Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2926 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to compensate public high school assistant athletic directors in the same manner as public high school coaches.

The bill also allows public high school assistant athletic directors to waive their stipends and dispense the funds to the school employing the assistant athletic director.

Your Committee finds that athletics play a major role in the lives of many high school students. High school athletics provide students with lifelong skills and knowledge that emphasizes good health and physical fitness. Additionally, athletics sometimes serves as an incentive for students who would not otherwise be in school but for the academic prerequisite requirements of many athletic programs.

As vital as athletics is to a student's overall growth, recognition of the dedicated people responsible for successful athletic programs - coaches, athletic directors, and assistant athletic directors, is sometimes slow to materialize. This bill provides for recognition of that dedication and commitment and specifically authorizes the compensation of assistant athletic directors in the same manner as high school coaches.

Your Committee has amended the bill by changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount in order to further discussion on this matter, and by making a technical change that has no substantive effect.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2926, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2926, S.D. 1.