Patricia Hamamoto, Superintendent, State Department of Education
Purpose of Hearing: To discuss the expansion of the Cancer Center of Hawaii; increasing Hawaii’s trades program to meet the demand brought about by the privatization of military family housing; and the 3Rs program’s recent authority to utilize Native Hawaiian education funds to repair those public schools with significant numbers of Hawaiians.
Department’s Position: The Department of Education (DOE) is very appreciative of the federal grant given to Hawaii 3Rs to repair the military dependent impacted schools. Hawaii 3Rs has made this into a valuable and productive program.
Hawaii 3Rs actively solicited and got the strong support of the business and public communities for this program. With its strong support and the support from the military, they have been able to increase the actual benefits to the schools approximately by two-and-one-half times the actual monetary grant.
The exterior painting project at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary, the renovation of the quonset hut (auditorium) project at Hickam Elementary, and the exterior painting project at Pope Elementary exemplify the benefits provided by Hawaii 3Rs and the volunteers. Hawaii 3Rs enlisted 250 volunteers to do the work at Pearl Harbor Kai. The $1 million grant from the Native Hawaiian Education Act will enable Hawaii 3Rs to extend their impact to other schools. Based on their past successes, DOE is looking forward to working with Hawaii 3Rs to leverage this grant and improve our schools further.
