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Aloha HE'E Members and Participants,
We wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season!
HE'E News
Recently, the Coalition has been approached by legislators who are inquiring about the Coalition's position on Act 167/Act 52 on Student Instructional Hours. The law is reflected in Hawaii Revised Statutes 302A-251 School year; instructional time. See statue here. In the 2015 legislative session, there will likely be a bill to repeal the law completely. This would mean no minimum school days or instructional time for students in a school year.
In the 2014 legislative session, the Coalition supported HB1675 which would have revised the statute, eliminating the requirement that by the 2016-2018 school years, all public schools implement a school year of 180 days and 1,080 student instructional hours for both elementary and secondary school grades. It also clarified that the definition of "student instructional hours" would be determined by the board of education in consultation with the exclusive representatives of the appropriate bargaining units. See copy of HE'E testimony here. This bill died in legislative conference.
Since this issue will be one of the foci of the Education Committee hearings in the 2015 legislative session, we would like to know the view of membership and will take a vote from voting members in short order. The question that will be posed to voting members is:
Does your organization support the repeal of Act 167/52 on Student Instructional Hours?
If you have any questions about the background of this issue, please contact cheri@heecoalition.org. We will be sending out a vote shortly with a request to send a response back in the first week of January.
HE'E Planning Meeting, Wednesday, January 14, 2015, 4:00-6:00pm at The Japanese Cultural Center's Manoa Grand Ballroom, 2454 South Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96826.
HE'E is pleased to have Department of Education Assistant Superintendent & Chief Financial Officer, Office of Fiscal Services Amy Kunz and Director of Policy, Innovation, Planning, and Evaluation Stephanie Shipton present to the Coalition. Amy will give a presentation about the Department of Education's 2015-2017 Budget. Stephanie will speak about the Access Learning Pilot Project which strives to harness the power of technology to support innovations in teaching and learning. Both speakers' presentations are timely for understanding how the Coalition might support items in the DOE budget during the 2015 Legislative Session. Please SAVE THE DATE for this discussion! We will be sending out an electronic invitation shortly.
Two Civil Beat Cafes: January 13 at Kipapa Elementary School, Mililani and January 15 at Castle High School from 7:00 to 8:30pm
The two events are sponsored by the HE'E Coalition, the University of Hawaii College of Education, and the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, and are part of our continuing Civil Cafes focused on education issues in Hawaii.
The first event, "How Do We Retain & Elevate Teachers in Hawaii?" will take place Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Kipapa Elementary School in Miliani. The panel will include Lisa DeLong of the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, William Scott of Teach for America, Keri Shimomoto of the New Teacher Center, Corey Rosenlee who is a teacher at Campbell High School, and Sen. Kidani. RSVP for free tickets here.
The second conversation, "Early Education - Amendment 4 Failed, Now What?" is set for Thursday, Jan.. 15 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Castle High School in Kaneohe. Participants will include Deborah Zysman of Good Beginnings; Joan Lewis of the Hawaii State Teachers Association; Karen Ginoza of Faith Action for Community Equity; Kerrie Urosevich, the Early Childhood Action Strategy coordinator, and state Sen. Jill Tokuda, the former education committee chair. Free tickets can be reserved here.
Both events will be moderated by Civil Beat reporter Nathan Eagle and members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask the panelists questions. If you cannot attend but would like to ask questions, tweet them with hashtag #civilcafe and we'll do our best to have them answered. Please see link to Civil Beat on forums here. Flyer for the January 13 Civil Cave is here and flyer for January 15 Civil Cafe is here. We look forward to seeing you there!
Member News
Lecture Series by Dr. Ofelia Garcia
We invite you to attend the 2015 Daeufer Lecture Series given by Dr. Ofelia Garcia, a nationally renowned educator and speaker on issues of Multilingual Education and language minority students. The events are co-sponsored by the UH College of Education, the Hawaii State Teacher's Association (HSTA) and Hawaii Council on Language, Policy, and Planning. All events are free and open to the public.
1. Tuesday, January 20, 2015: Dr. Garcia will speak to the Hawaii State Board of Education. At this meeting, community members are invited to present written and oral testimony on issues around Multilingual/English Language Learners in Hawaii. The event will be from 8:30 - 10:00 AM at the Queen Liliuokalani Building on Punchbowl Street, BOE Board room, 4th floor. See: http://www.hawaiiboe.net/Connect/Pages/SubmitTestimony.aspx
2. Wednesday, January 21, 2015: From 6-8:00 PM, Dr. Garcia will deliver the Daeufer lecture on the topic Multilingualism in Education: Imaginings followed by a panel discussion of distinguished educators and community members, and audience Q&A. The evening will conclude with a book signing by Dr. Garcia hosted by the UHM Bookstore.
3. Thursday, January 22, 2015: From 5-7:00 PM, Dr. Garcia will give an informal presentation on Issues and Potential of Translanguaging in the Andrew W. S. In College of Education Collaboration Center. Students, faculty, teachers, and community members are all invited, and there will be lots of time for discussion.
Please see the attached flyer for more information. We are excited to share these opportunities with the community.
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 |
