Bill Text: HI SB807 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Charter Schools; Task Force

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB807 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB807-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 94

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 807

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 807 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHARTER SCHOOLS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Clarify that charter schools that have their charters revoked or their reauthorization denied may appeal to the Board of Education for a final decision;

 

     (2)  Prohibit a relative of a designated head of a school or employee of a charter school from serving as the chair of the local school board;

 

     (3)  Require charter schools and their local school boards to develop internal policies and procedures consistent with the ethical standards of conduct, pursuant to chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     (4)  Clarify that the Charter School Review Panel shall conduct a multi-year evaluation of each charter school every six years after the first evaluation.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Charter School Administrative Office, the Charter School Review Panel, Kamehameha Schools, Ho‘okako‘o Corporation, and the Hawaii Technology Academy.

     Your Committee finds that ethical issues, such as nepotism, in the charter school system must be addressed.  This measure will bring greater transparency and accountability to the charter school system in part by requiring charter schools and their local school boards to develop ethical standards of conduct.  As an additional means of addressing accountability in the charter school system, your Committee finds that further clarification of the roles, governance structure, and authority of the various stakeholders in the charter school system is necessary.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Creating and designating members to a Task Force on Charter School Governance, Accountability, and Authority (Task Force); and

 

     (2)  Requiring the Task Force to:

 

          (A)  Develop legislation or administrative rules that clearly and definitively designate the governance structure and authority between and among the key charter school organizations, the Department of Education, the Board of Education, and the Governor;

 

          (B)  Identify how the charter school structure relates to the State Education Agency and the Local Education Agency; and

 

          (C)  Submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2012.

 

     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. 807, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 807, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

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

 

____________________________ JILL TOKUDA, Chair