National Board certification, the DOE will reimburse them the cost of their four base components. They don't reimburse for retakes. That's huge. To be able to get that reimbursed.

That's not a part of the bonus. That's actually a separate.

No, that's separate.

And there's no way that they can actually front that money.

I think that there may be a way that they could do it, but they haven't. And it might be concerned about whether or not they really finish or don't finish. Because if the teacher doesn't, if they only do, say, two components and say I quit, the DOE doesn't reimburse them because they didn't finish the process.

But you think the 80% rate is.

Pretty accurate of the ones that start and then go all the way through? I think it's pretty accurate.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

And then charter schools are another issue, because the charter schools, from what I understand, don't have the National Board incentive added into their budgets. And so if a teacher gets National Board certified at a charter school, it comes out of their regular budget.

And I know by contract they're supposed to do it, but that is a burden to put on the school as well. As for the teacher who then wants to say, I earned my National Board certification, I should be getting that $5,000 incentive.

But then they find out that a program will close if the school gives them their incentive. I know that happened to one teacher on Kauai a few years ago.

Okay, thank you so much. Any other questions? With that note, we can go to charter schools.

Okay, just one real quick follow up. So I know you mentioned in peace. I just want to know, how do you spell it?

Is it zero, peace or peace, P. E, A, C, E. And it's indigenous. I should know what the acronym is, but it has to do with Indigenous. Native Pacific. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, last we have the Charter School Commission.

I was jumping out of my seat and then, yay, thank you for our standards boards. Giving light regarding the national boards. That's a great segue.

Yes. Okay. Members Any questions for the Commission?

I'll start. Thank you so much. Director. On your slide deck, can we talk a little bit about in charters at a glance, the different educational models. So I know there's a heavy focus on Hawaiian immersion schools, but can you talk a little bit about what do you mean by blended programs? What is experiential 21st century?

Like what goes into the programming of those schools and what is the trend if like the earliest charter schools focused on Hawaiian immersion? Whereas have you seen a different kind of trend with other charter schools that have been applying to the Commission?

Yeah, that's really great. I also want to comment that this is definitely something that we are revisiting because our portfolio of schools has been growing and arguably not like one school can arguably be in many of those different categories.

I will say that early on we did want to note if we look at the timeline of the schools that were coming into focus through the charter movement, I mean the first ones were conversion schools. It was around this idea about whole child.

So if you look over here, you have whole child right now, you'll hear things like project based learning, PBL. Really, that's experiential. And it's also recognizing these 21st century skills that we identified early on, especially around the ability for communication and collaboration.

So to your question, yes, I know some schools struggle with this because it's like, no, you can't identify me this way because we're so much more.

But again, when we look at the portfolio, especially on that first slide in 2001, we will see that we have many schools that were responding to the fact that we do want to reflect the communities that we live in, that we serve in, play in and grow together. I do want to say Also our chair, Dr.

Alencaster was the founder of Keikula Osami Samuel M. Kamakao. And they just celebrated their 25th anniversary this past weekend. And students leaders that were there in Fluent Lelo, Hawaii were sharing the story of the school, the founder.

And 25 years later, I think it was a very proud moment to say that the language and the culture has been not only preserved but perpetuating forward. So again it's, this is, this is definitely something that we were looking at.

This was part of our annual report and something that we are going to readdress with our schools regarding each of these categories.

Then as you're like looking at an overall like overarching vision for the growth and expansion of the public charter school movement, is there any, is there an approach or a plan on identifying where there could be a gap or shortage in other areas that you're like, seeking to fill.

And will you be like, you know, collaborating, for example, with the teacher, you know, Hawaii Teacher Standards Board or the. Even with, I don't know, doe, like on some of these, like, areas there's always. Yeah, right. Like, like, yeah.

There's so many, like, ideas of how new types of project based, like our learning, different things are always emerging.

Yeah. So just embedded in our very name of Ahakula Ho'o Mana. This was something that was given to us through the late Commissioner, Dr. Peter Hanohano. And it really elevates the idea that we are, this gathering, this Commission that elevates schools. And the vision is to really empower communities to create public schools of excellence.

