 Welcome to Education Matters on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, Kariman Lee. Our topic for today is the HEI Coalition, Leadership in Public Education with my guest, Sherri Nakamura, Director of HEI Coalition, the Huey for Excellence in Education. Public education has faced serious challenges during this past decade alone. What one organization is doing to help us navigate those challenges? And in this slide, we welcome Sherri. Hi, thank you for having me today, Kal. So tell us about the HEI Coalition and how it got started and what its role is in our community. Okay, so if you remember Furlough Fridays, that was a time when policy makers decided to furlough our schools for 17 days in a year, and... This was in 2010, right? Believe it was 2010. So a lot of parents at that time didn't know how to react well to that decision. And they wanted to... After the decision was made, they tried very hard to become engaged by going to the board of education, going to the legislature, going to leadership at DOE to try to see if they could change the decision. But they didn't have much success because they didn't have the know-how. They didn't understand how everything was organized and how decisions were made. But it did spur up a lot of interest from the community, in particular with parents, to get involved. So the Learning Coalition, which is a non-profit whose mission is to engage community with our public education system, went out to the community, some of these same parent groups and said, what if we formed an organized group so that you could lend your community voice to policymakers and policy-making decisions? And of course, at that time, the members all said, yes, we would like that. So the Learning Coalition sponsored a series of strategic planning meetings. We became organized. We decided on sort of a governance structure. We decided that there'd be a director who would sort of facilitate the community actions. And that's how HEA formed, and that was in 2010, right after the furloughs. Right. Okay. So in the Learning Coalition, how long has that been in our community? I believe the Learning Coalition as a non-profit has been in existence since 2008. And they are a non-profit whose, like I mentioned, mission is to engage the community in schools. And they fund community organizations who are trying to partner with schools, as well as our group who is trying to provide a community voice for public education. Of course, I do remember Furlough Fridays very well, just as a disclosure to our public. I used to serve on the Board of Education, and I was a member at that period at that time. But it did, the Furlough Fridays, and if the public remembers, it really created a huge outcry, not just in Hawaii, but nationwide, because at that time we ended up being the state with the shortest school year in the country. But as a result, even though the public, I guess, felt that they couldn't change the decision of at that time the Board of Education, that they were able to pass through support with the legislature and the governor a constitutional amendment. Right. And that ended up changing the way Board of Education members are selected. That is correct. And so, as opposed to being elected, they have now been changed to an appointed board. That's right. Currently, the governor appoints the board members, and I think the idea is now the accountability rests with the governor. So if the board does a good job, it's a reflection of the governor, and if they don't do a good job, it's also a reflection of the governor. So there's a lot of pressure on the governor to select the board members that he feels are going to be best for our school system. Right. So there's so many relationships we can talk about. Haiti with the board, with the state legislature, with our community. So let's talk a little bit about the community and your membership in the Haiti Coalition. So our members, of course, because it was sort of spurred by the furloughs, we have a number of parent groups that are involved. In particular, the Hawaii State, it's the PTSD Hawaii, is what they're called. The Parent Teacher Student Association. They're a statewide parent organization. They are active voting members of our coalition. So is that a PTA? Yeah, it's the PTA, but it's the state PTA, which is a subchapter of the national PTA. I see. So they're involved as well as Parents for Public School, Hawaii. And the founders of that organization, it's now a nonprofit, but the founders were the ones that sat in at the governor's office. Remember when the furloughs happened, they were in protest and sat in at the governor's office wanting to have the governor hear their voices. I remember very well. Yes. Is one of those now working with the HITI Coalition? Well, the organization, Parents for Public School, Hawaii, is now a voting member of the coalition. So just a little bit about how our membership works. How many members do you have? Well, we have, if we count our members and participants, it's over 40. However, we have a differentiation between voting membership and non-voting membership. So really, it's an organizational membership. It's organizations like Parents for Public School, Hawaii, who send the representative to our monthly meetings. And they are a voting member. So what that means is if we talk about policy that we want to support, for example, we have to have a 75% consensus or more of the voting members for He'e to endorse something. So PPS Hawaii is a voting member, as well as the Hawaii State PTSA, they're a voting member. So they are parent groups. But we also have members who are nonprofits that deal with specific types of families. So parents and children together works with the Pacific Islander