Chairman: Hawaii Ed Board Not ‘Out of Touch’
The new Hawaii State Board of Education may not hold its meetings in schools anymore, but that doesn’t mean board members are out of touch, according to Chairman Don Horner.
Horner responded to criticism from a former elected board member who called the new board “unavailable” and “inaccessible” at a recent meeting.
“The notion that we’re somehow out of touch is incorrect,” he said. “The first order of business has been to organize the board itself, get our infrastructure in place and address the budgets. During that process we have been, I believe, very open. At every meeting we’ve had, we asked for community input and encouraged that.”
A recent Civil Beat story also found that while some board members have visited only a few schools, only one had not visited any campuses.
Horner countered that school visits are only one of the board’s many responsibilities.
One of the reasons the board has been accused of being out of touch is that it has eliminated board meetings at schools. It’s become a sore subject, but it was a needed move to save money.
Part of the board’s response to Hawaii Department of Education budget cuts was to cut by two-thirds the Board of Education’s operations expenses, Horner said, from about to . Legislators also did away with the $100 stipend given to the former board’s elected members.
So how can a board already relying on volunteers afford to lose $500,000 from its budget? By cutting out costly meetings at neighbor island schools, which often necessitate expensive airfare and hotel stays, Horner said.
Meetings on campus actually posed a burden to the schools where they were held, Horner said, because school administrators had to stay late in order to host board members, staff and community members. Those meetings, held after school hours, also had limited rewards — board members had little opportunity to interact with students and teachers because most had gone home.
While visiting schools — and getting a feel for day-to-day operations — is important, Horner said the board’s primary job is to construct a plan that solves problems affecting all Hawaii’s public schools. He encourages members to make individual and informal visits.
“By walking on campus and anecdotally talking, you get some insights, but we must build a strategic plan,” he said. “A lot of the issues we have in the school system are not secrets. We just need to address them.”
He emphasized that the new board prides itself on being informal. Each board member is responsible for plugging into his or her respective community and making school visits as able. Meanwhile, he and the various board members make it a point to communicate regularly with complex area superintendents, administrators, union leaders, parents and students.
“Our style is loose and you learn more with that type of informality,” he said, using one of his recent visits with the as an example.
