STAND. COM. REP. 2502

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 3239

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 3239 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the employment term of each full-time teacher in Department of Education schools to be not less than eleven months annually, provided that not less than one of those months is dedicated to twenty days of planning and professional development; and

(2) Grandfather existing collective bargaining agreements.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education and Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition the measure from the Director of Finance and an individual.

Your Committee finds that as every other sector of our society works on a year-round basis, similarly, school personnel should work on a year-round basis. This will also provide much needed time for teachers to plan curriculum, grade level alignment, standard implementation design, accreditation, and numerous in-services on a variety of topics. However, the cost factor of placing all public school teachers on such an employment term would be prohibitive.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Adding appropriation and expending agency sections, and specifying that these sections shall take effect on July 1, 2004; and

(2) Specifies that the bill applies to the employment term of not more than five per cent of classroom teachers, based on classroom teachers as defined by the Department of Education.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3239, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3239, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair