Report Title:

DOE; Class Size; Teachers; Appropriation

Description:

Facilitates the transfer of positions and funds to the DOE, reduces class size in junior kindergarten and grade three, and enhances DOE access to information technology. Allows the DOE to carry over unencumbered funds.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1818

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

  

STATE OF HAWAII

  

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to education.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

PART I

PURPOSE

SECTION 1. Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, marked a major systematic reform of the way public education is conducted in Hawaii. As may be expected, a change of this magnitude does not occur all at once. It will also necessarily be accompanied by an ongoing series of minor adjustments designed to facilitate the successful implementation of the initiative.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Facilitate the delinking process of certain powers and duties from various state agencies to the department of education by facilitating the transfer of certain positions and funds;

(2) Build on the reduction of class size in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two by further reducing class size in junior kindergarten and grade three;

(3) Support teacher quality and accountability by enhancing the access of the department of education to efficient information technology; and

(4) Allow the department of education to carry over funds and unencumbered appropriations.

PART II

DELINKING

SECTION 2. (a) All the rights, powers, functions, duties, and personnel relating to the implementation of Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii, in AGS 807, AGS 221, and AGS 901 are transferred from the department of accounting and general services to EDN 400 and EDN 300 in the department of education effective July 1, 2005.

(b) All moneys budgeted in support of each position to be transferred to the department of education, including moneys for direct and indirect employee benefits, are transferred to the department of education effective July 1, 2005.

(c) All appropriations, records, equipment, machines, files, supplies, contracts, books, papers, documents, maps, and other personal property heretofore made, used, acquired, or held by the department of accounting and general services relating to the functions transferred to the department of education shall be transferred with the functions to which they relate.

PART III

CLASS SIZE REDUCTION

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, to reduce class size in junior kindergarten and grade three in public schools, excluding new century charter schools and new century conversion charter schools, by hiring twenty-five full time equivalent (25.00 FTE) regular junior kindergarten teachers for junior kindergarten and twenty-five full time equivalent (25.00 FTE) regular elementary teachers for grade three.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this part.

PART IV

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

SECTION 4. The department of education’s information systems and infrastructure require major upgrades to accommodate and enable the following outcomes over the next five years:

(1) Providing student longitudinal data analysis to assist in targeting specific student populations for raising student achievement;

(2) Increasing the number of students graduating from eighty per cent of the entering freshman class to ninety per cent of the entering freshman class;

(3) Increasing the level of parental involvement through online access of student attendance, homework, and progress;

(4) Reducing the time to complete teacher transfer and assignment from five months to one month;

(5) Reducing the number of new teachers hired annually from one thousand six hundred to one thousand teachers through improved streamlining of processes within the department’s human resources systems;

(6) Reducing the numbers of seniors not graduating from five hundred to two hundred fifty;

(7) Increasing the number of teachers having ready access to student information from four hundred ninety to eleven thousand;

(8) Automating academic and financial planning process for all schools;

(9) Automating school accountability; and

(10) Supporting all personnel transferred from the departments of accounting and general services, human resources development, human services, and other agencies.

SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenue of the State of Hawaii the sum of $5,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, and the sum of $8,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to subsidize information systems projects, and provide for additional support personnel and training to over thirty thousand employees impacted by the changes.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purpose of this Act.

SECTION 6. The sums appropriated by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal year for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2008, shall lapse as of that date.

PART V

CARRYOVER OF FUNDS

SECTION 7. Section 37-41.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) The department of education may retain [up to five per cent of any appropriation,] appropriations, except for appropriations to fund financing agreements entered into in accordance with chapter 37D, at the close of a fiscal year and the funds retained shall not lapse until June 30 of the first fiscal year of the next fiscal biennium. The department of education shall submit:

(1) A report to the director of finance ninety days after the close of each fiscal year, which shall be prepared in the form prescribed by the director of finance and shall identify the total amount of funds that will carry over to the next fiscal year; and

(2) A copy of this report to the legislature, as well as a report identifying the carryover of funds on a school-by-school basis, at least twenty days prior to the convening of the next regular session of the legislature."

SECTION 8. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.

INTRODUCED BY:

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