community families. We have in peace, which works with Native Hawaiian families. So we also have other coalitions like the Hawaii After School Alliance. They're an alliance of after-school providers that work with our students and families. I think we have a list of some of them that we can just scroll through them. Why don't you continue to talk about it? Sure. So we have parent groups. We have other coalitions. We have community organizations that deal with families. We even have a couple of complex areas that have their own sort of community coalitions that are members of He'e. So it's really diverse groups. We even have a teacher group. Teach for America has become a recent voting member, as well as some other advocacy groups like the Native Hawaiian Education Council and the Hawaii Appleseed Center. They are advocacy groups that are also a part of He'e. So what we really want to do, though, is provide that voice, community voice, this diverse group of voices to policymakers so that they can hear the community's perspective on public education. We're just one of the stakeholders, along with teachers and administrators and students. But the community really does want to be involved. And I think the example was, when Frollo Fridays happened, I think parents wanted to have a say in the decision-making and weren't able to because they weren't organized. So there was no voice, community voice at that time. There was no cohesive community. Yeah, there wasn't a mechanism of how to provide that voice. So we're trying to be the medium by which community members can participate and come together to agree on a community consensus. Because not everybody's going to agree. Right. So in the past, then, seven years that you've been in existence, maybe can you give us some ideas of some of the policy issues that you have supported? Sure. So the Board of Education is the policymaking entity for a public school system. That's what they're tasked to do. So we are at the board meetings regularly. You attend all board meetings. I attend the board meetings and I report back to our membership on the important points that the board discusses. And we've commented on a number of policies. For example, we've supported family school partnership policy whereby we would like the department to really have as a priority engaging with parents and families. So right now that's not a priority? It is. It's part of their strategic plan. But the board, the department has so many things on their plate. We just want to keep reminding them that families need to be considered. And so it's a priority, but I think it's just a friendly reminder that the community is watching and wanting to see this priority be fulfilled. We've also commented on the strategic plan. The board has embarked on two strategic plans in the past seven years and we've been active in going through the plan, trying to decide where we feel the community wants to weigh in. And where are those, what are those areas? Well, the first time it was family partnerships, family and parent partnerships as well as community partnerships. On this past strategic plan, we've also reiterated that priority. But we've also taken a look at looking at equity in education because we've had a persistent achievement gap between the high-need students and the non-high-need students. And I think that's the theme of the whole plan, really, that the board and the department and us as community advocates want to change that persistent achievement gap and narrow it. So equity in education. Yeah, that has been sort of a new theme that's been emerging and we've been communicating that to the board. On the legislative side, because the legislature makes laws regarding public education, we also actively participate and we've supported legislation on early education, for example, as well as early college. So these are things that our members feel strongly about, things like early college and early education are important. Early college. Now, what is early college? So what's happened in the department recently, and actually this is an initiative that's been led by Hawaii P20. Tell us a little about Hawaii P20. So Hawaii P20 is a coalition of stakeholders that is trying to look at our state education system from pre-kindergarten all the way up to college continuum. Right. Actually it's two years of college, right? Two years of college, but I think they would also say that they want to include four years of college as well. But it's looking at the system as a P20 sort of continuum or path for students. And so we are lucky in the state that we have one state, one district, four K-12, we have one university system and that we have the potential to align. With the early education piece, I think the goal is to have that part of a child's progress also be aligned with this K-12 to college. But P20 has been looking at how to strengthen the pipeline in particular from high school to college and so they've come up with a way to actually have high school students earn college credit. And the place where it's been quite successful is, I think people might have heard of Waipahu High School where they've actually brought college teachers to the school to teach classes where a student can get a credit in high school as well as college. Great. Okay, well on that note, we're going to take a short break Sherry and we'll be right back to continue our talk on the HEI Coalition. Hi everyone, Ted Rawlson here, host of our Think Tech Show where the drone leads and a lot of you, of course, have been setting your clocks at four o'clock on Friday so that you can make sure you see our show. It's not changed. It's not going to be at noon on Thursdays. Noon on Thursdays, new standard time for where the drone leads and