[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THIS IS NOT A DRILL: EDUCATION-RELATED
RESPONSE AND RECOVERY IN THE WAKE OF
NATURAL DISASTERS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY,
AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND LABOR
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 5, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-27
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: www.govinfo.gov
or
Committee address: https://edlabor.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
36-906 PDF WASHINGTON : 2020
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, Virginia, Chairman
Susan A. Davis, California Virginia Foxx, North Carolina,
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Ranking Member
Joe Courtney, Connecticut David P. Roe, Tennessee
Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Tim Walberg, Michigan
Northern Mariana Islands Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
Frederica S. Wilson, Florida Bradley Byrne, Alabama
Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Mark Takano, California Elise M. Stefanik, New York
Alma S. Adams, North Carolina Rick W. Allen, Georgia
Mark DeSaulnier, California Francis Rooney, Florida
Donald Norcross, New Jersey Lloyd Smucker, Pennsylvania
Pramila Jayapal, Washington Jim Banks, Indiana
Joseph D. Morelle, New York Mark Walker, North Carolina
Susan Wild, Pennsylvania James Comer, Kentucky
Josh Harder, California Ben Cline, Virginia
Lucy McBath, Georgia Russ Fulcher, Idaho
Kim Schrier, Washington Van Taylor, Texas
Lauren Underwood, Illinois Steve Watkins, Kansas
Jahana Hayes, Connecticut Ron Wright, Texas
Donna E. Shalala, Florida Daniel Meuser, Pennsylvania
Andy Levin, Michigan* William R. Timmons, IV, South
Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Carolina
David J. Trone, Maryland Dusty Johnson, South Dakota
Haley M. Stevens, Michigan
Susie Lee, Nevada
Lori Trahan, Massachusetts
Joaquin Castro, Texas
* Vice-Chair
Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director
Brandon Renz, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, Northern Mariana Islands, Chairman
Kim Schrier, Washington Rick W. Allen, Georgia,
Jahana Hayes, Connecticut Ranking Member
Donna E. Shalala, Florida Glenn ``GT'' Thompson,
Susan A. Davis, California Pennsylvania
Frederica S. Wilson, Florida Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Mark DeSaulnier, California Van Taylor, Texas
Joseph D. Morelle, New York William R. Timmons, IV, South
Carolina
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on June 5, 2019..................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Allen, Hon. Rick W., Ranking Member, Subcommittee Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education............. 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, Chairman, Subcommittee
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education....... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Statement of Witnesses:
Brogan, Mr. Frank, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and
Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education,
Washington, DC............................................. 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Muna, Mr. Glenn, Coventry, Commissioner, CNMI Public School
System, Saian, M........................................... 34
Prepared statement of.................................... 37
Sota-Thomas, Ms. Rosa, President, St. Croix Federation of
Teachers AFT Local 1826, Kingshill, St. Croix, V.I......... 40
Prepared statement of.................................... 42
Winn, Mr. John L., M.A., Florida Commissioner of Education,
Tallahassee, FL............................................ 46
Prepared statement of.................................... 48
Herrington, Dr. Steve, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools,
Sonoma County Schools, Santa Rosa, CA...................... 51
Prepared statement of.................................... 53
Additional Submissions:
Questions submitted for the record by:
Scott, Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'', a Representative in
Congress from the State of Virginia.................... 73
Taylor, Hon. Van, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Texas......................................... 75
Responses to questions submitted for the record by:
Mr. Brogan............................................... 76
Mr. Winn................................................. 78
THIS IS NOT A DRILL: EDUCATION-RELATED
RESPONSE AND RECOVERY IN THE WAKE
OF NATURAL DISASTERS
----------
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education,
Committee on Education and Labor,
Washington, DC.
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a.m., in
room 2176, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Gregorio Kilili
Camacho Sablan (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Sablan, Schrier, Hayes, Shalala,
Davis, Morelle, Scott, Allen, Thompson, Grothman, Taylor,
Timmons, and Foxx.
Staff present: Tylease Alli, Chief Clerk; Nekea Brown,
Deputy Clerk; Paula Daneri, Education Policy Fellow; Emma
Eatman, Press Assistant; Christian Haines, General Counsel,
Education; Ariel Jona, Staff Assistant; Stephanie Lalle, Deputy
Communications Director; Max Moore, Office Aide; Jacque Mosely,
Director of Education Policy; Veronique Pluviose, Staff
Director; Lakeisha Steele, Professional Staff; Loredana
Valtierra, Education Policy Fellow; Banyon Vassar, Deputy
Director of Information Technology; Adrienne Rolie Webb,
Education Policy Fellow; Courtney Butcher, Minority Director of
Coalitions and Members Services; Amy Raaf Jones, Minority,
Director of Education and Human Resources Policy; Hannah
Matesic, Minority Director of Operations; Kelley McNabb,
Minority Communications Director; Casey Nelson, Minority Staff
Assistant; Mandy Schaumburg, Minority Chief Counsel and Deputy
Director of Education Policy; Meredith Schellin, Minority
Deputy Press Secretary and Digital Advisor; and Brad Thomas,
Minority Senior Education Policy Advisor.
Chairman Sablan. Good morning. The committee on Education
and Labor will come to order. Welcome, everyone. I note that a
quorum is present, and the committee is meeting today in a
legislative hearing to hear testimony on This is Not a Drill,
Education-Related Response and Recovery in the Wake of Natural
Disasters.
Pursuant to committee rule 7(c), opening statements are
limited to the chair and the ranking member. This allows us to
hear more from our witnesses sooner and provides all members
with adequate time to ask questions.
A small note. This hearing was scheduled before we knew
that this was going to be a short week. Votes will be called at
10, and Members will go to vote. And Mr. Allen has agreed to
come back and continue the hearing so we can hear every witness
testify.
So I now recognize myself for making an opening statement.
Today we are here to examine the Federal Government's response
to school communities impacted by natural disasters and the
diverse challenges our schools face on the road to recovery. We
need to know what has gone right, what has gone wrong, and what
needs to improve for the sake of our children and their schools
because we do know that it is a question of when, not if, the
next storm will hit.
Our distinguished witnesses will share their harrowing
experience rebuilding communities in the wake of some of our
country's most devastating and recent natural disasters. We
also have an opportunity to hear directly from the Education
Department, the Secretary is here, about their role in helping
these communities recover.
Just last October, super Typhoon Yutu devastated my own
district, the Northern Marianas. Unfortunately, despite being
the most powerful storm in the world that year and the worst
American storm since 1935, Yutu received minimal media coverage
or even mentions in the President's Twitter feed unlike other
storms did.
However, Mr. Secretary, I do appreciate Secretary DeVos'
phone call to me just days after Yutu with her pledge of
support for Marianas school, teachers, and students. Secretary
DeVos followed through on her pledge by releasing $1.1 million
in project served grant grand funds in January for the Marianas
public school system, but our students will need much more
Federal support to restore proper school facilities for the
over 900 Hopwood Middle School students whose campus was
totally destroyed by Yutu and are still learning in FEMA built
tents.
Despite many families being displaced and even losing their
homes, I am inspired by the strength and resilience of our
students. Their perseverance is reflected in the 900 high
school seniors who will receive their diplomas next week, I
will say, with many planning to attend college or serve their
country in the military. Their perseverance has shown through
the Marianas high school students I met who won the right to
represent the Marianas in the congressional App Challenge for
the second year in a row.
This year's congressional Art Competition winner, Miss
Julia Theresa Malate's artwork, ``Marianas Strong'' shows the
strength of the people of the Marianas after Super Typhoon Yutu
devastated our islands. The U.S. Virgin Islands, USVI and
Puerto Rico, were also devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria
in 2017. In the U.S. Virgin Islands it took 5 weeks for
affected public schools to finally reopen. Over a year later,
these reopened schools continued to struggle with damage,
physical, and technological infrastructure.
While this committee extended an invitation to our friends
in Puerto Rico to testify, we were disappointed they could not
join us today. Thank you.
In response to these disasters, Congress has thrice
approved funding to provide relief to Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands, yet very little of the most helpful education
and disaster relief funding has been spent, and FEMA has not
started rebuilding schools.
Elsewhere in our country, California was also devastated by
natural disasters. Over the last 2 years, California has been
ravaged by the State's worst wildfires in history, killing over
100 people, destroying nearly 20,000 homes, and cutting off
schooling for thousands of students for weeks. In total, 12
schools were destroyed, and 14 schools were damaged.
Beyond the damage the wildfires caused to infrastructure,
air quality was severely impacted. The teachers union in
Oakland Unified School District, asked that masks be provided
for all students and teachers if district officials did not
close the schools.
School communities in the Marianas, Puerto Rico, the U.S.
Virgin Islands, and Northern California face unique challenges
recovering from natural disasters. Yet, a common thread across
this crisis is a Federal Government that refuses to put people
before politics and acknowledge the impact climate change has
on communities where still up to this week, Republican
lawmakers repeatedly blocked passage of a key funding bill to
assist communities recovering from Super Typhoon Yutu, the
Northern California wildfires, Hurricane Maria, and other
recent disasters.
The $19 billion disaster relief package includes $165
million to address recovery-related educational needs. The bill
also mandates GAO audits, an investigation that would further
assist this committee's work to oversee and improve the Federal
Government's disaster response.
While we may disagree on our assessments of Federal
responses to natural disaster, the underlying crisis we face is
undeniable. Climate change caused by human activities has
worsened natural disasters and made emergency preparedness in
schools more difficult. As climate change continues to
intensify, the Federal Government's responsibility to provide
school communities with the resources to recover from natural
disaster is more important now than ever before.
Today's hearing is a critical first step toward ensuring
that students, families, and school staff can rely on the
Federal Government to help them not only recover from natural
disasters but actually emerge stronger.
I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today, and I
now yield to my friend and ranking member, Mr. Allen, for his
opening statement.
[The statement of Chairman Sablan follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Chairman,
Subcommittee Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Today, we are here to examine the Federal Government's response to
school communities impacted by natural disasters and the diverse
challenges our schools face on the road to recovery. We need to know
what has gone right, what has gone wrong, and what needs to improve for
the sake of our children and their schools. Because we do know that it
is a question of when, not if, the next storm will hit.
Our distinguished witnesses will share their harrowing experiences
rebuilding communities in the wake of some of our country's most
devastating and recent natural disasters. We also have an opportunity
to hear directly from the Education Department about their role in
helping these communities recover.
Just last October, Super Typhoon Yutu devastated my own district,
the Northern Mariana Islands. Unfortunately, despite being the most
powerful storm in the world that year and the worst American storm
since 1935, Yutu received minimal media coverage and or even mentions
in the President's twitter feed unlike other storms did. However, I do
appreciate Secretary DeVos' phone call to me just days after Yutu with
a pledge of support for Marianas schools, teachers, and students.
Secretary DeVos' followed through on her pledge by releasing $1.1
million in Project SERV grant funds in January for the Marianas Public
School System. But our students will need much more Federal support to
restore proper school facilities for the over 900 Hopwood Middle School
students whose campus was totally destroyed by Yutu and are still
learning in FEMA-built tents.
Despite many families being displaced and even losing their homes,
I am inspired by the strength and resilience of our students. Their
perseverance is reflected in the 900 high school seniors will receive
their diplomas this month with many planning to attend college or serve
their country in the military. Their perseverance is shown through the
Marianas High School students I met who won the right to represent the
Marianas in the congressional App Challenge for the second year in a
row. And this year's congressional Art Competition winner Ms. Julia
Theresa Malate's artwork, ``Marianas Strong'' shows the strength of the
people of the Marianas after Super Typhoon Yutu devastated our islands.
The U.S. Virgin Islands, or USVI, and Puerto Rico were also
devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. In USVI, it took 5
weeks for affected public schools to finally reopen. Over a year later,
these reopened schools continue to struggle with damaged physical and
technological infrastructure.
While this Committee extended an invitation to our friends in
Puerto Rico to testify, we were disappointed they could not join us
today.
In response to these disasters, Congress has thrice approved
funding to provide relief to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Yet, very little of the most helpful educational disaster relief
funding has been spent and FEMA has not started rebuilding schools.
Elsewhere in our country, California was also devastated by natural
disasters. Over the last 2 years, California has been ravaged by the
State's worst wildfires in history, killing over 100 people, destroying
nearly 20,000 homes, and cutting-off schooling for thousands of
students for weeks. In total, 12 schools were destroyed, and 14 schools
were damaged.
Beyond the damage the wildfires caused to infrastructure, air
quality was severely impacted. The teachers' union in Oakland Unified
School District asked that masks be provided for all students and
teachers if district officials did not close the schools.
School communities in the Marianas, Puerto Rico, USVI, and Northern
California face unique challenges to recovering from natural disasters.
Yet, the common thread across these crises is a Federal Government that
refuses to put people before politics and acknowledge the impact
climate change has on communities.
Worse still, until this week, Republican lawmakers repeatedly
blocked passage of a key funding bill to assist communities recovering
from Super Typhoon Yutu, the Northern California wildfires, Hurricane
Maria, and other recent disasters. The $19 billion disaster relief
package includes $165 million to address recovery-related educational
needs. The bill also mandates GAO audits and investigations that will
further assist this committee's work to oversee and improve the Federal
Government's disaster response.
While we may disagree in our assessments of Federal responses to
natural disasters, the underlying crisis we face is undeniable: climate
change caused by human activities has worsened natural disasters and
made emergency preparedness in schools more difficult. As climate
change continues to intensify, the Federal Government's responsibility
to provide school communities with the resources to recover from
natural disasters is more important now than ever before.
Today's hearing is a critical first step toward ensuring that
students, families, and school staff can rely on the Federal Government
to help them not only recover from natural disasters but emerge
stronger.
I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today and I now yield
to the Ranking Member, Mr. Allen, for his opening statement.
______
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.
You know, we sometimes forget that when a natural disaster
strikes an area, it doesn't discriminate what it destroys in
its path. Schools are central gathering places, and they are
just as a vulnerable as homes, businesses, and churches when a
natural disaster hits our communities.
Hurricanes and fires, like the ones that have devastated
the U.S. in recent years, demolish school buildings and
displace thousands of students, forcing communities to scramble
to rebuild.
When Congress provides disaster aid, making sure that this
funding is used well is critical to the successful and
efficient renewal of America's destroyed schools. The
Department must also assure it will support technical
assistance, regulatory flexibility, and other measures to allow
State and local leaders the resources necessary to rebuild
after a natural disaster and serve students in their
communities.
There are no better witnesses to ask about the struggles of
rebuilding schools after natural disasters than local and State
education leaders. They are best suited to brief Congress on
the challenges that come with reconstruction and the success
and areas for improvement in the Department of Education in
support of disaster relief efforts.
I look forward to this hearing and to working with my
colleagues to ensure that schools are not forgotten in the
aftermath of natural disasters. We can't always fully prepare
for a destructive storm or fire, but we should be doing all we
can to make the returning of America's children to school as
seamless as possible. Thank you, and I yield back.
[The statement of Mr. Allen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Rick W. Allen, Ranking Member, Subcommittee
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
We sometimes forget, that when a natural disaster strikes an area,
it doesn't discriminate what it destroys in its path. Schools are
central gathering places and they are just as vulnerable as homes,
businesses, and churches when a natural disaster hits our communities.
Hurricanes and fires, like the ones that have devastated the U.S. in
recent years, demolished school buildings and displaced thousands of
students, forcing communities to scramble to rebuild.
When Congress provides disaster aid, making sure that this funding
is used well is critical to the successful and efficient renewal of
America's destroyed schools. The Department must also assure it will
support technical assistance, regulatory , and other measures, that
allow State and local leaders the resources necessary to rebuild after
a natural disaster and serve students in their communities.
There are no better witnesses to ask about the struggles of
rebuilding schools after natural disasters than local and State
education leaders. They are best suited to brief Congress on the
challenges that come with reconstruction and the successes and areas
for improvement in the Department of Education's support of disaster
relief efforts.
I look forward to this hearing and to working with all my
colleagues to ensure that schools are not forgotten in the aftermath of
natural disasters. We can't always fully prepare for a destructive
storm or fire, but we should be doing all we can to make the returning
of America's children to school as seamless as possible.
______
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Allen.
And without objection, all other members who wish to insert
written statements into the record may do so by submitting them
to the committee clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format
by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19.
And now I would like to introduce our witness for the first
panel. Mr. Frank Brogan serves as the Assistant Secretary for
Elementary and Secondary Education at the United States
Department of Education. Secretary Brogan most recently served
as Chancellor of Pennsylvania's public universities. I couldn't
help but noticing you and Dr. Shalala giving each other bear
hugs.
He began his career as a fifth grade teacher in Martin
County, Florida, and later served as a dean of students,
assistant principal, principal, and superintendent before being
elected Florida's Commissioner of Education in 1994.
Mr. Brogan continued his advocacy for public education when
he was selected to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Florida in
1998 and 2002. After 5 years in that role, he was named
President of Florida Atlantic University, a position he held
until 2009 when he was selected to serve as Chancellor of
Florida's public universities.
We appreciate all the witnesses for being here today and
look forward to your testimony. Let me remind the witnesses
that we have read your written statements, and they will appear
in full in the hearing record. Pursuant to committee rule 7(d)
and committee practice, each of you is asked to limit your oral
presentation to a 5-minute summary of your written statement.
Let me remind the witnesses that pursuant to Title 18 of the
U.S. Code, Section 1001, it is illegal to knowingly and
willfully falsify any statement, representation, writing,
document, or material fact presented to Congress or otherwise
conceal or cover up a material fact.
Before you begin your testimony, please remember to push
the button on the microphone in front of you so that it will
turn on and the members can hear you. They have to push the
button to turn on the lights too.
But as you begin to speak, the light in front of you will
turn green. After 4 minutes, the light will turn yellow to
signal that you have 1 minute remaining. When the lights turn
red, your 5 minutes have expired, and we ask that you please
wrap up. When answering a question, please remember to once
again turn your microphone on.
I now welcome and recognize Assistant Secretary Brogan for
his oral statement. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF FRANK BROGAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mr. Brogan. How`s that? Thank you. The lights were easier,
Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank you all very much, Mr. Chairman, and again,
ranking member, and members for giving me the opportunity to be
with you and the committee members today, and thank you for the
opportunity to share how the Department of Education does work
very hard to help students, their families, and their
communities and States and territories recover from natural
disasters.
In 2017, hurricanes in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Puerto
Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands, and wildfires in
California disrupted far too many learning environments for
students and teachers. Those of us at the Department of
Education were, indeed, moved to minimize impacts on students
of all ages, their teachers, and their schools, and we continue
to support communities as they work to reopen schools and
restore learning environments.
Secretary DeVos, as mentioned, and other senior Department
officials traveled to each of the hurricane-impacted areas in
the fall of 2017 to see firsthand the damage to affected
schools. More than a dozen Department staff participated in the
outreach efforts, informed initial cost estimates, developed
legislative options, helped to prepare an official White House
request to Congress for assistance, and technical assistance to
Congress to help develop legislation.
Secretary DeVos immediately made available financial
assistance through the Department's Project Serve program which
helps restore learning environments in affected areas. She
provided grants of $2 million each to the United States Virgin
Islands, Puerto Rico, Texas, and California with the goal of
jump starting high priority relief efforts to supplement the
forthcoming congressional action on comprehensive disaster
recovery legislation.
In early 2018, Congress provided $2.7 billion dollars to
fund a comprehensive set of education-related disaster recovery
programs, and the Department quickly moved to implement this
appropriation. To date, we have awarded nearly $1.4 billion
under five programs designed in this effort to make certain
that people have the available funds to do the jobs that they
must do in the world of recovery.
I also personally visited Puerto Rico in the summer of 2018
following my confirmation as Assistant Secretary, and by that
time, students were already back in school. That didn't mean
everything was back to normal. Many of the windows were still
boarded up, many of the buildings were still without air
conditioning, and many of the students were still homeless as
well as staff members. Yet I refused to forget the smiling
faces of those children. Despite their challenges, they are
still children, always hopeful when it comes to their futures.
Our team remains in regular contact with students and
education leaders in affected areas. We created the Hurricane
Help web page to make available key resources including
information on the many flexibilities in using Federal taxpayer
funds and various waivers made available. We provided funds to
States like Florida and $2 million to States like California
for the 2018 wildfires. And we are working to improve our
ability to provide timely resources, high quality support, and
appropriate oversight of Federal taxpayer funds with the
creation in the Department of Education of a new disaster
recovery unit. This new five-person team will be devoted full
time to managing current and future disaster response efforts
including the development of in-house expertise to leverage
Department resources and partner effectively with other Federal
agencies. Our goal remains to support students, their families,
their teachers, and their communities affected by natural
disasters.
We thank you once again for providing us an opportunity to
discuss this very important and, indeed, timely issue, and Mr.
Chairman and Ranking Member, I do look forward to answering any
questions that you all might have this morning.
[The statement of Mr. Brogan follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary
Brogan.
Under committee rule 8(a), we will now question witnesses
under the 5-minute rule. As chair, I have decided to go at the
end, so I will yield to the next senior member on the majority
side who will be followed by the ranking member. We will then
alternate between the parties.
And first, of course, Dr. Brogan, apparently you guys know
each other. It will be Dr. Shalala, Representative of Florida.
Ms. Shalala. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome,
Assistant Secretary Brogan. We have been long-time friends and
worked together in Florida over the years. The Secretary is
lucky to have you.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you.
Ms. Shalala. Let me, I am particularly concerned, Secretary
Brogan, about the delays in the restart funds to Puerto Rico
and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rican educators continue to
report that they have not received those funds. Can you give us
a sense of why they have been delayed and what you are able to
do to make sure that they get those funds?
Mr. Brogan. Yes. Thank you, Congresswoman, and, indeed,
good to see you as well. And by the way, they are lucky to have
you too. It is a pleasure to be with you and all of the
members.
And in answer to your question, of course, the process of
moving the dollars made available by Congress to those who have
been affected by natural disasters is very important, and it is
also very important to expedite that effort.
The reality in 2017 when we received that appropriation, it
was before me, but nevertheless, it was received in February.
And ultimately, in the months of March, April, and May, a
significant amount of money immediately went out the door in
terms of available dollars. Those dollars were determined based
on need at the time but also based on the programs and the
activities to which they would be directed.
As you all know better than most, as far back as 2017, and
even before that, certain categories of funding have been
utilized in disaster recovery allocations after the total. That
includes immediate aid to restart school operations.
Congresswoman, that is restart, obviously. Temporary emergency
impact aid for displaced students. Assistance for homeless
children and youth is another. Project school emergency
response to violence, those are those Serve grants that I
mentioned a moment ago. And then in the world of higher
education, defraying cost of the rolling displaced students
program as well as emergency assistance to institutions of
higher education.
So we rapidly tried to take the total amount of money and
then begin the issue of dividing that based on the applications
that we received which is another part of this process and then
the distribution by program that I mentioned here. I hope that
helps a little bit.
Ms. Shalala. Yes. Do you know how much Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands each have drawn out of their restart funds
to date?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, ma'am. I can tell you, first of all, what
the appropriation was for each and then a little bit more about
drawdown. You mentioned V.I., Puerto Rico, and did you mention
another one, Congresswoman?
Ms. Shalala. No. Just Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Mr. Brogan. Puerto Rico and V.I. Yes. For all of these, as
I mentioned, the total impact provided by Congress was $2.7
billion. As it relates to the drawdown, Puerto Rico out of that
received for restart $589,170,000 along with other categories
of funding including $70 million, $277,000, and then through
Project Serve, $2 million.
Out of that, then, the drawdown schedule which I also have,
and if I don't have it right in front of me, we will absolutely
get you that. And by the way, the drawdowns are posted on the
FEMA website because we work with groups like FEMA to keep a
running tab on not only the total allocations but how much each
has been drawing down during that time period, and we will get
that to you.
But expeditious is the word that we try to look to when it
comes to getting these dollars to the places that they need to
go.
Ms. Shalala. So you don't know exactly how much they have
drawndown, Puerto Rico, for example, of the $589 million?
Mr. Brogan. I do know this. I don't have a dollar figure,
but it is about 5 percent at this point.
Ms. Shalala. That has been drawndown?
Mr. Brogan. That has been drawndown. And again, that is a
snapshot in time. Even as we sit here, the drawdown process
which is tied to actual expenditures is changing even while we
are sitting here today.
Ms. Shalala. Mr. Secretary, I know you well enough to know
that if you were in charge of education in Puerto Rico, you
would be pretty upset if you had only drawndown 5 percent of
the money. Is there anything you can do to expedite it for
Puerto Rico? This is a year and a half, 2 years after the
events.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Congresswoman. I am sorry. Yes. We
work very hard with Puerto Rico, a tremendous amount of
technical assistance and support, with the idea of being that
the more they know, the better the opportunity they will have
to more rapidly drawdown funds, work through the procurement
process, and all of the things that can sometimes slow down the
actual drawdown schedule of those funds.
So even almost going on 2 years out, the procurement
process that they work with is very complicated, very
cumbersome, and, indeed, is part of the contribution to the
process of turning available funds into drawdown funds which
means they not only procured what they need, but they sent the
money on.
Chairman Sablan. Mr. Secretary, respectfully, members have
to run at 10, so I appreciate that--
Mr. Brogan. Understood.
Chairman Sablan. The gentlelady's time has expired.
I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Allen, for purpose
of questioning the witness.
Mr. Allen. Thank you. And again, Assistant Secretary, thank
you for being with us.
In your testimony, you mentioned the creation of the
disaster recovery unit. I have got a few questions about that.
Now, your written statement said that the unit will have five
full-time staff. What will their responsibilities be?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir, Ranking Member. Many Federal agencies
already have in place full-time, dedicated staff on the issue
of disaster and disaster recoveries. We ultimately believe that
based on the number of natural disasters being identified and
the amount of available dollars flowing to them through
Congress that it was time that the Department of Education also
install a full-time, dedicated unit to be the nucleus of
activities on these issues.
There will be five people once we are fully staffed up, a
person who will direct this operation and four others. They
will help us to better coordinate with all of the other Federal
agencies. They will help us to review our policies, processes,
and procedures relative to how we handle natural disasters, and
they will be an ongoing conduit to communication with people in
the field based on both preparation as well as recovery efforts
through technical assistance and support, and we are very
excited about this.
Mr. Allen. And how will this unit interact with the
recovery support function leadership group that you also
discussed in your opening statement?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. That, of course, is the work we do
with FEMA. We already have regular and ongoing meetings with
FEMA and the other agencies that FEMA works with in terms of
disaster preparedness and also disaster recovery. There are
regular monthly meetings.
There are quarterly meetings of leadership. We will
continue those, but by having this particular unit, it will
give us an even better day-to-day conduit with not just FEMA
but all of the other agencies in that case that work on
disaster issues.
Mr. Allen. In your statement, also you indicated that the
Department has learned a number of lessons over the last couple
of years and is taking steps to improve its response
capabilities. I know that, you know, in Georgia we recently had
the Hurricane Michael and, of course, this was not the
Department of Education, it is through USDA, but the system
that was used was not particularly user-friendly, very complex,
a lot of compliance, and obviously we want to make sure that
every dollar is spent where it is supposed to be spent.
And presumably, one of these steps in the creation of the
disaster recovery unit that we just discussed, what could you
provide as far as more details about how the Department is
otherwise improving its protocols to assist affected States and
communities both before and after these natural disasters?
Mr. Brogan. Ranking Member Allen and members, that question
is a very important one as it relates to this group of
individuals that I am speaking about in terms of the disaster
recovery unit. The idea that everything that we have done is
based on a historic track record of events and response, and
yet, we are not satisfied that in every one of those cases, we
are, as a Department, where we want to be to assure rapid
response, rapid appropriation of funds made available by
Congress, and ultimately the monitoring and review of how those
funds are spent. It goes back a little bit to Congresswoman
Shalala's question. And they will be an everyday, on the ground
unit that will help support the effort of expediting in the
future even better the work that we do.
One quick shoutout to Congress. The fact that Congress
essentially is using in each of these recent appropriations I
rattled off the list of programs before that they have remained
consistant up to and including this most recent round of
funding that you all approved just the other day is enormously
helpful so that we don't have to go back and reinvent wheels
along the way in that regard. We won't have to rework that
effort.
So by working with Congress, by working with the other
agencies, we are totally committed to continuing to review our
process to assure that we cannot only expedite, but also as you
mentioned, Ranking Member, be true to the fact that we are
spending other people's money in that regard.