And that's what I think when we, when we look at each of the schools, the pride that they bring to each of their communities and how they elevate the resources that are right in their backyard and also how do they use these tools and to identify that not all, everything that's innovative is like, has to be plugged in and digital.

How do we capture the indigenous innovations and elevate that to today? So one of the things we want to make sure we do is how do we honor the past, to inform our present, to really help our kids navigate to the future.

So when we look at authorization, I mean, we are following the principles and standards of naxa. NAXA is the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, so the gold standard for state authorizers. And so we've been active Members of that. As you saw on the timeline when the task force, when the shift happened in 2012 in Act 130.

So the 302D was informed through those type of principles and standards. So when we look at authorization, we are always looking at that, what high quality means. We want to make sure we're setting up schools and communities for success. So we have a very rigorous application process.

And then as well, how do we monitor that contract through the life of that contract right now, which is that five years that schools can receive those contracts and then renew every five years up to five years.

And then, you know, as a mom with two young kids, I'm very excited about Parkway Village. So you have pre K classrooms, but this is the first pre K charter school.

So can you speak a little bit as to like, the process for that and like, what are the opportunities for other expansions for other pre K charter schools? What. Why is it so challenging to have A pre K charter school.

Yeah. I'm going to start as to give deanne an opportunity to make her way up to the front because she's. She's really been championing this from the very beginning. But yes, the opportunity to leverage our community partners for. To provide pre free preschool is exciting. It is something that I think can be a model for others.

So the Parkway Village is something that we are very excited and a lot of resources, a lot of energy going into this because we want it to succeed. Like I said, we want all our schools to succeed. And that model is really shaped how we have gone to this next phase.

We do have nine classrooms that are right now open for application. It closes on the 20th actually next week. And we hope that we can partner with other providers because they are what we call kind of shovel ready.

They have their, they have space and or Parkway's case they were developing that space but we imagine some others already have space that they also want to provide the opportunities for families to receive pre free preschool.

And maybe Dion, you can speak to how unique this model is with Parkway Village because I've been talking to hhfdc, HHFDC on how we can incentivize more developers to adopt this model to. To for us to incent for other developers to.

For us incentivize other affordable housing developers to create facilities and then kind of almost right there like attach those units to a seat or to a space.

So this pre-k only charter school model can speak to the MIC was designed to maximize the mixed delivery system.

So we provide a charter, a free public charter during the eight to two hours and then perhaps a community provider can provide the wraparound care, the early drop off, late pickup and perhaps care during the intercessions and breaks.

So we look at this as an opportunity for all providers to jump in and provide the child care that is desperately needed for our workforce.

And it's currently housed within the affordable the community. Right. The development for Parkway Villages.

It's nestled right there homes so it's. So they could just walk across the street. So it's really nice.

Yeah, thank you.

Last question is just on the student achievement piece. I know it's because curriculum and I don't know if there might be follow up but on the student achievement piece like how do you. How does the Commission evaluate the charter school performance? Like the Met. I know you provided different breakdowns but how is.

How do you compare this with Hawaii DOE like standards? How is it relative to. Because it's so. I don't like how do you, is it one to one? How do you compare across, you know, the evaluations and then how. Yeah, maybe that's my first question. Like.

Yeah, yeah, and it's a great question. So we as a, as both, I will say confidently of all charter schools across the nation, as we are state funded, federally funded, you know, we participate in state assessments. And so all charter schools are either taking the Smarter Balance assessment or the KAO which is in Lelo, Hawaii.

So either way there is this annual assessment. You know, it is, it is something that we track. It's part of their performance framework. And in within the frameworks there are three main components. There's the academic performance framework. Dr. AllenCaster had mentioned the Mission Aligned Initiative as part of that academic piece of that framework.

We also have the organizational framework and then the financial framework. But to your question, Vice Chair, again we use Strive High. So there are very similar data points that we use that the Department uses. They have different strategic plan, different KPIs of their key performance indicators. But there's many that, that are shared.

So when we do a performance, an annual report, you'll see that our schools, we do share the SBA data if it's available. Some of our schools n size might be smaller than 11. But for those students that do test, we, we all that data is shared.

We also have on top of that the Mission Align initiative as well as because we are, we believe in autonomy, we believe in choice. Schools then can also opt on other data points that they'd like to elevate.

So for example, how, how are they, how are they monitoring those in those Mission aligned indicators as well as they can also do a comparison model. How are they doing with their complex area schools? How are they doing with other charter schools that are like.

I think one of the difficult things why it's not an apples to apples sometimes is because we have schools that are K12s, we have some schools that have different grade configurations.

So it's not, it's always sometimes difficult to say a K12 school and compare them just as you know, in its entirety to like an elementary school or high school. So we try to kind of narrow it down to the grade bands.

And I think, I mean one of the key things that's unique to and strengths of the charter school system is that autonomy, that ability to like innovate. And so for some of those schools that do have, that do have successful strategies is there what does the Commission do to like either share or like. Yeah.

Can you provide examples of those successful strategies or is there an opportunity for the Commission to, for those high performing schools to scale those strategies with the other, with the other charter schools?

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Actually, I feel like you peeked into our new strategic plan because one of the goal areas is how do we leverage the board policy? It's E700 that really was, is the kind of the template for charter schools. And one of them is how do we inform the Department schools about innovative practices.

And that was always the allure of charter schools as you mentioned, that not only autonomy but the ability to innovate and not have as many, what we might call like barriers to try something new and innovative. So it is really up to us and how we are going to acclaim that. How do we share that out?

It happens probably more organically with neighboring schools. We also have other great convenings where charter leaders and Department leaders, independent school leaders will come together and that's where there's a lot of shared practices. You'll see that at Schools of the Future conference.

It's kind of the premier conference here on the islands annually and you'll see a lot of that cross pollination of ideas. We also have our charter schools who will participate in conferences as presenters even worldwide to share indigenous practices. What we learn here. We have schools that their students are ambassadors all over the nation.

We as an authorizer, we also participate in that conference I mentioned NACSA where we're also able to elevate these practices not only within the practices within the office, but we always want to make sure we're telling the stories of the schools that are within the portfolio.

But to that point, why that's a goal area in our new strategic plan is because we want to make that really more front and center on how we share out. Because there's a lot of great pockets of, of innovation and achievement and we want to make sure we share that widely.

Thank you, Director. Is the new strategic plan currently available.

Or so the draft. The draft has been presented to our commissioners. It's actually just waiting for the final stamp of approval.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much. Any other questions? I'm not going to look at you this time. Look straight just in case. I have a couple of questions. Can you please talk a little bit about your contract 4.0 and some of the stakeholder participation that went into crafting it or amending that contract.

So when contract 4.0 was enacted. So we are in the first round of renewal actually. So we have our first school on contract 4.0 and we also we already have a renewal date and that's actually next week. So we have schools that have, will be going into their fifth year.

So I say that just to say it's, it's. This is the first cycle of that contract. During the construction, when we said we moved it from 3.0 to 4.0, there were a lot of listening sessions. We have all of that on the website.

Just as a way to memorialize the process, to make sure that the voices were captured, to make sure we were understanding what the concerns were and then how they were addressed.

I will say that there were some feedback that maybe we did not get into the final version of 4.0, but again, we wanted to make sure we captured all the input. I will say as an opportunity, we are in that revision process.

Again, we do have a partnership with Rel Pacific who's helping us through what we're calling the stakeholder engagement process. And this is something that I've been sharing for the past three months. And you know, we want that process to be agnostic. It could be applied to anything.

And it just so happens we have an opportunity because contract 4.0 renewals are coming up next year. The cohort, one of 13 schools. So we wanted to make sure, you know, we, we kind of test rode this for the past four years. How did it go? What are, what are some areas that we can improve?

That's another goal area in the strategic plan is to make sure that we are in a continuous improvement process, which means we're going to, we're going to test the tools we have, but then also how do we refine them?

