Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred S.B. No. 209, S.D. 3, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate an unspecified amount of funds to the Department of Education (DOE) to convert ten-month certificated positions within the DOE to twelve-month positions, as needed, for multi-track schools.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association and two concerned principals testified in support of this measure. The DOE supported the intent of this measure.

Increased student populations, community growth, and insufficient educational facilities have contributed to an increase in the number of schools converting to a multi-track system, in which a school is in session year-round. This conversion to a multi-track system has necessitated the expansion of support services at schools that use this type of system. Your Committee finds that this measure is an attempt to continue to provide appropriate services to students at multi-track schools.

Your Committee recognizes that the State is facing difficult economic times and that it will be left to the House Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means to decide whether sufficient financial resources are available to incorporate this measure into the state budget. However, your Committee would like to urge the DOE and the multi-track schools in the State to, should this measure be enacted, work in a mutually beneficial manner to implement this law since it is ultimately the child's best interest that this law intends to support.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 209, S.D. 3, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.