16 in race to fill eight BOE seats
| • | Board of Education candidates |
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
With the state of the public school system increasingly on the minds of voters — and criticized in the stump speeches of legislative hopefuls — a majority of seats are up for grabs on the state Board of Education, the policymaking body for Hawai'i schools.
Sixteen candidates are vying for eight seats on a board that has met with an increasing amount of controversy and attention in recent years.
A recent Honolulu Advertiser/News 8 Hawai'i Poll found that 38 percent of voters believe the economy is the most serious problem facing the state, followed by 29 percent who believe education is the most serious problem.
Education officials recently have juggled aging school facilities, disputes with the state's charter schools and a rocky relationship with the Legislature, whose members spent a majority of the 2002 session trying to figure out how to eliminate the board or diminish its authority. While the Department of Education appears to be coming into compliance with the federal Felix consent decree, which ordered the improvement of the special-education system, education officials now are under increasing pressure from the No Child Left Behind Act, the new federal law that requires continually increasing math and reading scores.
Eight of the 13 BOE seats are up for election this year. A 14th student member sits on the board but has no voting rights.
Six candidates are vying for three O'ahu at-large seats, along with two candidates each for the Windward, Central and Leeward seats. In addition, two candidates are running for a special at-large vacancy.
O'ahu residents can cast votes in all of those elections — the residency requirement is on the candidate, not the voter.
There are also two Maui district candidates vying for a spot on the board. All Neighbor Island voters may vote for that seat.
Here is a look at the races.
O'ahu at-large
Incumbent Shannon Ajifu, a former principal seeking her second term on the board, said she can help provide a balanced perspective on the issues confronting the department. Ajifu said she is interested in working on the implementation of No Child Left Behind Act to make sure the costs don't grow out of control, implementing the Hawai'i content and performance standards and making sure the new additional middle school science requirement doesn't crowd out arts electives. "Several schools are able to fit it in and still keep everything going," she said. "We're going to have to push other schools to do this."
Karen Knudsen, a BOE member since 1990 and a director at the East-West Center, said the board needs to push the department to follow its literacy policy to make sure all students are reading at their grade levels, get behind the federal No Child Left Behind Act and develop better relationships with the new Legislature, including making sure a variety of board members are available to testify before legislators.
"We need to work collaboratively with newly elected officials and the governor's office," Knudsen said.
Incumbent Keith Sakata, an industrial construction inspector seeking his third board term, said the BOE must make sure there is no backsliding in recent efforts to improve the special-education system. He would also like to see better teacher salaries.
"The new federal mandate on No Child Left Behind is going to be a new challenge for anyone on the board," Sakata said. "I really feel that despite the academic scores not being what we would like them to be, what has been done with school management, School Community Based Management groups, charters schools and performance standards we've accomplished a lot.
Kenneth Segawa, an instructor and proprietor of Kumon Learning Centers in Hale'iwa and Kahuku, is a first-time candidate who said he is concerned about the lack of improvement in the education system. He favors a limited school voucher system and said the department needs to stop passing students to the next grade level when the children are not ready for it.
Segawa also believes that classroom teachers should be involved in budgeting.
Marla Wade, a minister, said character education should be woven into the school curriculum.
Wade would also like to see smaller class sizes, especially in situations in which teachers are dealing with ability levels that range from special education to gifted and talented. She is in favor of a school voucher system. "We have to decide what our priorities are in the state," she said. "We say it's education, but the money isn't following."
Randall Yee, an attorney, said he would work on streamlining the DOE and bringing a sense of respect back to the classroom. He is an advocate of charter schools and magnet schools, and would like to encourage more parent involvement in public education. "The system really hasn't changed over the years," Yee said. "Society has changed, though. I would like to be a part of setting where our school system should be."
O'ahu at-large (two-year seat)
Garrett Toguchi, a former board member and the executive director of the Arc in Hawai'i, a nonprofit organization for people with mental retardation, was appointed to the board earlier this year to fill a vacancy left by Donna Ikeda. He is seeking re-election to the position, saying that the DOE needs to be held accountable for its spending and that he would work to help the department sustain compliance with the Felix consent decree.
Toguchi said he is committed to public service. "Serving on the BOE enabled me to continue that mission while also giving back to the many teachers that helped me get through school," Toguchi said.
Shannon Wood, editor and co-publisher of the Ko'olau News, said her goals include family literacy, including encouraging family reading nights and literacy programs, improving community involvement and looking at the education system holistically.
"The schools belong to everybody," Wood said. "People need to accept responsibility in a variety of ways." But Wood said she is discouraged to hear so many candidates speak negatively about public schools. "I hear people talk about how bad the school system is," she said. "They trash it so badly. They don't understand the subtext of the message is that the schools are bad because the people are bad."
