HSTA asks for distance learning information, consultation
Posted: February 18, 2022
The Hawaii Board of Education Thursday held off approving a conceptual plan to establish a permanent virtual school program for the 2023-2024 school year, with board members saying they want to create a distance learning policy first.
HIDOE officials initially plan to hire more than 40 teaching positions.
“The virtual school, as currently conceptualized, will provide a K-12 spectrum of courses and subject matter which will enable students to thrive in this type of learning environment as well as work collaboratively with others in person,” said Deputy Superintendent Phyllis Unebasami in a presentation to the board.
“A virtual school will provide the department an avenue to increase access to Kaiapuni (Hawaiian language immersion) education and specialized programs statewide,” Unebasami added.
She described the plan, outlined in this memo to the BOE, as “conceptualizing what might happen in the coming years, past the pandemic.”
BOE Chair Catherine Payne raised several concerns “that we’re trying to rush to get this going but we are not really fully prepared with the curriculum in place and the teachers trained and the real understanding of how we’ll have some hybrid opportunities in addition to the full-on digital learning for some students.”
Unebasami said, “We have engaged in partnership with the University of Hawaii Online Innovation Center to develop professional learning opportunities to support the design of quality online English medium and Kaiapuni K-12 courses. This will provide our teachers with the opportunity to build their own curriculum and develop the instructional strategies that would best be suited for virtual instruction and are most effective in ensuring student achievement.”
Board member Bruce Voss said, “What’s missing for me in the materials is what is the department’s long-term vision of what does this intend to accomplish at full build out?”
“We don’t have a projection for how many students this would serve at full build out and we don’t know the cost, the full magnitude of cost, at full build out. And It seems to me this is very conceptual, we’re just kicking some ideas around,” said Voss.
“It seems like this will take an enormous amount of resources” of the department, he added,
The HIDOE’s memo to the BOE said the department could hire about 79 staff to carry out virtual school on a permanent basis, depending on funding. HIDOE says roughly 36 teachers would be hired, along with four special education and two English learner teachers, counselors, registrars, four vice principals, a principal, and others.
Interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi told board members the department may need to add an assistant superintendent position to oversee distance learning.
In written testimony to the BOE, HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. said, “educators for the HIDOE virtual school would be best for students when they are based in Hawaii. Students deserve educators who have an intrinsic understanding of what is going on within the state rather than someone from off-shore.”
“While nothing in this presented plan speaks to off-shore educators, legislation is progressing which the HIDOE has testified in support of to waive residency requirements for ‘certain Department of Education employees.’ This is a slippery slope that should not be considered, whatsoever,” Tui said.
Board wants to approve a virtual school policy first before planning begins
BOE member Kenneth Uemura said, “This is a conceptual plan. It’s a plan that seems to have been put together in a hurry, and not knowing if we have the resources to do it.”
“There’s no board policy in place. There’s no policy right now in the establishment of a virtual school and how it would fit in where education is delivered in our schools,” Uemura said. “I would recommend that the board establish a new policy and the department’s virtual school plan and adheres to the policy before any approval is given or considered.”
Kili Namauu chairs the BOE Student Achievement Committee, which held a lengthy discussion about the plan at its meeting Thursday morning before the board’s general business meeting that afternoon.
“I don’t believe the board is ready to approve anything in the near term,” Namauu said. “If we’re going to continue to move in this direction, a full, comprehensive plan will need to be presented to the board. This is not it. This is the beginnings of a discussion and a conceptual plan.”
She noted that many questions that still need to be considered, such as:
- Has the department tapped into expertise by the charter schools that have already been doing distance learning for the last decade?
- What’s the opportunity for neighbor island staff to weigh in on distance learning policies?
- How has e-school been working?
“We’ve got to do this board policy first, and then work through this process,” Namauu said.
She noted that a permanent superintendent is supposed to be brought on board in May.
“Maybe that permanent superintendent should be given the opportunity to weigh in on this issue as well,” Namauu said.
Hayashi, the interim superintendent, told board members: “It was my understanding that the board had asked us to present a plan to the board. We will wait, we will pause on this until the board creates a policy, and if the board creates that policy, we will revisit where we are with a virtual school concept.”
Unebasami, Hayashi’s deputy, said, “We have a list of the policies in the Board of Education that are needed to be revisited and revised, because (they) are written for brick-and-mortar facilities.”
HSTA requests data on distance learning programs from HIDOE
On Wednesday, the HSTA sent a letter to HIDOE requesting information and consultation about distance learning programs in the 2022-23 school year.
“HSTA is fielding many inquiries regarding what will happen with the distance learning programs in the school year 2022-2023,” HSTA Deputy Executive Director Andrea Eshleman said in her request to HIDOE. “ In particular, HSTA has received contact from both teachers currently teaching in the programs and those interested in applying for possible vacancies in such programs during Teacher Assignments and Transfer Program (TATP).”
The first posting of vacancies for transfers began Friday, Feb. 18.
HSTA’s letter asks for information about the Bargaining Unit 05 members who are teaching in any full distance learning program including their names, job titles, and worksites. The union is also asking for a list of those employees who have been authorized or directed to telework, a list of all distance learning programs planned for next school year, the names of the administrator(s) in charge, estimated student enrollment, how the program will be funded, and more. In addition, HSTA inquired about what will happen to any Bargaining Unit 05 employee working in a distance learning program if the program loses enrollment or funding.
“The HSTA would also welcome a meeting to discuss this topic at greater length,” Eshelman’s letter said.
BOE: About 588 students in distancing learning this year
The virtual school memo just released to the BOE said this school year, the department English-medium distance learning program is serving approximately 500 K-12 students from across the state with instruction provided by 27 teachers. The state-level Kaiapuni distance learning program currently serves 88 K-12 students. The state English-medium virtual learning program will increase to approximately 774 seats in school year 2022-2023 to support complex areas. Next school year, the Kaiapuni program will provide 140 elementary seats and 60 grades 7-12 seats as a supplemental program while partnering with the in-person Hawaiian immersion schools.
Hayashi said distance learning will cost the department about $5.4 million for the 774 students who it has capacity to serve online next school year.
The department plans to continue using the off-the-shelf Arizona State University distance learning platform this school year and next as part of a pilot program, Unebasami said.
HIDOE’s current learning management system (LMS) for distance learning, Blackboard, that’s used for e-school and secondary schools, allows teachers and HIDOE to upload resources they have created, so it’s not off-the-shelf, she said.
Teri Ushijima, assistant superintendent of HIDOE’s Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design, told the board the department will transfer its LMS this summer from Blackboard to Canvas which is “a more robust system that provides opportunities for students and teachers to interact in different ways.”
There are currently three virtual school proposals before state lawmakers.
Senate Bill 3094 SD1 and House Bill 2126 HD1 would appropriate funds and authorize the use of general obligation bonds to build a virtual school. They were included in Gov. David Ige’s budget request to lawmakers.
SB2184 would establish a digital learning center within the department and appropriate funds for staff and programs.