SB2690 SD1

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2690
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii's high schools' average enrollment is the nation's second largest. Evidence is now extensive, indicating that small schools have major benefits over larger schools, including higher attendance and graduation rates, higher levels of academic achievement, fewer students dropping out, a stronger sense of connectedness on the part of students and higher levels of participation in extracurricular activities, greater parental involvement, and better student behavior and fewer disciplinary incidents.

The legislature further finds that students from minority and low-income families are particularly handicapped by large schools and greatly benefited by small schools. Research strongly indicates the need to downsize Hawaii's high schools. However, the weighted student formula method of school financing, to which we are committed, either penalizes small schools or makes necessary supplementary funding not covered by the approach, which, ironically, seeks explicitly to aid those students who would benefit most from the smaller schools.

The purpose of this Act is to provide funding for the establishment of smaller schools within large high schools, in the form of academies, schools within schools, or smaller learning communities.

SECTION 2. 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 2008-2009 for the awarding of grants for establishing smaller schools within public high schools, in the form of schools within schools, academies, or smaller learning communities; provided that priority for awarding a grant shall be given to a smaller school that:

(1) Is a high school with total enrollment of one thousand eight hundred students or more;

(2) Establishes a curriculum, organization, and schedule that are planned by its teachers, who have elected to be there;

(3) Establishes a plan that contemplates extending over a several-year period to allow students to graduate therefrom;

(4) Has a theme on the basis of which it can be chosen by students sharing similar interests; provided that the themes may represent prospective careers or current interests, such as sports, drama, or writing, but not academic disciplines;

(5) Maintains a theme that permeates all classes, to the greatest extent possible;

(6) Provides for students and teachers to take and teach, respectively, all of their classes within the smaller school, to the extent possible; provided that at least seventy-five per cent of the courses are taken and taught in the smaller school each semester;

(7) Maintains teachers who endeavor to meet weekly to analyze progress and necessary change;

(8) Is fully committed to the academic, social, emotional, physical, and moral development of each of its students;

(9) Provides each student with an advisor who shall meet regularly with the student in a group that shall include the advisor and other advisees for the duration of the student's time at the school;

(10) Provides weekly school wide governance and other meetings at which deliberate efforts at community building are made;

(11) Maintains enrollment that shall not exceed four hundred students;

(12) Maintains its own separate, contiguous assigned space; and

(13) Selects a teacher leader for a term of three to four years, who shall be responsible for staffing, calling and chairing staff meetings, and scheduling;

provided further that the department of education may provide a smaller school with a start-up grant in an amount not to exceed $110,000 to recompense teachers for the planning time involved in designing the smaller school prior to opening and to pay for any special equipment necessary for the school's theme.

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

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.