Posted on: Saturday, December 4, 2004
135 exchange ideas for schools
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
Voting rights on the state Board of Education, crowded classrooms and special-education classes for severely disabled students are among the things participants at this week's statewide student conference would like legislators to address next year.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser After hours of discussion and debate, they settled on seven resolutions they will take to the Legislature next month. In the past, the Legislature has passed some of the students' resolutions, including allowing a student to sit on the Board of Education.
Conference chairwoman Kristine Duong, a senior at Iolani School, said students have met one weekend a month since June to prepare for the conference and will continue meeting through April to follow their bills through the Legislature.
As a private school student, Duong will not be affected by many of the resolutions, but would like to see the public schools have adequate facilities and textbooks. "If you can't have materials you can rely on, it gets you nowhere," she said.
Participants in the conference have continued efforts to give voting rights to the student member of the Board of Education, which their predecessors have been fighting for since the position was created in 1988.
"It would mark a real big milestone for students to get their voices heard," Duong said.
Maui High junior Glen Bissell said the conference is important because the delegates represent students across the state. "We get to have a voice in what we want as students, a voice in the Legislature, in the Board of Education," he said.
Katrina Franklin, an 'Aliamanu Middle School seventh-grader, said she hopes some of the resolutions lead to changes at her school, particularly one that offers more choices for fulfilling the physical education requirement, like volleyball and drama.
She also enjoyed meeting with elected officials, who talked to delegates about the legislative process. "I thought it was amazing," she said.
The conference was mandated by the Legislature in 1970 and with the new state standards requiring students to demonstrate civic responsibility, it has become even more important.
"This meets the standard in training the students to be an active part of their community," said Clifford Fukuda, student activities coordinator from Radford High School. "It's part of an ongoing civics education."
Resolutions passed at the conference recommend:
• Giving voting rights to the student member of the Board of Education. • Grading honors courses on a 4.5 rather than 4.0 grade point scale to reflect the difficulty of the course content. • Putting special-education programs for severely disabled students in all public high schools. • Expansion of the physical education requirement to include electives such as dance and martial arts. • Requiring a semester of public speaking and argumentation study for graduation. • Making kindergarten mandatory. • Expanding high schools or building new ones to address overcrowding. Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
About 135 students from seventh through 12th grade spent three days working to identify students' top priorities during the 2004 Hawai'i State Student Conference at the state Capitol and the University of Hawai'i.
Having fun during a group photo session for the Hawai'i State Student Conference, Kailua Hurwitz, 17, of Waimea on the Big Island, leans her head on the shoulder of Tyler Tapp, 16, of Kona. Chantal Moncrease, 17, of Wai'anae, is next to Tapp.
