DOE forms
gender equity
commission
The advisory group
will monitor the schools'
compliance with Title IX
By Christine Donnelly
Star-Bulletin
A new commission to oversee whether Hawaii's public schools have enough sports for girls includes a lawyer long critical of the Department of Education's gender-equity efforts.
Jill Nunokawa said she was "hopeful and enthusiastic" about being on the 17-member Advisory Commission on Gender Equity in Athletics because it marked the first time the DOE will gather comprehensive school-by-school data to document compliance, or lack thereof, with the 1972 federal gender-equity law known as Title IX.
The law requires schools to provide boys and girls equal opportunities to play sports. During the 1998-99 school year, 61 percent of Hawaii's student-athletes were boys, and 39 percent were girls.
"I feel like we're going to have some action. They've been talking for years, we're already a generation too late. We need to move this into the 21st century. It's been a really long and tiring struggle," said Nunokawa, a former student-athlete at Kaiser High School and the University of Hawaii and now a lawyer and civil rights counselor at UH.
State superintendent Paul LeMahieu announced the commission yesterday, along with presenting a gender equity compliance report and action plan to the Board of Education's Committee on Student Services.
The report did not recommend changing the girls' basketball and softball seasons to coincide with the boys' basketball and baseball seasons, as Nunokawa had wanted. Athletic directors Lee Cashman of Kalaheo and Neal Takamori of McKinley testified that switching seasons would overcrowd gyms, playing fields and other facilities and could keep kids from playing both sports.
Most of the commission members served earlier on an advisory council that created the report and action plan, which listed seven goals and ways to achieve them:
Expand the number of girls sports offered by adding junior varsity soccer in all public school leagues this year and adding at least one girls' interscholastic sport annually from 2001 to 2006. Girls would be surveyed to determine what other sports to add. The report estimated it would cost $220,975 a year to add junior varsity soccer, $212,574 for junior varsity softball and $208,098 for junior varsity water polo.
Encourage girls to become interested in athletics by educating parents about the benefits of physical activities while kids are still in elementary school; work with parks to sponsor sports for elementary and middle school students; get female high school and college athletes to visit elementary school kids; strengthen the existing kindergarten through 8th grade physical education program; and develop a competitive sports program for middle schoolers by the year 2007.
Collect data and develop school and system-wide profiles to monitor the DOE's gender-equity efforts. This would include having the Board of Education develop a policy on gender equity, surveying all high school students on what sports they have and want, and closely monitoring how money, facilities, supplies, practices and seasons are divided between boys and girls at every school. Also recommended: gather data on the hiring, training and qualifications, train school staff to collect the data on-line, hire more clerical support for athletic directors, and visit schools that have the most trouble complying.
Do more to recruit the best qualified coaches, with a special push toward recruiting qualified women coaches. This could be done by increasing coaches' pay and doing more to publicize openings, the report said.
Develop a plan to improve or construct safe and equitable athletic facilities. Thirty-eight of the state's 46 public high schools were built prior to Title IX and need new facilities, at an estimated minimum cost of $87.4 million, or $2.3 million per school.
Convert all athletic trainer positions to permanent positions.
Develop relationships with the media in an effort to promote girls' sports.
