RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, each year the department of education makes enrollment projections for the public schools; and

WHEREAS, in central Oahu inaccurate enrollment projections for the past twenty-five years have led to residents having to live with overcrowded schools; and

WHEREAS, for example, when Mililani ‘Ike Elementary School opened on January 14, 2004, the new campus built for six hundred fifty was already filled to capacity with six hundred eighty students in its inaugural enrollment; and

WHEREAS, school officials anticipate that portable classrooms will be needed to handle the expected peak enrollment of at least eight hundred within the next three years as more new homes are built; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Education is requested to conduct a study of how the enrollment projections are determined; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to include in the study variables that are considered in making the projections, a description of the process of how the projections are made, and a detailed plan on how the process of determining enrollment projections can be improved; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Superintendent of Education is requested to report any findings and recommendations to the Legislature, no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education.

Report Title:

Requests the DOE to conduct a study on how enrollment projections are determined and to provide recommendations and a plan on how to improve the process.