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Aloha HE'E Members,
We ask for your vote on two recommendations which will be presented to the Board of Education Student Achievement Committee this Tuesday. Your participation is critical to validating the recommendations on behalf of HE'E Coalition. Please read the description of the recommendations below and send a response. Mahalo for your cooperation!
As you aware, a Workgroup made up of community members and representatives of the BOE and DOE have convened to work on the recommendations made in Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR)79 which was passed during the 2012 legislative session. The Resolution requests the BOE and the DOE to collaborate with parent organizations to establish, implement and monitor statewide policies for family engagement in Hawaii's public schools. SCR79 is a continuation of SCR145 which was introduced in the 2011 session. The DOE issued a report in response to SCR145 which identified actions to update and implement statewide policies for family engagement. SCR79 allows the stakeholders to continue the work identified in SCR145.
The organizational participants of the Workgroup include: Hawaii Department of Education, Hawaii Education Matters (HEM), Hawaii State PTSA, Hui for Excellence in Education (HE'E), Parents for Public School (PPS), Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC), and The Learning Coalition (TLC). A few individual advocates have also participated to engage in the process.
Currently, the SCR79 Workgroup has two committees, a policy committee and an indicators committee. The policy committee is looking at the following actions: - Update and align Board of Education Parent/Family Involvement Policy #2403 and Comprehensive Student Support Policy #2203 to reflect advancements in research and practice in regards to student support and family engagement.
- Align and integrate school-family partnership policies and practices across the system with the HIDOE Strategic Plan, BOE policies, and state and federal statutory requirements.
The indicators committee is working on the following action: - Establish a system of accountability, including the development of measurable indicators, by which families and schools can assess progress toward improving family-school engagement.
The Workgroup has produced two recommendations addressing the above actions. The first is to recommend a revised BOE Policy #2403, which is renamed Family-School Partnerships Policy with an accompanying Rationale, and the second is recommendations on the Department's Strategic Plan Goal 1, Objective 1c, Targets iii and iv, which is explained in the Indicators and Rationale document. The information being sent has been circulated to the members already and all comments and feedback have been positive. To date no Coalition member has submitted any opposition comments to these two recommendations.
The Workgroup has a great opportunity coming up at the BOE's Student Achievement Committee (SAC) meeting at 9:30am on Tuesday September 19, 2012. The meeting agenda is listed at this link.
Both SCR79 and Goal 1 Strategic Plan indicators are on the agenda; Gordon Miyamoto from the Department who has been convening the Workgroup meetings will be giving an update on the progress of SCR79 to the SAC Committee. Because these topics are on the agenda, the Workgroup has the opportunity to testify during the time of public testimony to present and explain the work that has been done thus far on this project.
Because HE'E Coalition is a representative of the Workgroup, voting members will need to give approval on both the revised Policy/Rationale and the Indicators/Rationale in order to endorse the work on behalf of the Coalition. It is a very tight timeline as the SAC meeting is on Tuesday. Voting Members--please send your vote as soon as possible as we would like to have the Coalition represented.
A reminder on the Voting Process:
- Yes Vote means to support a recommendation
- No Vote means not to support a recommendation
- Blank Vote equals a Yes Vote which means to support a recommendation
- Abstain means an organization will not participate in the voting process. Therefore, if there were 12 members and 2 members abstained, the pool of eligible votes reduces to 10. To reach a 75% condenses, 8 votes would be needed to support a Coalition recommendation.
We would also like to ask members to join us on Tuesday morning to show support for these initiatives. If you are free, please come to the Liliuokalani Building 4th Floor at 9:30am Please let me know if you can attend or if you have any questions.
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