Mr. Allen. Exactly. Well, thank you so much. And Mr.
Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much to Mr. Allen.
At this time I now recognize Mr. Morelle from New York.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding this
important hearing today to discuss the distressing effects of
natural disasters on our communities and our schools, and thank
you, Mr. Secretary for joining us today.
The United States must do everything in its power to
address the existential threat of climate change including
mitigating the devastating impacts of natural disasters on our
communities. It is undeniable that stability of our climate is
deteriorating. Each year we see spikes in extreme weather
patterns, rising sea levels, and increasing severe natural
disasters that displace families, destroy properties and
ecosystems, and even end lives. And we are experiencing
unprecedented streaks of tornadoes ripping through the midwest,
deadly wildfires in California, catastrophic hurricanes in the
southeast and in the Caribbean, and dangerous flooding
threatening more than 20 States.
And the devastation that follows these natural disasters
leaves communities struggling to rebuild and return to their
daily lives, often never truly recovering.
I want to talk just for a moment about my district of
Rochester and the devastating effects of flood waters. In 2017,
the district was hit hard by record flooding that eroded
lakeshore, ruined family homes, crippled lakeside businesses,
disrupted educational institutions. Nearly 2 years later, many
community members are still struggling to recover, but the
impacts of climate change don't wait around for us.
In fact, just this week, Lake Ontario, where my district
is, water levels hit a new record high. Yet again, the district
is faced with the reality of rising flood levels exacerbated by
strong winds and high waves which are expected to continue for
several more weeks.
So recognizing the negative effects of natural disasters on
our educational systems; canceled bus routes, school closures,
displaced communities, destroyed infrastructure, and
traumatized children. And the stability that schools provides
for a student is upended by natural disasters and can have
substantial negative effects and impacts if the road to
recovery is blocked by insufficient funds or lack of
coordination.
So planning for the future and improving the ability of our
communities to withstand, recover, and adapt to weather-related
events is a requirement, and requires us the willingness to
face the facts that climate change is real despite what
people--and people can argue endlessly about the impact our
species has had on it, but it is folly to ignore the fact that
this is happening and do everything in our power to curb global
warming and protect the planet.
I am particularly interested, Mr. Secretary, in preventive
measures that we could take now to ready ourselves for the
inevitable natural disasters which the natural disasters of
tomorrow, and by tomorrow I mean literally, not necessarily
figuratively.
So recognizing all this, I am curious as to whether the
Department actually talks to the National Weather Service or
other associated agencies around modeling that they may be
doing and what the threats are to school communities around the
country. Do you do that? Do you know if the Department does
that on a regular basis?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. I don't know how regular a basis, but
the Department does participate again in all of the committee
work that is done by FEMA with all of the different agencies,
and of course, those kinds of issues, as you probably imagine,
are discussed with great frequency.
Mr. Morelle. Well, I am happy to hear that. And is the
Department engaged in data gathering relative to tracking
property damage and whether there are increased levels of it
around the country? Do you work with local districts or States
on that, and also, the number of days missed due to natural
disasters? Have you been tracking that data?
Mr. Brogan. We are, Congressman, tracking data relative to
issues like that through the SEAs, the States themselves who
are, in part, responsible for tracking that data for The Every
Student Succeeds Act. For example, chronic absenteeism, days
out, et cetera, are things that are currently tracked.
Mr. Morelle. And things attributable to these natural
disasters that they are talking about, do they categorize that,
do you know?
Mr. Brogan. Some of that, we are, but again, we hope that
by standing up this full-time operation, we can do an even
better job in the future of beginning to take longitudinal
looks at more and more information.
Mr. Morelle. That will be great. And to the degree that you
could share that with us so we could know that data would be
great.
I am also interested. In my prior life in the State
legislature, at one period I was a chair of the insurance
committee, and we looked at ways to mitigate and resiliency
prior to the impact of natural disasters, strengthening schools
physically, emergency evacuation. Can you just describe in the
remaining 20 seconds I have of my time, just give me an
overview of what you are doing relative to communicating with
States and districts about mitigation efforts?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. We do a tremendous amount of work
through the various education associations, the meetings that
they have to the State as well as the local level on
preparation for, as most people who dealt with emergency
situations realized, a great deal is determined in the
preparation process as to how you are able to recover following
the actual event, and we work very hard on those issues.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much.
At this time, I would like to recognize the ranking member
of the full committee, the gentlelady from North Carolina, Dr.
Foxx, for her 5 minutes of questioning.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Secretary
Brogan, for being here.
It has been over a year since the first awards were made to
areas impacted by the hurricanes and wildfires of 2017. I have
a series of quick questions about these funds. Do you have data
on how these funds are being spent?
Mr. Brogan. Ranking Member, first of all, thank you for
being here, and thank you for the question. But to all of the
members, the answer to that is generally, yes. People are not
required to put in a plan, per se, but everyone who received
these dollars must put in a budget which is in some ways a
skeletal structure of a plan, and those budgets are what we use
to track expenditures and for what categories, et cetera.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you. Are States able to drawdown funds and
allocate them to schools effectively and efficiently, and if
not, are there particular road blocks that are preventing funds
from being used effectively?
Mr. Brogan. Ranking Member, as you might imagine, and I am
sure you do, in the direct aftermath of these events, sometimes
it is rather chaotic, and therefore, it takes a little bit of
time for people to settle back in and be able to take a serious
step away to look at exactly what their needs are and how that
can be done.
That is part, by the way, of some of what some suggest is a
delay in getting people their money. In order to fill out the
application that they must, they have to be able to take a look
at what they are doing and turn those needs into an application
that we then use to build them their original allocation from
what we received for Congress and then over time refine that
with them for additional drawdowns.
Ms. Foxx. All right. I gathered from what you were saying,
although I am sorry I missed your opening statement, that the
Department is the setting up full-time people who are going to
work with this year around. So could you tell us what technical
assistance or other support is the Department providing to
particularly hard-hit areas to help them with procurement and
contracting? I think you alluded to that earlier.
Mr. Brogan. Ranking Member, in some cases, because
procurement is typically handled at the local level
appropriately, procurement, as I mentioned, can be one of those
delay points in the process based on how complicated some
procurement processes are. It doesn't make that process bad. It
is theirs, and they must work through that in order to do it.
What we can do is continue to provide technical assistance, and
we will not only continue that, we will expand that with this
new team to try to make it clearer when and where necessary as
to how the procurement process at the local level and the needs
that we have to be compliant come together more expeditiously
to be able to move that into dollars available.
Ms. Foxx. All right. Thank you again. The Department's past
role in disaster relief has been fairly limited both in terms
of the responsibilities your agency has taken on and the number
and type of relief efforts the Department's been directly
involved in. That seems to be changing, from your comments.
As you ramp up the Department's disaster response efforts,
how are you structuring those efforts to allow you to respond
to these wildly different kinds of disasters such as
hurricanes, typhoons, wildfires, all sometimes happening at the
same time?
Mr. Brogan. Ranking Member, I have here a list that I have
for reference, but it contains all of the locations that were
affected in 2017 when the BBA was originally created, the
Bipartisan Act. The 2018 and the 2019, there are dozens of
locations identified in congressional legislation from that
2017 time until now. So to your good point, we have to be
proactive and not wait to play catchup.
One of the reasons we have established the DR unit is to
make sure that we are trying to keep pace full time with the
growing number of recognized natural disasters and dealing with
the appropriations we receive from Congress so they will do
most good.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to note these are natural
disasters. They are not things that we human beings can
control, although I recognize there are things we should do our
best to be able to respond to, but also it is my understanding
FEMA and all of the Federal agencies are here simply to lend
support to the local people. They are the ones on the ground
year in, year out, and I think it is very important that we not
hold unrealistic expectations to the Department of Education
and other Federal departments for the responsibilities that are
on the ground every day. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Brogan.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Ranking Member.
Chairman Sablan. I have huge respect for the ranking
member, but maybe she and I can on our own time debate climate
change.
I would like to now recognize Mrs. Davis of California for
5 minutes.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Assistant
Secretary. Very nice to have you here. I appreciate it.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you Congresswoman.
Mrs. Davis. I know that you had mentioned that they were
only able to drawdown about 5 percent of those funds. We are
talking about Puerto Rico now, I believe.
Mr. Brogan. Yes.
Mrs. Davis. And you have been at this for quite a while as
well, and so I am wondering as you see this team taking a look
at this and certainly the procurement process, and that has
been mentioned on several occasions by both Ms. Shalala and Dr.
Foxx, what do you think you are going to find that really could
be done quite differently than it has in the past? What would
you do?
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Congresswoman, for the question. And
coming from California, you know a little bit about these
issues as well, but I would answer that question this way. I
think we are going to find some things over time in the
Department that we can and should do differently, and at the
risk of sounding like I am throwing it all back to the people
at the State and local level, and believe me, I am not, we have
to continue to work with people who have a huge amount of
responsibility and also have to meet a huge number of
obligations at the State and local level as well.
So it is trying to bring those two things together to
create a more seamless system of communication, of expectation,
of obligation so that there aren't, as I mentioned earlier when
it comes to procurement, as many hurdles for people to cross as
we might face today. And I think all of us, and I herald here
the people at the State and local level, are working toward
that, and hopefully we will get even better at it in the
future.
Mrs. Davis. And I think part of it is trying to build that
so-called resilience into the system so that people don't have
to think about it.
Mr. Brogan. Truly.
