Thursday, July 16, 1998

BOE chairwoman
questions HHSAA

The association is allowed to operate from
a public school, but bars the public from meetings,
which disturbs Karen Knudsen

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Board of Education chairwoman Karen Knudsen said she wants to find out why the Department of Education is allowing the officially independent Hawaii High School Athletic Association to operate from a public school facility.

"I have some reservations about them being in a public school," Knudsen said. "Given the publicity they've gotten and all the secrecy, I am not comfortable with the organization being our guest in a public school."

Knudsen made reference to a survey of 51 member associations of the National Federation of State High School Associations that appeared in Tuesday's Star-Bulletin. The survey indicated that the HHSAA is the only one of 46 independent athletic associations in the nation that closes its meetings despite simultaneously operating out of a public school facility and accepting taxpayer money for support.

The HHSAA pays custodial fees but no rent at the Stevenson Intermediate School and accepts an annual $38,000 grant from the state legislature.

The Star-Bulletin survey also found that three out of four officially public state associations operate out of offices that are rented or owned by those associations.

Like most associations in the country, the HHSAA charges its mostly public-school membership a fee to belong.

"Since they are accepting public money, and public school principals serve on their executive board, I feel strongly they should have open meetings," Knudsen said. "Any time you have something that tight, it breeds suspicion. And it doesn't send a good message to the kids. I think it is a very bad example that there is an aura of secrecy. It just doesn't make any sense they would go to such great lengths to close meetings."

Knudsen said she can't understand why the HHSAA isn't doing more to shore up public support after receiving negative publicity for its handling of girls' state soccer and wrestling tournament issues earlier this year.

"It doesn't make any sense to me," she said. "To stabilize their support they should be doing what they can to get public confidence."

A group of 30 parents and students attempting to attend a HHSAA board meeting in February was threatened with arrest. The group was questioning a decision to move the girls' soccer tournament to Maui.

Gov. Ben Cayetano eventually influenced the HHSAA to return the tournament to Aloha Stadium.

The board further angered parents when it decided in a closed meeting to drop plans for a girls' state wrestling tournament less than a month before the event was to be held. That decision also was reversed under heavy public pressure.

HHSAA president Anthony Ramos, secondary principal of Kamehameha Schools, said he's been told by the state attorney general that the HHSAA is exempt from open meeting laws because it is a 501(3)(c) tax-exempt nonprofit corporation.

Sen. James Aki (D, Waianae), co-chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said he won't support future funding for the HHSAA unless it opens its meetings.

"I strongly urge the leadership (of the HHSAA) to hold open meetings or risk losing public funds and confidence from the public," he said.

Aki is concerned that four of the five HHSAA executive board members who support closed meetings are public school principals.

"I think it affects the integrity of our public schools," he said.

Aki also criticized the HHSAA's pro bono attorney, Colleen Sakurai.

"I think she has advised them to hold closed meetings and I'm disappointed in that," he said.

Sen. Rod Tam (D, Nuuanu), the other co-chair on the committee, said the HHSAA's secrecy raises questions of whether all nonprofit agencies should be held to a standard of public access before they receive state funding.

Sen. Sam Slom (R, Kalama Valley) said results of the survey point out that, "We always do things in a vacuum in Hawaii."

Slom was disturbed by the findings of the survey.

"I don't think any amount of explanation makes it any more palatable to the taxpaying parents or anyone else," he said. "It shows that something has to be done about it."

Because of the HHSAA's behavior, Slom has made an exception to his political philosophy.

"I don't want the Legislature involved in too many things, but when somebody is using public funds, it cries out for accountability," he said. "This has been going on for so long that they (HHSAA) really feel they are above and immune."