Aloha HE'E Members and Participants,

HE'E and Community Meetings

HE'E Special Meeting with HIDOE on Strive HI Performance System (ESEA Flex) and Common Core Communication Strategy, Tuesday, June 4, 2013 from 9:00-11:00am at The Learning Coalition, 841 Bishop Street #301 (validated parking at Ali'i Place, 1099 Alakea St. Please see map here. On map, A is Ali'i Place Parking ad B is Davies Pacific Center, where The Learning Coalition is located. Entrance of Ali'i Place is on right side of street right after Mandalay Restaurant. Entrance of Davies Pacific Center is at the corner of Bishop and Merchant)

HE'E is pleased to to have Stephanie Shipton from the HIDOE Office of Strategic Reform give an update on Strive HI Performance System (ESEA Flexibility) and discuss about doing a Statewide Speaker's Bureau to help communicate the reforms. It is also a chance to give feedback on what families and communities want to know about these reforms as well as other initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards.  Please join us if you'd like to get involved!  Please RSVP Cheri Nakamura at cheri@heecoalition.org if you can make it!  

The next HE'E Quarterly Meeting will be on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 from 4:00-6:00pm at The Japanese Cultural Center, 2454 South Beretania Street.  HE'E is pleased to have Dr. Kerrie Urosevich present on three important statewide initiatives. She will first present about Family Hui, a peer-led collaborative program which helps build the capacity of families to support their children. She will also share with Chris Jackson from the Head Start State Collaboration Office about the Executive Office on Early Learning's efforts in creating statewide Family Partnership Guidelines, trainings and toolkits.  Finally, Kerrie will present on Ceeds of Peace, professional development created by Dr. Urosevich and Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng, which bring together teachers, families and community members to gain skills in supporting children and youth to be peacebuilding leaders in their communities. To register for the event, please click here. 

BOE Community Meetings on Oahu and Kauai

The Hawaii Board of Education will host two community meetings in May on Oahu and Kauai. The Honolulu District Meeting on Oahu will take place on Monday, May 20, 2013, from 6:00-7:30pm at 

HE'E News

US DOE Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Seattle Visit  

The US DOE Office of Civil Rights Seattle is conducting an onsite visit to a selection of public schools on Oahu and Hawaii Island beginning May 6, and will have staff members in both places who are available to meet with students, community leaders, parents, etc. The focus of the compliance review is whether the HSDOE is complying with Title VI (race, color national origin), Title IX (sex) and Section 504 and Title II of the ADA (disability) in its prevention, investigation and response to student on student harassment and bullying that may be based on race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity). HE'E members met with OCR Senior Attorney Tim Sell on May 8, 2013, who explained about the process of their review. At present, the staff at OCR are looking for examples of violations of the above statues. A handout from the Seattle office explaining how to file a complaint is listed here, page 1 and page 2. If you would like to contact Tim, his email address is Timothy.Sell@ed.gov.  

Please check out the May 2013 issue of Honolulu Magazine!   The May issue is a school focused issue, featuring the annual Grading of the Public Schools, utilizing the results of the School Quality Survey (SQS) as part of the evaluation. As many of you are aware, HE'E has done a lot of work and continues to do work on the SQS trying to improve the content and access to make this survey meaningful. There are also two articles entitled "Are Hawaii Schools Safe?" and "Beyond Felix." As you recall, HE'E hosted a meeting with the reporter to give her input and identify potential resources for the articles.  We are very pleased with the articles as they both reflect the tone and comments of our members.  In addition, several of the individuals and organizations quoted in the articles were referred to the reporter by HE'E members.  The quality and depth of the article would not have been as robust or thoughtful without your contributions.  We want to thank members fort their participation in giving input to these articles--it really makes a difference in the quality of information.  HE'E will continue to serve as a conduit for the media to get the voice of the community heard.  Mahalo!   

DOE Systems Accountability Office Accepting Applications for Community Members to Serve on Summer 2013 Hawaii Statewide Program Standard Setting Committees

The DOE Systems Accountability Office is looking for community members to serve on Hawaii Statewide Assessment Program Standard Setting committtes Statewide Assessments Committees for the Hawaii State Alternate Assessments and End-of-Course Exams during June and July 2013. Please see detailed information here.  Link to fill out an application is here. Applications are due by May 30, 2013.  For questions, please contact Patricia Ishimaru in the Systems Accountability Office on 733-4100.

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