Mrs. Davis. I remember after Katrina, we talked about, you
know, the worst time to exchange business cards is in the
middle of a disaster. I mean, you have to build that in, and
you have to know what one's counterpart is it at different
levels, and so in that regard as well, I wonder.
You have talked about the 5 person team, but how about the
so-called whole government approach as well? I mean, how many
different agencies, beyond being on paper, are really engaged
in problem solving in this area aggressively before disaster
strikes? What are you seeing?
And I guess the role--and I am just responding to my
colleagues. I agree. I mean, you know, obviously the Federal
Government cannot possibly be doing the job of the State and
local governments, but they should be aware of best practices
where, in fact, there has been a seamless adjustment in
communities that have been so devastated by these disasters.
Mr. Brogan. I could not have said it better, Congresswoman.
And I just had a conversation with folks at FEMA the other day,
and they were expressing appreciation. We just did a
presentation for not just FEMA but for, as I mentioned, the
group that FEMA brings together on a regular basis in terms of
some of the things that we in education have to deal with on
our side of the issues, and they found it to be extraordinarily
helpful.
We need to keep doing more of that as we continue to
communicate with the people in the field so that we can find
voids or find redundancies that also create inefficiency at the
same time. So a lot of it, as corny as it might sound, really
falls under the aegis of continued and even better
communication by everyone as we move forward.
But I go back long enough, along with Congresswoman Shalala
to remember Andrew in south Florida when I lived there. And I
have to tell you. We are already back, way back, to some of
those natural disasters and others in terms of lessons learned.
We should not be repeating mistakes of the past.
Mrs. Davis. Yes. Of course, and I appreciate that. One of
the real issues, of course, is where young people, even
preschool age and earlier, can be housed during the horrible
crisis that they are living through. And I am wondering about
the role of the Federal Government as well when it comes to
finding the facilities, the resources in neighboring
communities, and in some cases, as you know, far, far away from
a disaster because they are not in areas that are intensely
urban and that there are lots of choices for where people might
go. So what is the role in that regard?
Mr. Brogan. Indeed, and you mentioned it earlier,
Congresswoman. Technically speaking, every Federal agency has
the potential to be involved in disaster preparation and
disaster recovery. As you might imagine as well being here in
D.C., some of the agencies are more front and center on the
issue just based on what they do.
So when we meet with FEMA, for example, we are also sitting
around the table with HHS, obviously. We are meeting with DOJ
based on the laws. We are meeting with Federal agencies like
HUD that have a clear and distinct role. But technically
speaking, the Federal Government is an open book when it comes
to the potential of helping to support these--
Chairman Sablan. Mr. Secretary--
Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Congresswoman.
Chairman Sablan. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Mr. Taylor of Texas.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary, I
appreciate you being here.
So in the Texas legislature, I was on the Education
Committee, and one of the things that we dealt with was
schedule, right. So some scheduling is done at the State level.
Testing requirements. One of the things that we did is we
actually moved from a 180-day, 7-hour day schedule to give me a
number of minutes. I think it is 73,000 minutes. That actually
gave school districts flexibility to move time around. So when
you had a disaster, and this does happen in Texas, you know,
people are able to actually shift their schedule around and
actually lengthen school days and minimize the extension of the
school year.
Are there Federal laws, you know, whether it is testing
requirements that cause scheduling issues that you are finding
are getting in your way?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. I can tell you this. We have taken,
for example, the Every Student Succeeds Act and gone through
that to make certain that it jives as well as can be expected
with what kinds of flexibilities are included in that act that
can be utilized, not just in general through waiver process,
but as well in post natural disaster situations.
The timing of testing is a good example for that. It is
possible under ESSA to move the time that the test was
scheduled if that helps the situation, to delay it further in
the cue to be able to get people settled in before the test is
issued for one small example, and there are other possibilities
for flexibility.
But we are actually learning a great deal from States like
yours, Congressman Taylor, in terms of what additional
flexibilities, still compliant with the ESSA law, but
nevertheless, might give people other opportunities that they
currently don't have for the future. And of course, if any of
those require legislative authority, we would quickly turn to
you all and ask for help and support as you are always ready to
give.
Mr. Taylor. So what I think I heard is we have the
flexibility we need, and if we think we need more, we will come
back and ask.
Mr. Brogan. We have all the flexibility we have. Whether it
is enough, we will be determining over time with the help and
assistance, especially of the people out there in the field.
Mr. Taylor. Sure.
Mr. Brogan. They are the ones we listen to as to the
impacts of all these things in terms of making any possible
changes we might find necessary.
Mr. Taylor. Right. But what I think I heard you say is, you
know, a tornado comes, takes out a school. They are not in
school for a month. They need to push their tests back a month
because the schedule is written as though nothing would ever
happen, but things happen. So you are saying you can push it
back?
Mr. Brogan. Congressman--yes. The way that testing is
approached is each one individual as far as waivers are
concerned, and what is looked at is the time of the year of the
event as it relates to the testing schedule, the size of the
event, if you will, and other factors that determine what
possibilities there might be to work around the natural
disaster to do what still has to be done according to the Every
Student Succeeds Act.
But greater flexibility in that regard is never a
destination point because we are always looking for different
ways to achieve that.
Mr. Taylor. And again, I just want to be sure. So as far as
you can tell time now, you have the flexibility you need.
Mr. Brogan. For now, yes, sir.
Mr. Taylor. Okay. All right. I think it answered that.
Anything else you want to add?
Mr. Brogan. No, sir, unless there are any other questions
you have.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
At this time, I would like to recognize the chairman of the
full committee, Mr. Scott, of Virginia.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, and Mr. Secretary, thank you for
being with us today.
I want to follow through on the question just asked because
a lot of the discussion has been on the budget and allocation
of money and whatnot. But the effect on students--obviously,
the students were out of school for some time. Are they back in
school, and what has the school experience been like for them?
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is good to see you.
Generally speaking, students are back in school from
previous disasters, but as you know, again, better than most,
there are disasters unfolding as we are seated here today. And
by virtue of the fact that those disasters are playing out,
there are currently no doubt students who are not in school.
The idea of preparation for these events and then recovery for
these events always keeps in mind the importance of reopening
schools as they have been closed but also keeping them open, if
it is possible, in the preparatory way to make certain that
young people have a place to go every single day.
Chronic absenteeism in general can be a problem, just
students missing school, but anything that we can do to bring
down the time that students miss school as it relates to the
effects of a natural disaster is critical to us.
Mr. Scott. Well, can you say a word about the effect of
these disasters on school achievement for the students?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. I will answer you this way, if I
might. One of the things we do look at in the Every Student
Succeeds Act, of course, is how people are faring in general
based on the tempos that lie within that act. We look at not
only general testing and results as they post up against State
standards, but we also look at some of the subgroups that are
laid out in ESSA to see how individual subgroups of students
are faring at the same time. And we look at those with each
State as a partner to determine just how students are looking
generally.
Over time, what we would like to do is also be able to
begin to look at how students might be, through appropriate
research efforts, not just anecdotal, to see if natural
disasters are having sizable impacts on student achievement as
demonstrated through what is made responsible of them through
the ESSA act.
Mr. Scott. Well, I guess my question is when you looked,
what did you see?
Mr. Brogan. Well, we aren't looking that way just yet. That
is what I say. I think as we get better developed with how we
respond to these things, and as we look toward the research
community to assist us, among other things, those are some of
things that we do want to begin to look at is not just the
recovery effort itself but also, as you mentioned, the recovery
and the impact that it has on teaching and learning.
Mr. Scott. Well, we need to get that information as soon as
possible because it is possible that some of these students may
have regressed and are not learning at the rate they should be,
and we may need additional resources to correct that, but we
won't know until we get--
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir.
Mr. Scott [continuing]. the data. Before coming to the
Education Department, you were an official, as we heard, in
Florida, a State that is particularly vulnerable to the effects
of man-made climate change. What did Florida do to prepare for
anticipated changes due to climate change like increased risk
of hurricane and flooding as it relates to school operations?
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can say, rather
proudly, that Florida is considered to be one of the leaders in
the country in terms of preparation and recovery efforts when
it comes to natural disasters. And by virtue of that fact, I
was really proud to work with the men and women of Florida in
terms of both efforts, how we better prepare as a State for
those that are occurring and have occurred and how we deal with
those that do occur.
As you might imagine, I saw my share of hurricanes, for
example, during my 35 years in the State of Florida, and
Florida essentially, if you ask them, they will probably answer
the same way I do here about the Department of Education. We
are constantly looking for ways, no matter how good we think we
are, to be even better going forward in the future. And with
the number--as I mentioned earlier, Mr. Chairman, with the
number of events and the number of States and territories
impacted, our obligation is increasing as a Department along
with the other Federal agencies in that regard.
Mr. Scott. I don't have time for you to answer this with
the time I have left, but the National Climate Assessment
released by the Trump administration warned that climate change
is going to impact--have an increasing impact on losses to
American infrastructure and property. They also advise that
substantial and sustained global efforts to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions could help reverse that.
If you could provide for the record what the Department is
doing to deal with the effects of--reducing the effects of
climate change, I would appreciate it. My time has expired, so
I would like that for the record.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Now I would like to recognize Mr. Grothman for 5 minutes.
Mr. Grothman. Thank you. When you deal with things like
hurricanes or the recent disaster bill, how much of that do you
just get involved in, say, construction, that sort of thing?
Mr. Brogan. Congressman, it is good to see you.
Mr. Grothman. Good to see you, too.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you.
In answer to your question, when it comes to actual
construction, we may be involved in small rapid turnaround for
some recovery efforts, but largely those would be determined
with the available funds you provide to us for things like some
remodeling on a quick turnaround basis. Major construction or
even major reconstruction efforts, of course, is left to FEMA.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. So are you involved a lot in putting
children in different places, that sort of thing, so they don't
miss class?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. We would be involved in things like,
just for some examples, replacement of textbooks. That is very
typical. Replacement of technology that is lost as a result of
natural disasters.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. I guess primarily we talk about
naturally disasters here, we are talking about hurricanes,
right, usually?
Mr. Brogan. Those are the big ones, not alone, but those
are the big ones.
Mr. Grothman. Right. Could you describe the difference
between the Federal Government would be involved in a
hurricane, say, in this decade and, say, in the 1960's or
1970's when we had some big hurricanes?
Mr. Brogan. The difference between now and then in terms of
the Federal response?
Mr. Grothman. Right. The degree to which the Department--I
guess the Department of Education wasn't even around until the
late 1970's.
Mr. Brogan. I can tell you, Congressman, if I can, just
anecdotally, that just after 35 years in Florida in a variety
of different public service capacities, we are getting better
and better as a Nation in helping to deal with the preparation
for, very important, and the aftermath of natural disasters,
whether they are hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, volcanoes.
And not only in part because we have to, but also because
people are communicating better.
And I think Congress is another good example. Your
responses to these things have no doubt changed very much over
a long period of years for the better as well.
Mr. Grothman. If we are always willing to collectively give
in more money, I guess. I have noticed that in the few years
that I have been here.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Grothman. Could you describe ways that we are doing
things differently today? I don't know how familiar you are
with how we handled things in the 1990's or the 1980's or such.
But could you give me examples of things that have changed?
Mr. Brogan. Yes. Thank you, Congressman.
I think we are doing a better job collectively of
preparation. I think in the early days, perhaps, whatever that
means, we spent most of our time and energy on recovery. That
is still necessary.
But I think we as a Nation are doing much more and a much
better job of dealing with how we deal with a natural disaster
when one befalls us as opposed to just how we will recover once
we have to deal with one, and I think that has made a major
difference.
Mr. Grothman. Can you give me examples, some examples?
Mr. Brogan. Sure. I go back to the group that FEMA has
where we talk at the Federal level, all the agencies, on a very
regular basis. And a part of those conversations is dedicated
to preparation, training of people at the local level,
providing onsite review of schools, for example, that can
identify ways that individual school can better prepare itself
in the event of a natural disaster.
Those kinds of things are not only discussed regularly, but
technical assistance, support, whole websites are set up
through the Federal agencies to be able to make available to
people specific recommendations as to how to better prepare for
the future.
Mr. Grothman. So even beforehand, local school districts in
Florida are attending a seminar or something or other saying,
if we have a hurricane this year, this is what we are going to
do?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir.
Mr. Grothman. Okay.
I'll yield the remainder of my time.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Congressman.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
At this time, I would like to recognize Mrs. Hayes of
Connecticut for her 5 minutes.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, Assistant Secretary Brogan, for being here.
I also want to talk about what happens after, as part of
the recovery efforts. I have some very personal experience as
far as dealing with students after a disaster in my first years
of teaching. It was right after Katrina. And we welcomed
students from the State of Louisiana into our school system not
really knowing where they were in the academic spectrum, not
knowing how long they would be there, and saw their families
dealing with trauma.
More recently, after Hurricane Maria, my State welcomed
over 2,000 students. My district, in the district that I now
represent, two of the cities, Waterbury and New Britain,
welcomed more students than any other community. This increased
our bilingual education population. Where would we house these
students? How do we hire new teachers to accommodate these new
students? All of these things were questions that we had to
ask.
And I guess what I am thinking about is, I saw the
phenomenon that flourished after Hurricane Katrina, and that
was charter schools, where regulations were loosened and, in an
effort to reopen all these schools, charters that were run by
dozens of different independent operators were opened.
I recently ran into a parent who, literally, from one of
these communities, I was at an education summit, and she talked
about how before Katrina her kids went to the same school.
After, the school could no longer accommodate her son with
special needs, and a year later it closed, another school moved
in, and there were some serious problems.
So I am concerned that the pattern that we saw in Katrina
will now be duplicated. And my concern comes partly from a
statement that you made that, and I quote, you Stated that
Puerto Rico would become a beacon of school choice in the wake
of Hurricane Maria and the Department would work side by side
with the Puerto Rico Department of Education to achieve that
goal.
It's not a beacon of light. I saw teachers struggled to get
recertified, couldn't get their proper credentials once their
community was affected by a disaster, just all kinds of things.
And I sit here today in Congress, but I have spent most of my
time on the ground, so I have been on the receiving end of
this, you know.
So my question is, what exactly has been the role of the
Department in this new reform? Or has the Department in any way
sought to promulgate school choice further in Puerto Rico post-
Maria?
Mr. Brogan. In terms of recovery efforts--
Mrs. Hayes. Yes.
Mr. Brogan. Congresswoman?
Mr. Brogan. The technical assistance and support we provide
on the issue of school choice is ongoing irregardless. It was
there before the storms and continues, separating the issue of
recovery from the issue of school choice. But there have been
no attempts to ramp up those efforts or alter those efforts as
a tool to deal with the recovery efforts, if that answers your
question.
Mrs. Hayes. So there is no attempt to promote it further in
Puerto Rico or replace the public system with a charter-
specific system?
Mr. Brogan. No more or less than before the natural
disaster events.
As you know, the infrastructure in Puerto Rico before the
storms was facing great difficulty. That includes loss of
students before the storms. That includes facilities,
classrooms, school buildings that needed refurbishment or even
replacement before the storms.
The storms, of course, grotesquely exacerbated the problems
that in many cases Puerto Rico was already facing.
Mrs. Hayes. Just to leave you with something. As you
continue to talk about how you prepare for storms, I can tell
you that one of the main challenges that I saw was access to
student records. Even when teachers went to get certified in
another State, in Puerto Rico what I saw, people who had gone
to the University of Puerto Rico could not access any of their
academic data, so therefore they could not pursue certification
in another State. That was a huge problem outside of what we
see on the ground.
So part of the gap in transitioning students was not having
access to the information that we needed to either properly
place them. So, literally, even though they were attending
schools or onsite, they were not receiving the academic
education that they needed because we weren't sure what to do
with them. So they were just, in essence, being housed,
sometimes for several weeks, while we were trying to close the
gap on that lag.
So, I mean, you can't really prepare for that. But just as
you are thinking through next steps, that is something that
really we need to have a more proactive plan to address.
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Congresswoman. It is good to see
you, by the way.
Chairman Sablan. The gentlelady's time has expired.
I think we actually have time for Mr. Thompson of
Pennsylvania, GT, 5 minutes.
Mr. Thompson. Chairman, thank you so much.
Chancellor, great to see you. Congratulations just on your
continued service to our kids, everything you have done in
Pennsylvania and Florida and now nationwide. You're greatly
appreciated.
My first question really has to do with--and I appreciate
you being here today to talk about the issue.
I know that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
broadly requires Project SERV funds to be awarded to entities
where the learning environment has been disrupted, but could
you explain in more detail the criteria or criterion that the
Department uses to determine where Project SERV funds are
awarded and how much an entity receives?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir. And this can become very
bureaucratic, so I won't try go there, but I will try very hard
to answer your question. It is good to see you, too, again,
Congressman.
Project SERV comes from the Congress. It was made available
some years ago for what is considered to be availability of
flexibility and rapid response in the aftermath of acts of
trauma, violence, or as become a part of this natural disaster.
It requires an application from the people at the local
level, and then, based on that application, there are three
ways to receive money. One is that you can apply for a grant
for 6 months, which could be up to $50,000. One is for a
longer, larger grant of up to 18 months for immediate need
based on a restoration to an appropriate learning environment
that can be up to $250,000 for that 18-month period.
But as the natural disasters have continued to grow, and
some up on the dais are aware of this, larger awards are being
made by the Secretary, in this case for 2017 and some for 2018,
for immediate response that go as high as $1 million to $2
million based on the available Project SERV funds that we have.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you for that.
And I know, I mean, we have seen such catastrophic
disasters--hurricanes, flooding, wildfires out in the western
parts of the State. So the question I have is actually kind of
on a smaller scale. Where a lot of the country is getting
drier, we, Pennsylvania, is getting wetter. And where we are
not really having flooding as much, the groundwater is so full
that we have had some schools that have been closed because of
mold. And it is not a fault of the school districts and the
maintenance crew. They are doing great stuff. It is just a
combination of all that water soaking into the water table.
And so we have had schools close from time to time, mostly,
obviously, short-term, I think. I am not aware of anyone that
has been closed long-term. But is that the kind of thing that
perhaps a school district could, and therefore those kids who
are being relocated, perhaps when it lasts longer than other
times, is that the kind of thing that would maybe under
consideration for assistance for a temporary relocation for
education purposes?
Mr. Brogan. It could be. As a matter of fact, we know that
when it comes to some of our more remote locations--
territories, Commonwealths, et cetera--people have used some of
those Project SERV dollars to lease alternative space when
their entire facility was rendered useless as a result of a
typhoon, for example, and that Project SERV money had that kind
of flexibility attached to it.
It is always subject to the available sum of money we have
for Project SERV. And sometimes, as we have done recently to
get through the rest of this fiscal year, we can cap the awards
for everybody, just to make sure that if we get deeper into the
Fiscal Year and something happens, we have available funds. But
it is a very flexible pot of money that Congress has provided
us.
Mr. Thompson. Yes. And I certainly recognize the
catastrophic issues that we have had, entire schools being lost
and the impact.
Thank you for that clarification. It is good to see you
again.
I yield back.