Okay, thank you for that. I have a couple questions regarding the budget, just budget in General. Danny can come up please. Thank you so much. Yes. So as it was alluded to before by the standards board, you know, there is some differences in funding appropriation just for the edification of the Committee.

And so traditional schools, they receive funding for EDN 1001-502003-00400 and 500. And so 100, of course is school based budgeting. 150 is sped that you have admin, you have student support, instructional support, et cetera, et cetera, facilities, money for utilities.

It was alluded to, I think in the presentation that you offered us that the funding formula is statutory. When you distill it down, it basically comes up to EDNs. 1002003004400 is that correct?

Correct. So the charter school per pupil amount is primarily based on the DOE's budget. It comes sort of right off of that.

And that's the universe of your. Of how much funds you have available to you, generally speaking. Yes. Correct. Okay. And so that does not include, as you reference, edn150, which is special education.

Okay. And it does not include EDN 500. Correct. Okay. Okay. And so you can just let me know also if charter schools receive funding for these particular items. I imagine, because board chair said that the primary factor as that is limiting growth within the charter school community is the lack of capacity.

Correct.

Charter schools do not receive Fund facilities funding. It's a. It's a may in the statute, but that does not include it in your funding allocation.

There's. There's no direct appropriation for facilities. I think, as we've talked about numerous times and is included in our presentation, the charter school per pupil funding is a lump sum amount of funding. So the $144.4 million is a lump sum amount that is then divided amongst the charter schools based on our per pupil, based on enrollment amounts.

Okay. So that means you don't receive RNM money, repair and maintenance money. You do not.

Not specifically if it's. It may be included in EDN 400, but again, it's always sort of a percentage based on the DOE budget. So long story short, let's say some funding is put into EDN 400 for repair and maintenance. Charter schools, based on the formula, receive sort of a portion of that.

But again, there's no line items or any direct funding that says charter schools are getting a certain amount of money for repair and maintenance or for facilities either for lease or renting property. Okay.

And we're just highlighting differences. And so that's all we're doing here. And so I. I assume that there's not money that you folks receive from the deal is completion funds. The Department of Education has a completions funds account. Do you fully receive any of that money?

Not that we are aware of.

Okay, what about FICA reimbursement?

The FICA reimbursements are provided by the state separately. Separately. It's not part of the appropriation. It's done on a quarterly reimbursement basis.

Okay, what about works? Workman's comp?

Workman's comp. It would depend. Each school would have to work individually with the Department of Human Resources Development. D herd is the one that administers the workman's comps. So each charter school would have to work with kind of D Herd to sort of move along the.

Any workman comp claims and you know, are we'll have to work with them to cover those costs as needed.

Hazard pay.

Hazard pays. Charter school employees were included as part of the settlement. So whatever specific bargaining units that the hazard pay settlement covered, charter school employees were covered. So they were covered under the first settlement. And the understanding is DOE had their own sort of separate settlement with HGEA for the hazard pay.

So as far as differential pay, define as hard to fill Hawaiian language immersion in special education, you folks do not receive that separately.

We do receive differential pay for part to staff and for the Hawaiian immersion. So as we've talked about just a little earlier, special education is excluded. So for the differential payments for charter schools, that's actually paid out by the Department of Education, DOE does cover those costs for charter schools.

Okay, just add a little clarification on edn150. So each of the complex area district education specialist for special education will work with their charter schools within their complex area. And that allocation is based, based off of a student count.

So they work off projections and then that the monies go directly as positions that so they can cover the number of students at any particular school. So that funding model is outside of the per pupil. Just to clarify.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. And can either of you speak about the. I mean, it's the tool that you folks have, but you have basically EDN 600 and EDN 612. So everything that's going to the schools primarily is going through EDN 600. And so how. What are some of the challenges with that?

Because that is in essence a per pupil funding. But not all of your students have the same needs, right? Right. Some. Some are English language learners, some are not. Some have special education needs, some do not. You know, some of your teachers are nationally board certified, some of them are not.

And so how do you get through that particular challenge?

As a former school leader here in Hawaii, and again, as I mentioned, our, our per people was under $6,000. So you can imagine some of the challenges. And I'll also highlight that I was at a conversion school.