where the drone leads is two systems like this, capabilities that we're using here in Hawaii these days and we need you to pay attention to this, be part of it. So see you at noon on Thursdays. You want to talk about some socially sensitive issues relevant to women? Listen to these guys. Well, I think it's important in Judaism that we don't take the Bible literally, we take it seriously. Okay. I agree and really the key to understanding Christianity is compassion. If you're compassionate towards other people, you are living a Christian life and that relates also to dealing with women and men and women issues as well. Are women and men equal? They're equal. Who's better? Who's better? Tune in. Tune in. Welcome back. This is Carol Monly with my guest, Sherry Nakamura from the Haiti Coalition. We're talking about this wonderful and important community group that has been started in 2010 and we were talking about some of the policy issues that the Haiti Coalition has supported over the past few years. Right. So we talked about P20 and we also talked about the equity in education. That's right. So there are other policies that we've supported at the legislature, for example. The one that sort of come to light in this time right now is there was a bill a few years ago to raise the cap of the superintendent's salary. We were at the lowest salary for our district. I mean, if you compare similar districts, we were at the bottom. In the country. In the country. Yes, in the country. So there was a bill to change that, to raise the cap that went to the legislature. And it was the board of education that actually wanted to have this cap rise increase because the board is tasked with hiring the superintendent. And so they felt that in order to attract candidates, good candidates, they would have to increase the cap because if we were at the bottom, it didn't send across a very positive message. So we as a coalition actually helped, we commented to support that because our members felt that that was important, that if we were to find a new superintendent, we would have to have a salary that would be attractive enough to get quality candidates. From all over the country. From all over the country, not just Hawaii. And so we think that I can't, the bill did pass and the legislature did approve to raise the cap. And we think that that's just, and we were part of the supporters. I don't think we were the only reason, but I do think that it was helpful to have a community group support that bill and that idea. And hopefully it might have made a difference to the legislature to see that there was broad support for something like this. I know that the old salary cap had been in place for many, many years. Many, many years. And there have been many attempts to introduce bills to increase the cap. So congratulations on finally getting that. Yeah, so we feel proud that we could participate in that. It is coming to light now because of this current search for superintendent. So what are you working on this session at the legislature? Well, coming back to equity in education. So actually HEA has joined forces with other advocates in the community. In particular, advocates for students that have historically struggled in our system. So children with disabilities, for example, or children of certain... from immigrant countries where English isn't the first language or the language of instruction isn't the home language for native Hawaiian students, as well as students in poverty. So do each one of these groups have their own organizations? Some of them do, yes. They are advocating... traditionally they have advocated for their own particular group, but this year we have come together as sort of a broader coalition, broader than HEA, but I've been participating... our coalition has been participating to look at this theme of equity in education where we would like to have struggling, historically struggling students be lifted up. And a lot of it requires additional supports at the school level and in the school system. So what we did this year, and it's still going on because the legislative session is going on, we advocated to the legislature to include some of these supports in the DOE budget. So there's a... there's not a separate bill then regarding it. It's just part of the budget. Yes, so the way the budget process works is the Department of Education and the Board of Education gives a request to the governor and then the governor makes adjustments and that executive budget goes to the legislature and then the legislature negotiates and comes up with the final state budget and I think that's what they're doing right at this moment. Right at this moment. So we wanted to... How does it look? Well, it... I think the state budget... I think people are worried about the state budget because while we have, you know, tourist numbers that are very high and economy is doing well with low unemployment, the council on revenues has reported that the projections that they had hoped for are probably not going to be met and furthermore the tax department is saying that tax collections aren't as high as they expected. So all of a sudden where we thought we might have some windfall, there's some... I think people are... I think the legislature is trying to be more conservative now and the governor and the legislature are being conservative and they're sort of scaling back some of the hopes that they had wanted for the state budget. So all departments, not just the Department of Education are looking at not getting all of their requests fulfilled. What was the request on behalf of equity and education? Well, we took a look at where specific line items that the department requested regarding supports for struggling students. So