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Aloha HE'E Members and Participants,
Upcoming HE'E Meetings
HE'E Planning/Policy Meeting: Wednesday, December 11, 2013, from 4:00-5:00pm at The Learning Coalition (841 Bishop Street #301, Validated Parking at Ali'i Place, 1099 Alakea St. See map here.) *For those needing special accommodations to The Learning Coalition, please contact cheri@heecoalition.org. Pau Hana from 5:00-6:30pm at location TBA. We would like to celebrate the holidays with members. Please feel free to join us for some holiday cheer!
We will continue our policy advocacy discussion at this meeting. At the last meeting, we were able to touch on a couple of topics including how to support a Hawaii Statewide Afterschool Network and also school air conditioning.
Prospective Letter to Governor Abercrombie Supporting DOE's Supplemental Budget Request for Air Conditioning for Fiscal Year 2014-2015
Regarding air conditioning, we learned that the DOE will be submitting their supplemental budget request for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 to Governor Abercrobmie soon, and the Capitol Improvement Budget request includes $25 million aimed at school air conditioning. Policy meeting members agreed that the situation without air-conditioning at schools where temperatures can rise above 90 degrees fahrenheit is dire. We thought that the Coalition could support the DOE's budget request by writing a letter of support to the Governor for the $25 million allocation aimed at air conditioning. Although it is not a comprehensive solution, it could lead to the start of a discussion to an extremely difficult issue. Please see a draft of the letter here. We will ask voting members to vote on endorsing this letter in a separate e-mail. For non-voting members, if you would like to comment on this letter, please feel free to do so. We would like to hear any comment you have. We apologize for the quick turnaround but if you could get your comments in by noon, Monday, November 25, it would be greatly appreciated. Please send comments to Cheri Nakamura at cheri@heecoalition.org
HE'E News
CCSSO/PIE Network "Make-or-Break Moments in the Transition of Common Core Assessments" Conference
HE'E Director Cheri Nakamura was recently invited by HIDOE to participate as part of the Hawaii team at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network's Conference "Make-or-Break Moments in the Transition to Common Core Assessments," which took place from October 28-30 in Chicago, IL. The purpose of the conference was to gather teams from states who have adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and discuss effective outreach strategies for Common Core. There were thirty-three state teams that participated in the conference. It was a great opportunity to learn from other states. A copy of the conference agenda is listed here. If you would like to hear more about the conference, please contact Cheri Nakamura at cheri@heecoalition.org. If there is interest, a short presentation can be made at the next planning/policy meeting.
House Concurrent Resolution 57 (HCR57) on Family-School Partnerships
HE'E has participated in a series of Legislative Concurrent Resolutions on Family-School Partnerships for the past three years, with Senate Concurrent Resolution 145 (SCR145), 79 (SCR79) and currently HCR57. The purpose of the resolutions has been for Hawaii BOE and DOE to work with parent groups and community organizations to establish, implement and monitor statewide policies for family-school partnerships in Hawaii public schools. A copy of HCR57 is listed here. Recently, the HCR57 workgroup, of which HE'E is a member, submitted comments to the Hawaii BOE, urging the BOE to adopt the revised BOE Policy No. 2403 on Parent/Family Involvement, which the workgroup submitted in 2102. A copy of the comment to the BOE is listed here. The work of HCR57 will end this calendar year. However, if members would like to participate in this workgroup if it should continue, please contact Cheri Nakamura at cheri@heecoalition.org
Senate Concurrent Resolution 76 (SCR76) on Home Schooled Students and Extra-Curricular Activities
The BOE has reached out to HE'E asking if the Coalition is interested in participating in a workgroup to look at SCR76, requesting the Board of Education to research state models and best practices on home schooled student participation in public school extracurricular activities and sports and explore implementation of such a program in Hawaii. Please see information on the resolution at this link here. If members are interested, please contact Cheri Nakamura at cheri@heecoalition.org. The BOE will convene meetings in December.
Bullying Task Force Meeting: Wednesday, November 27 from 1:30-2:30pm at State Capitol Conference Room 229
For those interested in social justice issues, we would like to inform members of a Bullying Task Force Meeting hosted by Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland on Wednesday, November 27 from 1:30pm-2:30pm in State Capitol Conference Room 229.
Hawaii fourth-graders outperform nation in mathematics, 2013 'Nation's Report Card' shows
Hawaii's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to progress in mathematics and reading; and for the first time, the state's fourth graders have scored above the national average in math. This is according to the "The Nation's Report Card" released today by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) spring 2013 state-by-state results. See link to DOE website here.
Congratulations to HIDOE! Thank you Coalition members for your efforts to support students, teachers, and families in making positive change!
KINDERGARTEN AGE HAS CHANGED!
The Hawaii Executive Office of Early Learning (EOEL) has created materials to publicized to providers and the public about the upcoming Kindergarten age change for Hawaii Public Schools. Starting August 14, 2014, your child must be 5 on or before July 31 to enter kindergarten. Please see poster for general public here, flyer for families here and flyer for providers here. For more information please go to the Hawaii EOEL website at this link.
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
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