Kapolei library
needs resuscitation
from Legislature

$7.4 million for the long-awaited
facility is slated to lapse June 30

$38 million budget rider wins approval
Calendar set for next year
Teacher of the Year

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Critics fear that a school board vote last night might have killed a community library planned for Kapolei. But state Librarian Virginia Lowell said the vote does not jeopardize funding already appropriated for the project and that construction of the library is not dead.

The Board of Education unanimously endorsed a plan by Lowell to ask the Legislature to extend the life of a $7.4 million first-phase construction appropriation beyond June 30, when the funds are slated to lapse.

Lowell said her strategy is to secure the entire amount -- an estimated $20 million -- during the next session so the library can be built more efficiently in one phase.

The $7.4 million capital improvement appropriation is not enough to build the first phase, she said. The Legislature last session failed to allocate another $2 million to complete the first phase and $10 million for the second phase, while money to furnish, staff and outfit the new library is still unappropriated, library staff said.

Lowell told community members that the plan shows her support of the project.

"We are committed to it as you are," she said.

But one critic, state Rep. Mark Moses (R, Kapolei), said Lowell's move is risky because if the $7.4 million isn't used during the current year, the Hawaii State Public Library System could lose the money for good. "It could mean the end for a while," Moses said after the vote.

Not so, Lowell's staff said.

Special Assistant John Penebacker said if it looks like the Legislature won't fund the project in its entirety next session, Plan B is to accelerate the redesign of the first phase and put the project out to bid so that the $7.4 million can be encumbered and not lost. "It can be done," he said.

But some community members are worried.

Makakilo residents said their neighborhood was promised a library 30 years ago, but nothing has materialized.

The closest libraries now are in Waianae and Ewa Beach. Kapolei would close the gap.

Makakilo Community Association President Ellie Kaanaana said her organization doesn't support any delay of the project. "We have waited far too long for a library," she said.

Moses said that if the board was concerned about operating funds, it's easier to convince the Legislature to appropriate operating funds if there's a building being constructed.

"We're very hopeful that we're getting the operating funds (for Kapolei)," Moses said.

But the library system doesn't want a repeat of what happened to the new library in Princeville, Kauai, which opened in the spring with no operating funds.

Moses suggested that the library system should see how much of a library can be built for $7.4 million.

Lowell said a full-service library can't be built for that amount.

The board stood behind Lowell.

Board members said public libraries have been trying to bounce back from years of cuts to the library system's budget.

"Mrs. Lowell is being a good fiscal agent," said Marilee Lyons, who chairs the board's public libraries committee.

The library system's supplemental budget request approved by the board last night also includes:

$4 million for library books and other materials.
$3.5 million for construction of health and safety projects.

Lowell said the library book budget went from $3 million in 1992 to zero this fiscal year and that libraries need a continuous, stable source of funding for library books. Adding the amount to the Hawaii Public Library System's current $19 million would bring the budget in line with other library systems across the country, she said.

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$38 million budget
rider wins approval

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

A $38 million supplemental budget request by the Department of Education received approval from the Board of Education last night.

Described as an emergency, bare-bones request, the supplemental budget was approved after an unsuccessful attempt to attach a $400,000 appropriation to cover the cost of bus transportation for Hawaiian language immersion students across the state for next school year.

Board member Garrett Toguchi wanted to amend the budget to include bus transportation funding because he doesn't want to see what happened to immersion students at Anuenue School in Palolo Valley this year happen again next year.

Parents could not afford to foot the cost of bus transportation, which the majority of students at the school take, and some threatened to pull out of the program as a result.

Toguchi said additional funding for the immersion program is long overdue.

Those who opposed the amendment said they support the immersion program but feel that the transportation costs should be examined carefully -- like the supplemental budget was scrutinized -- and be part of some overall plan instead of being put in at the last minute.

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 7 to 6.

Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu said the department has found funding through a federal grant to pay the estimated $85,000 cost of bus transportation for Anuenue students for this school year.

LeMahieu's request for additional money for the second half of the current two-year budget cycle includes $26.9 million the department is obligated to pay and $11.9 million for needs deemed critical but not mandatory.

The obligations range from $9.2 million for compliance with the Felix federal consent decree covering special-education students, to $883,674 to staff Kapolei High School, slated to open in 2001.

Items deemed critical but not mandatory include $5.4 million for special education and $2.3 million for the development and implementation of performance standards.

The supplemental request must be approved by the Legislature.

Standards plan OK'd

The Department of Education's plan to implement standards-based reform was accepted by the Board of Education last night.

Superintendent Paul LeMahieu said the department's "Strategic Plan for Standards-based Reform" sets out the steps the department plans to take in putting in place a system of standards, assessment, accountability and other related components.

The plan has five sections: refining the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards, developing an assessment and accountability system, developing a comprehensive student support system, modernizing administrative support services and redefining school governance, structure and organizational development.

A timetable sets out dates for when tasks should be completed.

LeMahieu said a group has been assembled to monitor the completion of these steps.

Calendar set for next year The public school calendar for next year includes 181 instructional days. The Board of Education last night approved the official calendar for the 2000-2001 school year. The first day for most public school students will be Aug. 23, a Wednesday, while teachers will report two days before. The last day of school will be June 7, 2001. Year-round schools will use the calendar to shape their modified schedules. This year, 75,469 students in 105 schools are on year-round schedules. Crystal Kua, Star-Bulletin