STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2165

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2421

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2421 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Establish two interagency working groups to allow the Department of Education and Department of Accounting and General Services, and the Department of Education and Department of Health, respectively, to discuss various issues relating to Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004 (Act 51); and

     (2)  Appropriate funds to the Department of Accounting and General Services for additional positions for school facilities repair and maintenance on the islands of Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; Department of Accounting and General Services; Department of Health; and Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

     Your Committee finds that Act 51 sought to revamp education in Hawaii by, in part, creating an interagency working group to develop plans for transferring certain rights, powers, functions, duties, and resources from various state departments to the Department of Education.  The interagency working group ceased to exist on June 30, 2007.

     Your Committee further finds that re-establishment of interagency working groups will help address various issues that either have not been fully resolved since Act 51 or have arisen as a result of the transferring of certain rights, powers, functions, duties, and resources from various state departments to the Department of Education.  Many of these issues and concerns, as well as the need for additional repair and maintenance support on the neighbor islands, arose from discussions that took place during the 2013 interim when the Chair of your Committee on Education toured the State's fifteen complex areas to meet with and listen to the principals and staff.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an appropriation in the amount of $180,000 to the Department of Education for the establishment of the interagency working groups and to fund two full-time equivalent (2.0 FTE) positions; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2421, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2421, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair