22 schools will pilot reforms

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer

The state Department of Education has selected 22 schools to pilot a new student spending formula and new school community councils, a field test designed to identify obstacles before all schools make the changes by the 2006-07 school year.

"If problems arise in implementing any of the initiatives, we want to work out solutions during the pilot stage in order to smooth the transition for all schools the following year," state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said.

A DOE committee on weights will start drafting the new formula to direct money to schools based on student need, rather than by school enrollment. The pilot schools could begin experimenting with the formula as soon as the committee comes up with its options.

While the formula would likely tilt spending toward students in poverty, special education or with limited English, the committee also might consider giving added weight to students in the early grades, to the gifted and talented, or to Native Hawaiian students.

Pilot schools will soon start to form the new councils, which will be elected by teachers, school staff, parents and students, and will include school principals. Principals will begin to receive training on developing school academic and financial plans for review by the councils, which must be in place at all schools by the 2005-06 school year to prepare for when the new spending formula goes statewide the next school year.

Michael Harano, the principal at Washington Middle School, one of the pilot schools, said he had already intended to reach out to parents to improve parental involvement at the school. Although Washington parents do turn out for events, he said, the school has had difficulty engaging parents in school governance.

The pilot program may help parents, and school staff, understand that the changes may not come with any new money for the school, so the school community will have to set priorities. "What I think people need to see is that there are going to be a lot of hard decisions," Harano said.

Rene Yamafuji, the principal at Kula Elementary School on Maui, said she is curious to see how her school fares under the formula and how much discretion she might have when principals get 70 percent control over school spending.

Her school is in a rural area and does not have a high number of poor or special-education students. As a way to ease the transition, the DOE will help schools that lose money in the first three years after the formula takes effect statewide, but schools eventually will have to adjust to the spending patterns that emerge or fight to change the formula.

"I don't like surprises," Yamafuji said. "Will we end up with more or less money? We just want to know."

The Lingle administration has been skeptical about the DOE's commitment to reform, and DOE officials said the eagerness to start the pilot program immediately, instead of waiting until the January deadline set by the law, is a sign of the department's intentions.

"We want to make this as meaningful for the schools as possible. ... it's going to be a challenge. But it's going to be a good challenge," said Robert McClelland, acting director of the DOE's planning and evaluation branch, said of the pilot program.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.