Central O'ahu
Grace Dixon, a community volunteer, homemaker and libraries advocate, said improving education for immigrant students is her top priority. She would also like to see more money spent at the classroom level, better support for principals and libraries as literacy-training centers.
Dixon has lived around the word, but has been in Hawai'i' since 1987. "Our children need to compete in the world market," Dixon said. "How do people think they're going to bring more jobs to Hawai'i without improving education? Our young people have to compete against bright young people in Asia, Africa, Ireland and elsewhere. We're training students for the 21st century and it's global. "
The top issues for Shirley Robinson, a homemaker and volunteer, are gaining autonomy for the DOE, improving teacher pay and decreasing class size. She said the DOE needs to be overhauled and run like a business.
"Instead of complaining about things I'm trying to focus on synergy. All of the stakeholders in education should get involved," Robinson said. "I really care for the kids in Hawai'i. They deserve a quality education. I think each adult should have a civic responsibility to see that each child gets a good education."
Leeward O'ahu
Breene Harimoto, deputy director of the city department of information technology, was appointed in June to fill a mid-term vacancy left by former board member Marilyn Harris. Harimoto said some of his top concerns are school security, including ongoing safety problems with school bathrooms, and improving working conditions to help retain teachers.
Harimoto also said the board does not have enough authority, pointing to the current situation where various legislators, state agencies and the governor's office are able to control financing.
"The more I get into this the more frustrated I am," he said. "The system is convoluted. I would like to work with the legislators to address this problem to see if we can hold one body accountable."
Karen James, a former teacher and a managing member of GeminiTech, a computer company, said school facilities need to be improved, more playground equipment needs to be added to campuses and vocational education should be emphasized as a way to re-interest teens in their education.
She also said the relationship between parents and the community needs to change. "The teachers are burned from trying their best and for not getting credit for trying. The teachers need the cheerleaders to come back and say, 'We're not going to bash you anymore. We're going to give you the support and the tools to do more.'"
Windward O'ahu
Laura H. Thielen, an attorney and school volunteer, would like to have an outside audit done on the DOE and expand the A-Plus after-school program. She would like to keep statewide financing and academic standards, but shift control from the central system to the districts and schools, which she said would result in more creative curriculum.
"The DOE is so huge it's very difficult for people to have access to it," Thielen said. "There's a lot of people in Hawai'i who would be willing to put more of their time and money into the system if they saw that there was change."
Terrance Tom, an attorney and former state representative, said the board needs to have a better relationship with the governor, the Legislature and other state agencies to make sure there is more money for schools. He is also interested in special-needs children and the Felix consent decree.
"I feel strongly that the board needs to take a more prominent role in its responsibility for the education of our kids," Tom said. "I hope I can put my years in the Legislature to use in being a strong voice for public education."
Maui
Mary Cochran, an attorney and former field representative for the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said the board should push harder for fiscal accountability and ensure that DOE programs are reviewed to make sure they are effective. She also said that educational officers, including principals, should have their own professional standards board, and that something should be done to make sure that teachers no longer have to dig into their own pockets to pay for supplies.
"I'm going to do what no politician should do," Cochran said. "I'm going to make two promises: I will not be a potted plant on the board. I will not be a rubber stamp for the Department of Education. I want to challenge the status quo."
Kelly King, a former board member and a project coordinator for Hui Malama Learning Center, is advocating decentralization of the state system and the start of local school boards in each district.
"I know that this system does not work and is not serving our kids," King said. "Everyone talks about being equal. All we're doing is keeping our kids equally at the bottom. Nothing has been done to pull us up among the states."
King said the lack of community involvement in DOE decision-making is part of what is turning parents to the private school system. "We're losing students who are being pulled out of the system. We're losing parents and teachers," King said. "We can't afford for this to happen forever."
Reach Jennifer Hiller at 525-8084 or jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.
| Board of Education candidates O'ahu voters may vote for all seven BOE seats from O'ahu. Neighbor Island voters may vote for the Maui seat. |
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O'ahu at-large (vote for three candidates) |
O'ahu at-large special vacancy |
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| Shannon Ajifu | Karen Knudsen | Keith Sakata | Garrett Toguchi | |||
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| Kenneth Segawa | Marla Wade | Randall Yee | Shannon Wood | |||
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Central |
Leeward |
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| Grace Dixon | Shirley Robinson | Breene Harimoto | Karen James | |||
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Windward |
Maui |
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| Laura H. Thielen | Terrance Tom | Mary Cochran | Kelly King | |||
