HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0871.001 2008-2010 Page 1 of 3
Murashige, Laura
From: Joyfull [living.4.joy @gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 11:22 AM
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us -�
Subject: In favor of resolution 368 -10
Dear County Council Members: July 19, 2010
This testimony is in support of proposed Resolution 368 -10 which supports the non - consolidation of
Kohala Middle School (KMS) — in any grade configuration — by the HI DOE.
While I could list a variety of reasons in support of not consolidating, such as logistics and safety
concerns, lack of infrastructure, the reversal of progress made in meeting AYP this past school year after
having been in restructuring, or the fact that it would add yet even more risk factors for these already
highly at -risk students, I will leave such topics for others to cover.
I've worked in management capacities for over 25 years so I will be speaking from that vantage point.
As someone who now works part-time at KMS for the DOE after having moved to North Kohala a year
ago from Maui, I am in the unique position to speak to certain issues which I feel must to be addressed
by the DOE and BOE.
Internal house - cleaning of the entire DOE (and entire government, from top to bottom) needs to
take place before considering school consolidations, furloughs, and other changes which negatively
impact the education of Hawaii's students. Begin with the small things; (which, even though small,
will result in significant improvements), such as:
• I have been given four separate, complete employment application packets which I've had to
complete for the DOE since September 2009: (1) PPT, NTE 17 hours per week, (2) Substitute
teacher, (3) tutoring homebound students, and (4) to teach/tutor failing 8 GR math students.
Extrapolate my experience across all of Hawaii's schools and this issue alone is the source of a lot
of waste and redundancy. This is not only inefficient it:
o Wastes valuable resources in order to generate the packages (paper, copier toner, staff time
to copy, assemble, distribute, etc.); additional storage space, which comes at a high
premium in HI, in order to store replicated information; and staff time to handle, process
and place into storage the paperwork - each and every time that a duplicate packet is
required.
o Shows that the HI DOE is still in the "Dark Ages ", technologically. There is no reason that
one set of paperwork cannot be collected and then scanned into a database to be accessed
electronically by anyone, anywhere, with the purpose and authority to do so.
o Could discourages result- oriented, intelligent, efficient people from working with the DOE:
this level of redundancy by an organization from the very onset demonstrates the degree of
inefficiency and bureaucracy that an employee would have to contend with on an on -going
basis and most would likely leave them opting not to do it.
Eliminating redundancies, inefficiencies, and wastes are imperative; closing schools or
implementing furloughs will never be enough so long as these levels of wastes exist to
the degree that they do.
• There is no accountability without performance reviews, yet I've spoken with teachers who have
not been evaluated in more than a decade. That wouldn't be a problem if all was going well. But
all is not going well or Hawaii student scores would not be amongst the bottom in the nation.
Comm, too. "7I. 1
To:
7/19/2010 2
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Obviously administrators aren't being held accountable for their lack of performance, either, or
the inefficiencies mentioned above wouldn't be going on, nor would we be contending with
furloughs and consolidations as an answer to budget deficits.
o Clearly there are teachers within the DOE who are not performing the jobs for which they
were hired (teaching students), otherwise Hawaii's students would not be scoring among the
bottom of the nation on national tests.
o Why would the State continue to employ teachers who are not satisfactorily performing the
jobs for which they were hired? (Not only does this lack common sense, but fiduciary
duties to the taxpayers are not being upheld in doing so.) In privately held companies
employees who weren't doing what they were hired to do would be terminated immediately.
o Because teachers are not being held accountable for their non - performance yet continue to
be paid, additional money to accomplish the same work is being paid out for a second time
to tutors and companies such as Edison. It is a waste of money to pay more than once for
the same work; private companies would cease to exist if they made such poor business
decisions. This shouldn't be an option for the DOE, either.
o Supervisors and administrators, up to and including the BOE, should be setting annual (if
not quarterly, given the economy) goals and objectives for all of their direct subordinates
and holding them accountable for the performance of them. This is imperative. The present
state of affairs could never have happened if this were SAP (standard operating procedure).
All DOE employees need to be evaluated annually, and their evaluations should be tied
to the student performances on the standardized tests whenever appropriate, along
with other direct outcomes which measure their performance against the reasons for
which they were hired and are being paid.
• There should be no sense of entitlement — for anyone within the DOE (or any governmental
position, for that matter) — regarding pay increases or guaranteed employment. Let the market
dictate these things; this is what keeps employees performing well and employers competitive and
thriving. Without it you get the current state of affairs.
o If someone has earned an increase based upon their stated goals and objectives, and
satisfactory performance of those, then they deserve a raise when funding is available. It
should never be an automatic thing, an entitlement, regardless of funding or performance.
When private companies don't have the funding, raises aren't given no matter how great the
job performance, and never when it's been subpar. The government and DOE needs to
follow this practice.
o Continued employment should be a win/win based upon stated objectives being met or
exceeded; if they're not being met employment should be terminated.
Any pay increases and /or continued employment should be tied to performance
evaluations in regard to stated goals and objectives having been met or exceeded, and
only when funding is available; they should never be considered an entitlement. In
today's economy this imperative, so appropriate language should be negotiated into
union contracts, if necessary.
• No government employee — from the Governor and legislators on down — should be receiving pay
increases while school closings and furloughs were on the agenda due to budgetary reasons. In
addition, every government employee should have been placed on furlough — made to get all of
their work done in less time and for less income — before students' instruction time was cut.
o All government employees represent and work for the people. The people don't receive pay
increases when their employer's budget doesn't support it; neither should the employees of
Hawaii's government. Hawaii's budget has not supported pay increases for two years now,
yet they're still happening.
o Non - government employees do not have a guarantee of continued employment, especially if
they haven't met or exceeded the purpose for which they were hired. Neither should
government employees.
7/19/2010
Page 3 of 3
Our State leaders, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Legislators, etc., should be
leading by example rather than asking others to do something they weren't willing to
do themselves (furloughs and effective pay cuts). As representatives, if the people
aren't getting it, neither should government workers be.
• Education needs to be made a top priority in this state — in actuality, not with lip service
o Day -to -day decisions must be in alignment with this objective
o Long term planning and funding must incorporate these values
o Real leadership and smart decision making must be the standard
o Inefficiencies and waste need to be eliminated, and a thorough house - cleaning done
o Entitlements, such as automatic pay raises and guaranteed employment, must be eliminated
o Evaluations must be an annual event, at minimum, in this financial environment
o People need to be held accountable for performing the jobs they've been hired to do
o Those who aren't performing need to be removed from their positions
o Any pay increases should happen only when there's money in the budget and for those who
have met or exceeded their job requirements
I thoroughly enjoy being able to make a positive difference in the lives of our keiki via my part-time,
DOE position at KMS. It's important to me as a tax payer that my tax dollars are spent wisely and
efficiently at the State level, and that I'm not paying my earnings (in the way of tax dollars) to provide
luxuries for government employees which I don't have myself! It is also important to me that Hawaii's
children have every possible opportunity to become successful, contributing, responsible members of
society and for that to happen our leaders, and the people they hire, need to be held accountable for their
decisions and outcomes, or lack thereof
Thank you for your support regarding this matter.
Respectfully,
Frances Pitzer, Kohala Community Member, AVID tutor, certified substitute teacher, and parent
General Delivery
Hawi, HI 96719
808.889.5517
7/19/2010