STAND. COM. REP. NO.  105-22

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2022

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2129

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 2129 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education for fiscal year 2022-2023 for twenty-one additional hours of professional development for teachers.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Hawaii State Teachers Association, two individuals, and numerous principals represented by the Principal in Residence of the Department of Education's Leadership Institute.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

 

     Your Committee finds that professional development for teachers is a vital way to ensure teachers can use the best, research-based educational practices within their classrooms.  Your Committee further finds that in the collectively-bargained agreement between the Board of Education and the exclusive representative of bargaining unit (5), representing teachers, there was a memorandum of understanding that allowed for twenty-one additional hours to be added to the teachers' workday without students.  These twenty-one hours were to be used for jobembedded professional development to provide benefits, including a formalized structure for organizing training and learning time, reducing the need for substitute teachers, and eliminating teacher absences from classes for training.  However, this memorandum of understanding expired on June 30, 2021, and because funding was not available, the memorandum of understanding was not renewed.  This measure will provide the funding for the twenty-one hours for teachers to use for professional development.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the appropriation amount to an unspecified amount;

 

     (2)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2050; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     Should your Committee on Finance deliberate this measure further, your Committee on Education respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $16,600,000 for fiscal year 2022-2023 for twenty-one hours of professional development for teachers.

 

     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 H.B. No. 2129, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2129, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Labor & Tourism.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

____________________________

JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair