Lawmakers skeptical at HIDOE claims that families no longer on distance learning waitlists
Posted: September 10, 2021
The Hawaii State Department of Education’s plans for free COVID-19 testing at public schools statewide are eagerly awaited by students, staff, and parents, but at a legislative hearing this week, school officials did not answer key questions about when the program will be available at all schools.
State House Education Committee Vice Chair Rep. Jeanne Kapela asked top education department leaders key questions that were not answered Wednesday “How many teachers and staff have been served by this so far? Are there communities in which the program is unavailable? I’ve recently gotten a couple of calls from specific schools that requested to be part of this program weeks ago but still have yet to be included. So can you provide a firm deadline of when this program will be available in all schools?”
Deputy Superintendent Phyllis Unebasami told Kapela this in response: “My understanding is that once … the school is clear about how many tests they need and what the process is going to be, then it’s a matter of ordering it and getting it into their hands. My understanding is it takes several days to get to the school, but once the school has the test, they can begin the testing process.”
The number of public schools with COVID-19 testing available has more than doubled in the past week, but KHON2 reported that testing is not reaching some of the biggest problem areas.
Last week, HSTA filed a class grievance about COVID-19 testing, saying HIDOE “directed all employees to be tested every week for COVID-19 or provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination by August 30, 2021, without impact bargaining over the implementation of this new directive. As a result of this new directive, employees who are unvaccinated have been required to undergo a medical examination to show that they are negative for COVID-19 at their own expense.”
“While not opposed to vaccination and COVID-19 testing, HSTA has serious concerns about how the testing requirements are being administered,” said HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr.
The testing grievance charges HIDOE with violating 12 articles of HSTA’s collective bargaining agreement, including non-discrimination, association rights, and leaves.
At the legislative briefing, Kapela also didn’t get a clear answer when she asked Superintendent Keith Hayashi if the HIDOE “is working with health practitioners to design a specific tiered metric with triggers to guide safety protocols? So including a possible return to asynchronous or distance learning?”
“It just seems like there’s no clear benchmark for determining when schools should adopt stricter safety protocols and we really need clear benchmarks that teachers, parents and the public know may be coming so we can prepare accordingly,” Kapela said.
In response, Hayashi said along with the state Department of Health (DOH), HIDOE is monitoring if there’s spread or there are active clusters at public schools.
“We need to make a determination at that point. With different factors related to Delta. It may not be the same as in prior years, related to a specific number,” Hayashi said, without saying whether the department has any specific metric triggering increased safety protocols.
It is HSTA’s understanding that the DOH is not expressly involved in any contact tracing at the school level because that is left to school administrators. This added burden on administrators is one of the reasons we have seen inconsistent contact tracing. In addition, HSTA understands that the DOH will only get involved if they are called in by HIDOE to review a possible cluster or review possible transmission at school. If HIDOE never calls in the DOH, education department leaders can continue to maintain there is no evidence of clusters or transmission on campuses.
Lawmakers skeptical on HIDOE claims about distance learning
At the same state House Education Committee briefing, HIDOE officials said there are currently 625 students on distance learning in partnership with 60 schools across the state.
HIDOE recently hired 26 teachers and one half-time teacher to handle those distance learning duties, HIDOE officials said.
State Rep. Cedric Gates asked, “As of right now, all kids who want to participate in distance learning are able to participate in distance learning?”
Hayashi responded, “I haven’t heard of any individual or student that has not been able to at the state level, I believe we have everybody in. I haven’t heard of any at the individual school levels.”
But several lawmakers said they’d heard from families who have been unable to secure distance learning spots for their children.
State House Education Chair Rep. Justin Woodson told Hayashi, “Because that’s a recurring theme, maybe you can follow up with the CASs (complex area superintendents) to see if in fact there are any families that wanted distance learning. Because we are hearing about those that wanted it that were not offered.”
The department has so far not been able to offer distance learning to Hawaiian language immersion students.
Rep. Lisa Martin asked HIDOE leaders, “What about people in Hawaiian immersion schools that want to do distance learning. Now that we have the statewide English language one, would it be possible to do a Hawaiian immersion version? I have a constituent, and some of her kids, especially the younger kids, don’t speak English that well, and so they cannot easily opt for the English version.”
Unebasami, the HIDOE deputy, said, “We are working right now on a kaiapuni solution. Please know that some of the challenges that we’re facing have to do with there’s already a shortage of individuals who speak olelo (Hawaiian) and also have the pedagogy to be qualified to be a teacher.”
“It takes a specialized expertise in that area,” she said.
“We are the types of resources that we can pull together to look at what might be available to families who are interested in some kind of distance learning opportunity. It may not look like the state level just because of capacity. But we do not have a solution yet,” Unebasami added.
“We just had a discussion with kaiapuni principals last night (Tuesday) to share some of the ways we’re thinking about designing to get their feedback on it,” she said.
A group called Aha Kauleo will “be vetting some of our thinking on Saturday,” Sept. 11, she added.
“While we don’t have a solution, we are committed to working on something to be able to offer,” Unebasami said. “There’s a need for some options and choices, so for that reason, it’s not just a one-size-fits-all right now.”
During the briefing, Hayashi also told lawmakers that an unspecified number of students are being affected by what he called a “severe shortage of student bus drivers statewide.”
An estimated 100 of 650 bus driver positions are unfilled and the hardest-hit areas include all parts of Maui, Leeward, and Windward Oahu and the East and West sides of Hawaii island, a department spokeswoman told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.