• County Council members have patience • Taking a cross down doesn’t seem fair • Raising the bar for students and teachers County Council members have patience I finally came to the realization why our County Council members make $58,000
• County Council members have patience • Taking a cross down doesn’t seem fair • Raising the bar for students and teachers
County Council members have patience
I finally came to the realization why our County Council members make $58,000 a year for what is deemed a part-time job on paper.
I live-stream the County Council meetings on my computer and with an HDMI cord connected to my T.V. to watch all the council meetings live.
The most difficult part of being a Council member is not blowing your cool and punching out the many nut cases that continually testify against everything and anything. Whatever you call them, contrarians, nitpickers or senile, there’s no denying them.
Our Council members have turned into behavior psychologists by keeping their cool when every instinct would be to knockout a good majority of the ones testifying.
Week after week of having to listen to such garbage as, “If Jay Furfaro is the chair, why isn’t Tim Bynum the couch?” or my favorite used by quite a few, “you guys should all be tarred and feathered…”
Council members hold back in their retorts for legal reasons and in hopes of re-election with not wanting to offend anyone. However, you know they are aching to retort with wise cracks such as, “If we were tarred and feathered, we’d look just like your mother.”
I believe our Council members should earn honorary doctorate (PhD) degrees for the sole fact of keeping their mouths shut when every human instinct would say otherwise. The constant yammer of residents repeating “blah, blah, blah and yada, yada, yada” would drive me crazy.
I don’t often compliment politicians, however, I must congratulate the Kaua’i County Council for all they have to put up with. In closing, I would like to say, “blah, blah, blah and yada, yada, yada”…
James “Kimo” Rosen
Kapa‘a
Taking a cross down doesn’t seem fair
On Tues. Jan. 15, a county manager at the Kaua‘i DMV approached a worker and told her due to “complaints by co-workers and the public” that he wants her to take down a 4-inch Christmas ornament/cross. When asked who the complaints came from, the manager said he could not tell.
So employee said she doesn’t feel right taking it down. Might I add this cross has been up about 10 years now. The manager asked if he could take it down and response was no, and if he did take it down to be sure to do it during working hours so the public could see. Of course, he took it down after hours as the county building was closed. How is a cross (with no body or wording on it) so offensive to the public who go in there mostly 2, 4 or 8 years to renew their license? Where are people freedom of expression/religion? Especially when they are not preaching or advocating anything. Please don’t tell me anything about separation of church and state? Because they have absolutely no problem taking my money that says “In God we trust.” To demand something be removed that has been up for many years without the simple courtesy of knowing who it offended so one may seek a reasonable resolution, doesn’t seem fair. So I am crossing my fingers for this manager, because I have something 4 inches located between index and ring finger that he can look at instead.
Tonson Bernoises
Lawai
Raising the bar for students and teachers
The headline “Can Hawai‘i Kindergarteners Flunk Their Teachers?” (A1, Jan. 4) implies a flawed system in which teachers are set up to fail. This is simply not the case. The Hawaii State Department of Education (DOE) has devoted extraordinary resources to a new Educator Effectiveness System (EES), which is based on a concept from a group of teachers that is designed to help teachers succeed, thereby elevating their profession, and ultimately, public education in Hawai‘i.
It is designed to measure educators’ professional practice and their impact, and provide feedback and support to teachers to improve their effectiveness with students. Highly effective teachers can be identified for recognition and to serve as teacher leaders. The DOE shares Hawai‘i State Teachers Association’s (HSTA) vision for “A Quality Teacher in Every Classroom.” In fact, HSTA has participated in DOE’s statewide discussion about how to achieve this most important goal for our students and Hawaii’s future.
The EES that is being piloted this school year in 81 schools, is a multi-tiered system based on supporting and developing the professional teacher. Students’ test scores are only one part of it. Other metrics include classroom observations, student surveys, student growth data and student learning objectives.
Before the pilot began last school year (2011-12), the DOE held focus groups with teacher leaders from the 18 initial pilot schools. Prior to that, more than 80 educators formed the first Great Teachers Great Leaders Task Force, made up of representatives from the business, philanthropy, labor, and education sectors. The Task Force met weekly in 2009 and 2010 to draft the evaluation system. Finally, the Teacher-Leader workgroup provides input on the overall model and suggests potential improvements and ways to avoid implementation challenges. And with the EES still in test-drive mode, the DOE continues to make more tweaks before full implementation next school year.
Research clearly identifies that teachers, after children’s families, have the largest impact on student outcomes and achievement. We want all of our students to be provided with the most dynamic, stimulating learning environment possible.
At the beginning, many teachers and principals who are in the pilot schools were hesitant and apprehensive at the change. But the value is being realized and now those schools are reenergized. The results speak for themselves.
On Hawai‘i Island for example, in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex area, seven of nine schools recently achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) — a first for that complex area of schools. AYP is a distinction earned by schools that reach academic achievement benchmarks in several areas, including test scores. Raising the bar for our students raises the bar for our teachers, too.
Ronn Nozoe
Deputy Superintendent
Hawai‘i State Department of Education
