Aloha HE'E Members and Participants,

Legislative and Policy News

Please see HE'E's legislative update as of March 29, 2013.  Please also see Allen Awaya's (from Senator Tokuda's office) most recent legislative update and hearing update.

This week, there will be a House Finance Committee hearing on bills for Early Learning and Instructional Hours on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 2:00pm in Conference Room 308. HE'E's testimony regarding the Early Learning bills will remain as is; please see testimony for SB1093 SD2 HD1 here, and for SB1095 SD2 HD1 here. For the Instructional Hours bill testimony, we will add the acknowledgement of the House Education Committee adopting HE'E's language (recommended in previous testimony) and also suggest one more amendment in the definition of student learning time for secondary schools.  Please see testimony for SB238 HD1 here. 

Kerrie Urosevich is being nominated for a position on the Early Learning Advisory Board, GM749. Ms. Urosevich was the facilitator for HE'E in its early stages, bringing the Coalition to launch. She is also a mother of three children, which brings the parent perspective to the Advisory Board.  In June 2012, the Coalition submitted a letter of support to Governor Abercrombie for Kerrie Urosevich to serve as the parent representative to the Early Learning Advisory Board, as we thought the nominations would take place at that time.  However, it appears that the nomination is being made during this legislative session.  We would like to submit the same content for the testimony as in the letter of support for the upcoming hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 1:15pm in Conference Room 414.  Please see testimony for GM749 here. 

Please let me know if you have comments on any of our legislative actions cheri@heecoalition.org.  We encourage you to come to the hearings to participate in the process!

HE'E Satisfaction Survey

We have prepared a satisfaction survey for our members and participants. Thank you to those who have participated!  Please see link to survey here. The purpose of the survey is to get some feedback from members regarding Coalition activities, administration, policy and procedures. It gives you an opportunity to let us know how we are doing.  It should take less than ten minutes of your time. Please provide comments - your input is invaluable to us!  

Upcoming HE'E Meetings

HE'E Quarterly Meeting will be on Wednesday, April 3, from 4:30-6:30pm at The Japanese Cultural Center at 2454 S. Beretania Street.  We will have guest speakers Chad Miller from the The University of Hawaiʻi Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education and April Goodwin, Core to College Alignment Director at Hawai'i P-20 Partnerships for Education. Mr. Miller will speak about the Philosophy for Children (p4c), which has been implemented at both Kailua High School and Waikiki Elementary School. Ms. Goodwin will talk about P-20's campaign on College and Career Readiness in Hawaii.  We have over 20 attendees but there is still room if you would like to join! Please register here. 

HE'E's Planning Meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 from 9:00-11:00am at The Learning Coalition. We will reflect on our actions this legislative session, discuss policy issues at the Board of Education, and also convene our Social Justice Workgroup to plan next steps forward.  

HE'E meeting notes posted on http://www.heecoalition.org/resources/hee-meeting-notes/  

HE'E email archives on http://www.heecoalition.org/resources/hee-email-newsletter-archive