|
Budget cuts threaten Funding for multitracking in Hawaii public schools to deal with overcrowding is being threatened, leaving school administrators wondering how they will cope.
multitrack campuses
School officials need about
$1 million the governor left out
of his budget requestBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com<P>In his budget request to state lawmakers, Gov. Ben Cayetano has not included about $1 million in funds that the state Department of Education says it needs to continue multitracking at two schools and convert two others in the coming school year.
The funds, which were a part of the department's supplemental budget request, would pay to run the schools on a year-round basis as opposed to 10 months.
The money would pay for "fixed costs" such as 13 full-time equivalent positions, electricity and classroom cleaners.
Greg Knudsen, department spokesman, said the fixed costs were "costs we have to meet."
On a multitrack system, groups of students attend school at various times so the school is in use all year. That way, for example, a school built for 600 can accommodate 800.
Two schools run on the multitrack system: Mililani Middle and Holomua Elementary.
Two others, Kapolei Elementary and Kapolei Middle schools, are slated to convert to the system in the 2002-2003 school year.
"We're tentatively scheduled to start (multitrack) beginning in July ... but without the funding we're kind of in limbo at this point," said Mike Miyamura, principal of Kapolei Elementary. "We're not sure how we're going to proceed."
As it is, Kapolei Elementary is operating above its 1,100-student capacity by about 100 students and is short about six or seven classrooms, Miyamura said.
To compensate, he said, teachers float from room to room, and some conduct classes in a library workroom and dressing rooms in the cafeteria. "We're using every space," he said.
"If the funding doesn't come through, and personnel for multitrack is not funded, then we cannot implement it," he said.
State Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said if the department does not get the funding, it would affect the existing multitrack schools as well as the ones that are scheduled to come on line in the next school year. The lack of funding, she said, could mean going from four tracks to two or three.
"Our first priority would be to make sure those funds are restored," she said.
The department can still make its case to lawmakers, who draw up the budget.
Kim Murakawa, press secretary to the governor, said that after the economic impact of Sept. 11, the governor imposed strict guidelines for departments in their supplemental budget requests, giving priority to items such as health and safety and court-ordered services.
But, she said, the Department of Education has lump-sum budgeting and has "virtual autonomy" over budget items.
"If the Board (of Education) and department feel it's a priority, they have the flexibility to fund it," she said.
At Holomua Elementary School, Principal Norman Pang said if it were not for multitracking, his school would need 13 portable classrooms at an average cost of $110,000 each.
"That's how much we're saving the state," he said.
If the lack of funding means the school would have to revert to a single track, he said, "The bottom line is, there's no way we can handle (it) except to have large class sizes," meaning some teachers would double up and oversee a class of 40 students.
"But 40 students in one class is not good," he said. "The kids would not learn."
Principal Roger Kim at Mililani Middle School said his school has been operating on multitrack for four years.
"It has proven its worth here," he said.
Kim said he was happy to hear the department would work to maintain the funds. He said the school has "kicked around a lot of possibilities as far as how we're going to continue and handle the increasing enrollment," which is projected to hit 1,970 in 2003-2004 from 1,830 currently.
Parent Allison Aquino-Arcio remembers when overcrowding at Kapolei Elementary meant her son Zachary did not have a desk to study on.
"There were times when he had to do his work on the ground," said Aquino-Arcio, who works at the school as a parent facilitator.
The school alleviated that problem by adding portables, she said, but "we're still growing, so that problem is going to happen again."
As it is, she said, her daughter, Lauren, a kindergartner, eats lunch at 10:30 in the morning because the cafeteria has to feed about 1,200 students in three shifts.
Aquino-Arcio's two children are scheduled to be on the "green track" next year, and she has already begun preparing for vacation and child care around their tracks.
"I'm all for multitrack because another alternative would be busing some of the kids to other schools, and that would break the community up even more," she said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Crystal Kua contributed to this report.
State Department of Education