Mr. Brogan. Good to see you again, sir.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Thompson.
Votes have been called now, but Mr. Allen has agreed to
come back after for the second panel.
But, Mr. Brogan, I recognize myself for 5 minutes.
Mr. Secretary, do you agree with the findings of the Trump
administration's National Climate Assessment that man-made
climate change is causing grave damage to our country and must
be reversed?
Mr. Brogan. Mr. Chairman, as you might expect, I and others
regularly get questions about climate change, especially doing
the kinds of jobs that we do. And my answer, and believe me, it
is not meant to be glib, it's honest. I think, like most,
recognize the changes that are taking place in climate.
But I admit, I have been in education for 40 years, but I
am not a scientist, and the direct result of all of that, I
couldn't tell you about. We rely on a lot of other people in
that regard.
But I do know this, and I tell my 14-year-old son this
regularly, we, each of us, has to be a responsible steward of
our little slice of the planet on which we live.
Chairman Sablan. Yes, sir. We only have one, and we all
have to share it. But in your position, I need to ask, how is
the Department of Education contributing to efforts to combat
climate change?
Mr. Brogan. Well, as you might imagine, we work on the
education front. So largely the vast majority of work that we
do, we do with schools, with teachers, and with children.
And I can then on the flip side tell you that all over the
country our educational community continues to talk about
climate, about being good stewards, as it relates to our
students, of the world environment and making sure that they
each, all 50 million of them, are responsible stewards in their
own way. And that effort, I think it is safe to say, goes on
essentially every day in America's schools, public and private.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Brogan. I have
other questions.
Mr. Secretary, again, in the disaster aid relief package
that passed 2 days ago, on Monday, $165 million is included to
go to the Department of Education to distribute for school
recovery along with wide latitude to the Secretary to do so.
What I want to know is, how does the Department plan to use
that funding in the next 90 days before the new school year
starts? Could you tell us how the Department will provide
timely and effective assistance to all affected areas, please?
Mr. Brogan. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman.
We will, of course, continue to respond to immediate needs,
as we have in the past--you had mentioned Project SERV before--
whenever and wherever necessary and possible.
But even beyond that, the legislation that passed also
includes a responsibility that we develop within the
Department, within the next 30 days following the signing of
that legislation, a spending plan for the dollars that have
been provided by Congress and that Congress will have
availability of that spending plan after that 30-day period of
time.
And then, as always, we are responsible for providing
reports on a regular basis as to how dollars are flowing and
being drawndown.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you.
You also stated in your testimony that the Department
created a Disaster Recovery Unit, DRU, manned by a director and
three support staff, housed within the Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education, devoted full time to managing the
Department's disaster response efforts and help the Department
partner more effectively with Congress.
What I would like to know is, prior to the creation of DRU,
how many full-time employees were dedicated to assisting
schools with disaster response efforts and partnering with
Congress? And what has DRU done to date to assist schools in
California, the Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands?
Mr. Brogan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In answer to the question, let me parse it out a little bit
by way of response.
In the Department no one has been devoted thus far 100
percent to the issue of natural disasters. We have many people
who have fulfilled that role in part across not only the Office
of Elementary and Secondary, but across the Department. This
will be our first-time effort into organizing around a group of
people who will have that responsibility 24/7.
In that regard, however, we recently did a check to see how
many people hours have been invested recently in the natural
disaster work based on all of the people involved, through
technical assistance and support preparation, et cetera. I
think we stopped counting at 20,000 people hours.
So everybody in our Department in some way, shape, or form
has the potential to be involved in this process, and with the
development of a full-time unit, they can help us better
coordinate even those activities.
Chairman Sablan. Mr. Secretary, my time is up. Thank you
very much. And thank you for joining us today, Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Brogan. My pleasure.
Chairman Sablan. Good to see you.
Mr. Brogan. My pleasure, sir.
Chairman Sablan. We are going to take a recess now so
members can run and cast, I think there are four votes--oh,
one. One. Okay. I think we will have quorum once they are done
with voting, so we will have time for the second panel. Be
patient.
[Recess.]
Chairman Sablan. Just before we recessed, I would like to
state something for the record. I want to remind my colleagues
that, pursuant to committee practice, materials for submission
for the hearing record must be submitted to the committee clerk
within 14 days following the last day of the hearing,
preferably in Microsoft Word format.
The material submitted must address the subject matter of
the hearing. And only a member of a committee or an invited
witness may submit test materials for inclusion in the hearing
record.
Documents are limited to 50 pages each. Documents longer
than 50 pages will be incorporated into the record via an
internet link you must provide to the committee clerk within
the required timeframe. But please recognize that years from
now that link may no longer work.
The ranking member, Mr. Allen, is here joining us. And I
would now begin by introducing our witnesses for the second
panel.
Mr. Glenn Muna, the Commissioner of Education for the
Northern Mariana Islands, is a former elementary school
principal--I remember I used to visit his school--and was
appointed Associated Education Commissioner in 2012, an interim
Commissioner for Education in 2017, before becoming the
Commissioner of Education in 2018. Mr. Muna holds a B.A. in
Health Education from Western Oregon University and a Master's
of Art and teaching from Framingham State College.
Ms. Rosa Soto-Thomas is a native of St. Croix and has been
the president of the St. Croix Federation of Teachers since
2012. She is the first woman to be elected president of Local
1826.
Ms. Soto-Thomas began her career as a teacher and served as
a school psychologist for 23 years. She is an advocate for
community engagement and has led the union to partner with
numerous agencies in the community.
Ms. Soto-Thomas holds a B.A. degree in Elementary Education
from the University of the Virgin Islands and a Master of Arts
degree in School Psychology from the University of Connecticut
at Storrs.
Mr. Winn, Mr. John Winn, was an educator for 45 years. He
began his career as an elementary and middle school teacher in
1970. After serving as a teacher, educator, and grants manager
for rural school districts, he joined the Florida Department of
Education in 1984. He served in several positions before being
appointed to Commissioner of Education in August 2004. During
his tenure as commissioner, student achievement in Florida
reached an all-time high.
In 2007 he retired as Commissioner of Education and joined
the National Math and Science Initiative. There, he directed
the national replication of proven programs to prepare STEM
teachers and dramatically expand student enrollment and success
in advanced mathematics and science courses, especially among
disadvantaged students.
My commissioner is here. I am just saying this so maybe he
could consider inviting you to the Northern Marianas as well.
Finally, Dr. Steven Herrington--welcome--was elected Sonoma
County superintendent of schools in 2010 and has over 40 years
of service in the field of education. He is a native
Californian who began his career as a history teacher.
He served as superintendent for three Northern California
school districts. In these positions he gained experience in
rural, suburban, and urban settings. He has led educational
services for students from pre-kindergarten through high
school.
Again, I would like to give instructions for the witnesses.
I will give the abbreviated version of instruction to the
witnesses. As a reminder, you are asked to limit your oral
presentation to a 5-minute summary of your written statement.
It is illegal to knowingly and willfully falsify any
statement, representation, writing, document, or material fact
presented to Congress or otherwise conceal or cover up a
material fact.
Before you begin your testimony, please remember to press
the button on the microphone in front of you so that it will
turn on and the members can hear you. The light in front of you
will turn green. After 4 minutes the light will turn yellow to
signal that you have 1 more minute. When the light turns red,
we ask that you please wrap up.
We will let the entire panel make their presentations
before we move to member questions. When answering a question,
please remember to once again turn your microphone on.
I will first recognize Commissioner Muna for his 5 minutes.
Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MR. GLENN MUNA, COMMISSIONER, CNMI PUBLIC SCHOOL
SYSTEM, SAIPAN, MP
Mr. Muna. Chairman Sablan, Ranking Member Allen, and
members of the committee, hafa adai, tirow, and thank you for
the opportunity to share our experiences from the Commonwealth
of the Northern Marianas as we work together to recover after
the devastation of a Super typhoon 7 months ago.
Super Typhoon Yutu hit the CNMI on October 24, 2018, with
sustained winds in excess of 200 miles per hour. The 20-mile-
wide eye of Yutu passed over the islands of Tinian and Saipan.
It used to be in the last 3 years we were hit by a super
typhoon
Climate change is happening and it matters that we act
immediately. The Federal Government should act to slow and
reverse our human impact on our environment. If we don't, we
first risk losing beautiful islands like ours.
The frequency of super typhoon and their increased size and
sustained wind forces require a change in how we build our
schools, how we build our homes, our airports, and our
seaports. They must be built sustainably and in an economically
responsible manner so that we do not have to continue to start
anew each time a new disaster occurs.
Out of 20 public schools in the CNMI, over half were
damaged by the typhoon. We have five schools that require major
repairs, such as rewiring, reroofing, replacement of doors,
windows, air-conditioner repairs and replacement, loss of
computers, textbooks, student chairs, and tables.
Our largest middle school, Hopwood, is conducting classes
in 42 tents because it is completely destroyed. The tents,
which resemble a military camp, are a temporary solution but
could totally be blown away by the next typhoon.
What we need are reinforced concrete schools that can
withstand sustained super typhoon winds in excess of 200 miles
per hour. The estimated cost to build a new Hopwood is roughly
about $40 million.
Another school, Da'Ok Academy, is housed temporarily in a
tin building while we await reconstruction or relocation of
those students.
Seven months after the storm, we still have five schools
operating in double sessions. Double session means students
attend school for the first half of the day and the other set
of students may use the same building for the second half of
the day. This is especially difficult for working families who
need to figure out who will watch their children and for the
other half of the day.
Double sessions also means double driving for our school
bus drivers, which results in more school bus downtime for
repairs and students arriving late to school and late to return
to their homes.
