Schools chief rips A bill moving through the state Legislature that could increase allocations for charter schools may hurt existing schools, Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto said last night.
House bills increasing
funds for charters
Hamamoto says plans would aid
charter schools at the
expense of regular campusesBoard OKs guideline allowing seniority at charter schools
By Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"It would take from existing programs," said Hamamoto. "(The bill) says everything is subject to the allocation. That's why we're concerned."
The House Education Committee gutted Senate Bill 2036, Senate Draft 1, and inserted language that would let the state auditor determine allocations for charter schools based on the Department of Education's total appropriation.
This would increase the amount of funds available for charter school funding by allowing the auditor to take into consideration things like grants, federal funds, special funds and the general fund.
Under current law, allocation for charter schools is based on only the department's general fund, which is just a part of the department's total appropriation. Charter schools have complained that they are shortchanged by that calculation. At a Board of Education meeting last night, member Donna Ikeda said she was concerned because if additional funds are not approved by the Legislature, it would mean the department would have to convert some positions into cash.
"People ... would be without jobs," she said, adding it would also affect programs and the teacher-student ratio. The House version of the bill was passed yesterday by the Education Committee and goes now to the Finance Committee.
Hamamoto and board members also had a problem with a provision of the bill that would let the auditor create a different funding mechanism for conversion charter schools, or Department of Education schools that become charter schools.
Earlier yesterday, House Education Chairman Ken Ito said the provision would "ensure that conversion charter schools continue to get the same funding in the year prior to conversion." He said the provision would affect all conversion charter schools, including those run by nonprofit organizations such as Kamehameha Schools. A bill that would allow nonprofit groups to run conversion charter schools has been approved by the Legislature and is before the governor for approval.
Hamamoto told board members that Kamehameha asked the department to set up a special method for determining allocations for the conversion schools based on current funding. She said the two sides met Monday but have not come to an agreement.
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Tenured charter school teachers would continue to accrue seniority under a guideline approved by the state Board of Education last night. Board OKs guideline allowing
seniority at charter schoolsStar-Bulletin staff
Seniority qualifies teachers for pay increases and transfer rights when staff positions are cut. Currently, tenured teachers who transfer to charter schools hold their tenure and have return rights to the system, but are not allowed to earn years of service credits, or seniority.
The guideline, which now goes to the Hawaii State Teachers Association for approval, also would let probationary teachers who transfer from a regular Department of Education school keep their probation credits.
Those probation credits would be good toward earning tenure when the teacher returned to a regular Department of Education school. Currently, probation credits are taken away upon transfer to a charter school.
Charter schoolteachers and principals had sought the changes. Without them, there would have been a "chilling effect" on hiring because charter schools would not be able to offer teachers the same benefits as their counterparts in the regular system, said Donna Estomago, principal of Lanikai Elementary School.
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