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Hawaii Board of Education members at a budget hearing Tuesday urged officials to get a better handle on the millions of dollars that could be chopped from the state’s education budget in July should predicted sequestration cutbacks and preliminary state funding proposals take effect.

Some members said they fear the massive cuts — and the lack of concrete contingency plans — could severely stymie progress the state Department of Education has made on its and other reform initiatives.

“We’re really trying to transform the Department of Education to . . . make it more efficient,” BOE Budget Committee Chair Wesley Lo told Civil Beat. “The problem is, when you don’t have adequate resources, you have to keep on changing your path, and that becomes counterproductive at times.”

Come July, Hawaii could lose an estimated $10.4 million in federal funding through the nine grant programs, including Title I and Impact Aid, if sequestration cutbacks play out as expected. (See below for all affected programs.)

The DOE is likely to lose millions more in October, when the state usually receives a second phase of federal funding — allocations that DOE Chief Financial Officer Amy Kunz said are typically worth much more than the July grants. How big of an impact the October cuts would have on the district is unclear, Kunz said.

Nationally, sequestration cuts — as part of an unintended fiscal policy that would slash discretionary spending in various federal programs — are expected to total $85 billion during the 2013 fiscal year.

Meantime, the state budget being proposed by the House reflects nearly $19 million less for the DOE next fiscal year than requested in Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s two-year budget plan. The reductions would amount to more than $43.5 million for the 2014 fiscal year.

The House version of the state budget bill — , which was approved earlier this month — reflects cutbacks in general fund appropriations and additional funding for the state’s plan to buy laptops and iPads for every student. It would also cut funding for Hawaiian Language test development in the 2014 fiscal year.

HB 200 would also cut more than 190 permanent and temporary DOE positions next fiscal year.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee and is expected to amend it in response to Hawaii’s brighter-than-anticipated fiscal forecast and the slew of testimony submitted this week by department heads and other state officials. The Legislature has less than two months before session wraps up.

Still, at Tuesday’s board meeting, budget Committee Vice Chair Don Horner urged department officials to come up with a Plan B should the finalized state budget exclude the $29 million needed for the digital devices over the next two years. The funding is critical if the state wants to move forward with — a top priority for the DOE, Horner said.

“Student achievement is not something that’s negotiable,” he said.

Lo echoed Horner’s concerns, adding that the department is in a crunch to work out contingencies to ensure reform efforts — including the Strategic Plan and Common Core process — don’t fall to pieces.

The Strategic Plan, whose timeline stretches through 2018, aims to enhance student achievement by making the DOE more accountable and efficient. It outlines a set of desired outcomes as categorized under student success, staff success and successful systems of support.

“It takes time to find efficiencies. It takes time to change an organization,” Lo said. “Sometimes it takes some resources at front to get more efficient later.”

Kunz pointed out that funding cuts could be attributed to confusion among lawmakers over the DOE’s new budgeting process. Now, instead of budgeting programs based on goals, the department reallocates monies based on strategic initiatives in an effort to modernize budget reports.

The House in its budget draft cut the reallocated funding, Kunz said, noting that department officials are currently trying to explain the new budgeting technique to lawmakers.

Lo added: “There has to be a dialogue so there’s more understanding of how it actually works … We are trying to make a transition to a more modern way of reporting — let’s tie it to strategy.”

Sequestration’s Impact on Hawaii Education Still Up in the Air

On March 1, Abercrombie announced he was establishing a to help mitigate the sequester’s repercussions. He also included in his biennium budget a contingency fund worth $25 million per year to help various departments manage the cuts.

As sequester kicks in, departments across the state remain in fiscal limbo — but uncertainty over the reductions at the DOE is especially daunting, Lo said, because the department is so big. The DOE includes more than 22,000 employees and serves roughly 180,000 students.

Kunz, who also serves as assistant superintendent in the DOE’s Office of Fiscal Services, said the department needs to gain a better idea of how the cuts would affect public schools before it comes up with a plan of action.

But Lo urged department officials to prepare for a variety of contingencies in order to minimize the sequester’s impact on DOE reform efforts.

“I don’t want to get in this exercise of a waiting game,” he said. “You never know what’s going to happen in D.C. on this thing and when it’s going to happen.”

Kunz emphasized that all Hawaii’s federal education funding involves supplemental grants.

Board members also pointed out that funding — which amounts annually to roughly $45 million on average — wouldn’t experience as severe a cutback as other grants because of the one-time windfall in Impact monies that the state received last year in reallocated funds. The federal government gives Impact Aid to school districts that educate large percentages of military dependents living on federal, nontaxable land. The department in the past has used Impact funding to help fix its student transportation and food services woes.

According to Kunz, the DOE should assume that it would receive $43 million this year in Impact Aid.

Still, board members said they’re concerned about the implications on critical programs such as Title I, which aims to reduce the achievement gap by funding schools with high-poverty rates, and IDEA, which helps the state provide special education and related services to children with disabilities.

Member Charlene Cuaresma also pointed to cuts in English Learner Education state grants, stressing that children with limited English proficiency would also feel the sting of cuts to federal immigration programs.

All in all, Lo emphasized that department officials need to come up with solutions before it’s too late.

“Time is not our friend right now,” he said.