So facilities repair, maintenance, we were not paying the monthly rent so we could allocate all those funds towards the programs and target to the students where they belong. All the things Chair Woodson that you were bringing up, that those are, these are real problems that our charter schools are facing.

And we often wonder, have we had the full per pupil amount, which we can argue is still woefully short, but for just teaching and learning, let alone all of the items which I'm so glad you brought up because those are the real issues that our schools are dealing with, especially when we need a commitment to support our teachers.

We heard a lot about teachers licensing and retention. And so for our schools that they are to address these needs are out of the per pupil, addressing workman's comp, the FICA quarterly hazard pay basically to advance before the monies come.

So that's part of the system which you highlighted the challenges of EDN 600 as the mechanism because it goes out indiscriminately on a per people basis versus we need it to be targeted for those teachers that it would apply towards.

So that could lead to some schools receiving more than they should and others receiving less.

If we only had 600 as the mechanism. Thankfully, Danny's been able to work his financial wizardry. And you know, what we're trying to do is 612is, as you see, we have what it's intended for is a legislative action so that we can have functions within the office to administer the role as an authorizer.

But it is now what we're using as the pass through to make sure it gets out to schools. The problem is sometimes getting the monies from Edn 600 to 612 for that discretionary use and sometimes it's that there's a barrier there. So really appreciate our schools being patient.

But ultimately we acknowledge it's not fair for, for their teachers or their students to wait for that.

And that can be done via budget just to appropriate funds to 612 as opposed to 600.

That is the solution that we found out. I think, as Executive Director Noah shared. We're in 30 years of charter legislation and the Commission has actually been around, I want to say, for about 12 or 13 years.

And as we're growing along with our charter schools, we're starting to see where we found out where the gaps in the system are. You know, per pupil funding was intended to try to provide some means to equalize funding between the DOE schools and our charter schools. But we are seeing where it falls short.

When you have things that you chair that you've brought up, such as Workman's comp, you could include things like collective bargaining with that. Those are not sort of determined on a per pupil basis, but the funding formula is determined on a per pupil basis.

So we're not getting that direct correlation of the funding being used specifically for the items that they're intended to address. So these are the we'll say cracks that we're starting to see sort of in the, in the. The system. And we've been working with our charter schools to get through, get past those cracks and cover them up.

Thank you so much. Members. Any other questions?

I don't know if I should start because I don't know we don't have pills and blankets for everybody to stay here tonight, but because we're talking on funding. So. I remember when Sikhs had to move off of Kaimake High School's campus into the. Into Nuanu.

When that happens, what is the role of the charter for helping to Fund and re.

Establish the school at a new location? When you say the charter, you mean the charter Commission? Yes. Yeah.

Unfortunately that is not one of the roles of the authorizer. So what we would, our role would be to monitor that they're going into a space that is. Has, you know, occupancy for students. They have all the right necessary requirements for any facilities.

We wish we could do more, but that's the burden that the schools will have to endure.

One school recently came and shared at our Commission meeting and they were able to demonstrate, you know, of their entire budget, 66% is per pupil and the other remaining is through fundraising, through grants, through, you know, any ways and means that can. And then it again, that highlights how it falls short.

So imagine any move for a small family and the burden it is. And imagine now a whole school.

So the burden is on the schools.

So right now with University lab, uh, MNOA has opened up about how they would like to have that, that area back for them potentially having to move. They're just going to have to kind of figure it out.

Yeah. Each governing board, I know this is some. Something I've been talking with our governing board chair as well as a school leader and it's definitely something that they have been thinking about trying to strategize with and they would just again, as the Commission office, inform us about their next steps.

Thank you. Thank you. And so with SEEKS and University of Hawaii Lab school to Fund those facilities, those leases that comes out of their.

Per pupil allocation and or the incredible, you know, benefactors and other ways that they can try to create a facilities budget.

Okay. That is a significant difference. Okay, thank you very much Members. Any other questions? Singing on I want to thank everyone for being here today. Thank you for your expertise and sharing with us and I look forward to a very productive session. Adjourn. Thank you.