whether it was for the homeless liaison position or positions for English language learners specialists or some of the special education supports, we advocated to have these supports be in the budget. So right now they're not... In prior years this was not part of the... No, I think some of it was part of it. There's a base budget but usually the requests are on top of what the DOE base budget is. So... But because of the strategic plan and this emphasis on equity and education and lifting up these struggling students, there was a request from the department and the board to pay attention to some of these extra supports. And what we did is... Well, it's all up to the legislature right now but what we did as community advocates for equity and education, we did advocate to our legislators to say we feel that this is really important for our students that these supports are maintained and we'll see what happens. I think the budget's going to be... I know that the House and the Senate have already gone through and the next step is to have the specific details be communicated to the public. So you don't know if those line items are still in the budget? Not yet. Okay. But we're hopeful. You're hopeful? Okay. So assuming... What is the amount for this particular... Well, if you total up all of these line items that we were looking at, I would say it's about $5 million. $5 million for statewide support. For statewide support for some of these line items. It's only a part of what the department was asking for. It's only asking for so many other things regarding facilities or operations. So we were, as a community group or community advocate or community stakeholder group, we were just focusing on the supports for struggling students just to keep it narrow and focused. I mean, of course, we would like many other things as well, but for the purposes of trying to persuade the legislators who have to look at the myriad of priorities, right? We were trying to keep focus on, well, this group as a broad coalition for equity, this is what we really like you to consider because we as advocates know how hard it is for our kids in our system. So when you go down to the legislature, do you testify or do you bring parents with you or students with you? So it depends. A lot of the times it's me representing a coalition, but on occasion there are members who come and give me support or they actually come and testify on behalf of their own organization, which we welcome as well, because I think we want to build the capacity of our members to lend their own voices to. I mean, they can participate as a coalition, as part of the coalition, but if they feel strongly about a view, we encourage them to go to the legislature to themselves and represent their own organizations and advocate on what they feel strongly about. And so this has happened, and I think hopefully I've been a good model for them that they can, and they actually have, sometimes they'll call me and say, we're not sure about the process, can you give me some advice on how to do this or that, and I'm happy to lend that capacity to them because we want to encourage that. We want to encourage more community participation. Yes. So now what happens after the legislative session is over and let's say there is this gap in the funding. What will the Haiti coalition do during the interim before the next legislative session to address the problem? Well, let's say that the legislature doesn't end up funding. Yes. So I think we would continue to work with the department and the board to advocate on the next time they do a budget request, which is two years. I think they do a supplemental. I see, right. Yeah, they do a supplemental. So we're still going to be present and we're still going to advocate on the priorities that we feel are best for our kids. I think its consistency is very important. So we'll continue to stress how important these supports are. And if it doesn't happen this time, hopefully it will happen the next time. And perhaps there will be a better environment in our budget and forecast. On the other hand, it could be that it's not a better environment. Perhaps it's a worse environment. That's okay. We're still going to keep advocating on behalf of our students and get that message out that we feel that these supports are priorities. And it doesn't just have to be on these line of budgets. It could be on how the DOE is implementing things, what we hear from the field. So I think we just want to be included in the conversation. Right, absolutely. Well, we have one more slide to show, Zuri, and it is how to get a hold of the HEA Coalition that includes its website. Oh, okay. There we go. There is the website. www.HEACoalition.org. That's the HEA Coalition, who we for excellence in education. So with a few more seconds left, Zuri, you can look right into Camera 2 and tell our audience a little bit more about either how they can get involved or how they can find out more information and how the public can be part of this. Okay. Well, please visit our website. There's contact information there. If you'd like to find out more, please feel free to contact me through email. And we would love to have more participants. We have monthly meetings and we welcome all participants. And let us know how we can help you get involved. Thank you. Well, thank you, Sherri Nakamura, for telling us more about the HEA Coalition, the Huey for Excellence in Education, and its important work in Hawaii. Remember to check its website. If you want to see this show again, go to thinktecawaii.com or youtube.com slash thinktecawaii, where there will be a link to this and more and other shows just like this. So, I'm your host, Carol Monli, and thank you for watching. Aloha.