House bill seeks 15 councils for school complexes
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
After throwing aside for the year Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to create seven elected school districts, House Democrats are pushing their version of educational governance reform that they say would create more accountability and community involvement in a quicker fashion.
The House Finance Committee yesterday advanced House Bill 289, House Draft 2, which would create 15 boards known as "complex area school councils." Each council would prioritize construction and repair projects and make other decisions about campuses in its respective "complex" of schools that would be grouped geographically. Each seven-member council would be appointed by the Board of Education and be required to include at least one student, one parent and one teacher.
The councils would evaluate complex area superintendents and curriculum; decide on common yearly, weekly and daily schedules within the complex; manage block grants or other money; and purchase bulk supplies and equipment.
House Democrats, at a press conference after the Finance Committee meeting, said the key advantage to the plan is that it can be in place by January 2004. Education Chairman Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades), whose committee deferred the elected, local school board bill for the session so it can be discussed in the off-season, said both plans could work in unison.
But establishing elected, local school boards would require a constitutional amendment question in the 2004 election and could take as long as five years to implement while voters want to see change now, Takumi said.
Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto has already begun to implement school complex areas. She testified this week in favor of the House measure. While one elected board would still manage statewide policy, "complex area school councils would be making operational decisions on how best to implement and get to the visions," she said yesterday.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee today will be hearing Bill 667, Senate Draft 1, which also calls for appointed school complex boards. Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), said his version differs in its implementation by, for instance, establishing seven regional administrative units.
"The House has a version, we have a version, and there are other ideas out there," he said. "As the bills cross, people will respond. I think it's an evolution."
As part of a package of educational reform measures, House majority members also said they plan to introduce legislation next year that would ask voters to consider requiring geographically-divided seats to be decided only by those living in the specified districts.
Other legislation espoused by the House majority this year requires the statewide board to hold town hall meetings in each of the 15 complexes twice a year.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