The CNMI Public School System spent $1.8 million on
clearing debris from 18 schools and 8 Head Start centers on
Tinian and Saipan and in caring for families using schools as
shelters before, during, and after the typhoon.
We estimate about $24 million to be received from FEMA to
restore broken classroom buildings at Hopwood Middle School to
their previous condition, which means tin roof buildings. Let's
remember that we lost tin roofs on most of the school buildings
during Super Typhoon Yutu. Tin roof buildings are not
sustainable in super typhoon conditions.
To date, we have received reimbursement from FEMA of just
over $750,000.
In addition, we have estimated about $60 million in repairs
to be made at our schools, but are still waiting final approval
of project worksheets from FEMA. We have our estimates. These
repairs cannot be made until FEMA approves the project
worksheets.
Tourism is our Commonwealth's main industry, with over
550,000 visitors each year. Our airports were closed to
commercial traffic for over a month after the typhoon and
tourist arrivals are off by 40 percent since the beginning of
this calendar, according to Marianas Visitor Authority, which
tracks arrivals each month and hotel room occupancy and room
rates. This drop in tourism has a big impact on the amount of
funds currently available to support public education in the
CNMI this fiscal year and next fiscal year.
As a result of decreased local revenues, we are now taking
about 15 percent budget cut this year as well as next fiscal
year. This on top of the fact that we still do not have the
Federal funds to make necessary school infrastructure repairs.
We urgently need disaster relief funds from FEMA and the
Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief Fund so that
we can make school repairs in the summer when school is out of
session beginning this June through August, with a reopening of
September 3.
We need a faster response from our FEMA Federal partners,
FEMA and CDBG-DR. We were able to secure a Project SERV grant
of $1.1 million a month after the storm from the U.S.
Department of Education.
The Project SERV grant pays for grief counselors for our
students and teachers who have suffered losses as a result of
Super Typhoon Yutu, overtime for our bus drivers who are
working double sessions, substitute teachers to replace
teachers who left the island after the devastation of Yutu, and
rental space for our school, Da'Ok Academy.
Project SERV has been a big and timely help, yet 7 months
have come and gone and we are still waiting for our FEMA cost
estimates and approved project worksheets for school repairs.
[The statement of Mr. Muna follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Sablan. Commissioner, thank you. Your full
testimony will be entered into the record. Thank you very much.
Mr. Muna. Thank you.
Chairman Sablan. I now recognize Ms. Soto-Thomas for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF MS. ROSA SOTO-THOMAS, PRESIDENT, ST. CROIX
FEDERATION OF TEACHERS AFT LOCAL 1826, KINGSHILL, ST. CROIX,
V.I.
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Sablan and
other members of this subcommittee.
My name is Rosa Soto-Thomas. I am the president of the St.
Croix Federation of Teachers. I represent teachers,
paraprofessionals, and support staff, and we serve
approximately 10,000 students attending two high schools, three
junior high schools, and eight elementary schools.
On September 19, 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged the island
of St. Croix, causing significant damage to our infrastructure.
Many citizens lost or suffered severe damage to their homes and
other personal property.
The Virgin Islands Public School System sustained
tremendous damages and is still in a State of disrepair. Arthur
Richards Junior High School was entirely condemned by FEMA and
is slated for a complete rebuild. Julius Sprauve on St. Thomas,
a K through 8 school, is scheduled for rebuild as well.
Many schools are being housed in temporary facilities. Lew
Muckle and Pearl B. Larsen elementary schools have gotten some
modular structures to replace condemned spaces and classrooms.
Addilita Cancryn Junior High School in St. Thomas is currently
housed on a football field of Charlotte Amalie High School,
which has negatively impacted the school's recreation and
athletic program. And modular facilities were recently
constructed at the Arthur A. Richards Junior High School.
Unfortunately, Alexander Henderson Elementary School had to
be abruptly closed in April of 2019 and is now housed within
the Arthur Richards site. Consequently, two schools are now
occupying this complete modular site. This school is obviously
overcrowded and has scaled back programs due to lack of
sufficient classroom space.
The western wing of the Eulalie Rivera Elementary School
was totally destroyed and has since been condemned. Modular
structures have been erected to replace the demolished
classrooms. The condemned structure of the western-most wing on
the site remains untouched and is surrounded by chain-link
fencing.
Recently, a wall at Lew Muckle Elementary School that
housed 6 second and third grade classrooms collapsed, causing
school officials to reassign teachers and students to
classrooms that were out of commission. To date, nothing has
been repaired in this area. Seemingly, no plans to do so exist.
Both of our island high schools, St. Croix Central High
School and St. Croix Educational Complex, are in desperate need
of repair. The two schools are currently preparing for an
accreditation visit from the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education. If permanent repairs are not executed, the only two
high schools on the island of St. Croix will likely lose
accreditation.
The air-conditioning units in our Career and Technical
Education Center has been down for quite some time. The
building leaks and has mold. We are concerned that students and
school employees continue to get sick.
We are essentially at a standstill regarding any pending
permanent repairs by FEMA. Repeated damage assessments of our
schools and activity centers and facilities have been executed
by many government officials and agencies, and yet no concrete
plan has been employed to begin to permanently fix our
hurricane-ravaged schools and facilities.
More than 20 months after the hurricanes, many of our
educators continue to suffer from respiratory ailments related
to mold and poor air quality in our schools and activity
centers. Additionally, there is no drinking water in any of our
public schools and the public water system dispenses rusty and
discolored water daily.
To date, our members and students continue to experience a
slew of medical symptoms, including post-traumatic stress
disorder. This was discovered during a recent visit by
volunteer nurses, AFT nurses, who came to the Virgin Islands to
perform hearing and vision screening. Many classrooms
throughout all of our schools do not have desk and chairs for
children or teachers or book cubicles or storage closets.
At this phase, the Virgin Islands Department of Education
has not released its summer maintenance plan to shore up our
schools. The question we need answered: Where is the Virgin
Islands Department of Education and FEMA with the permanent
repair plans? And where is the U.S. Department of Education on
its oversight? No definitive plans to complete permanent
repairs have been unveiled to the union or community.
[The statement of Ms. Soto-Thomas follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Sablan. Ms. Soto-Thomas, thank you. Your testimony
will be submitted into the record.
I now recognize Mr. Winn for 5 minutes, please.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN L. WINN, M.A., FORMER FLORIDA
COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, TALLAHASSEE, FL
Mr. Winn. Thank you, Chairman Sablan, Ranking Member Allen,
and members of the committee, for the invitation to share with
you Florida's approach to disaster relief. I will focus my
remarks primarily on the time in which I was commissioner from
2004 to 2007, experiencing four hurricanes in 2004, Hurricane
Charley, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan, that devastated the State
of Florida.
To give you a sense of that level of devastation or effect
on schools, we had 13 school districts that lost more than 10
days of school and a number of them 3 weeks to 4 weeks of
school.
The hurricanes crisscrossed Florida for the large part, so
3 weeks after Charley we were hit with another hurricane, and
then another and another, over a period of 48 days.
Florida has an emergency management system that runs
simulations of disasters and as well as recovery efforts, and
the Department of Education is a partner in that effort.
We believe that reopening schools quickly is critical, not
only for the impact that it has on student learning, but just
as importantly, if not more, the impact on children's safety.
More injuries and deaths occur after a hurricane than during a
hurricane. We felt it was critical to get students back in
schools so that they were not playing among debris and
dangerous situations.
Also, our relief efforts, in my opinion, in any State in
rapid opening of schools must have the leadership of the State
Governor. Only the Governor has the authority and ability to
mobilize the National Guard and a lot of other partners that we
relied on, such as FEMA, USDOE, Agriculture, military, as well
as local and State from private sector, as well as thousands of
volunteers who come to help cleanup schools to help them
reopen.
A quick and comprehensive reopening of schools after a
disaster requires not a set of activities that are linear, but
rather a set of activities for reopening schools that are
actually all happening at the same level.
Some of the things we learned was that school personnel
were not able to utilize outside assistance the day after the
hurricane struck. You have shock. You have needing time to
assess their damages so that they know what type of help they
need, as well as taking care of, for school personnel, many of
their personal and family issues.
We learned that it is important to have a single point of
contact from the Department of Education to each school
district that is affected. That facilitates communication and
keeps the messages very clear, so we can act on them
expeditiously.
Another thing we learned is school districts, at least at
that time, were not really used to getting help from outside,
particularly for nontraditional areas, such as the National
Guard, private industry, calling in to support what we were
doing. So one of the things that we did was we brought partners
to school district planning meetings to explain to district
leadership how they could, in fact, help the recovery efforts
in many ways.
We also learned that virtually everyone was willing to help
if contacted by the Governor or on behalf of the Governor.
I gave you a list in my written testimony of a number of
activities. I will highlight just a couple.
Florida is a growth State and we use a lot of what we call
relocatable classrooms to accommodate that growth because a
school building cannot keep up with State growth.
So when Hurricane Charley and the other three hurricanes
hit, we needed to mobilize to use relocatable classrooms. We
contacted the five major manufacturers and they all said that
they were on back order from Florida. And so we called the
Superintendents Association and requested that they redirect
some of their relocatable classrooms to the affected areas, and
they happily complied with that request.
There were a number of issues that needed to be waived,
regulations through the Governor's authority, as an emergency
management situation.
And I will be happy to answer further questions.
[The statement of Mr. Winn follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. Thank you very much for your
testimony, Mr. Winn.
I now recognize Dr. Herrington for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MR. STEVE HERRINGTON, PH.D., SUPERINTENDENT OF
SCHOOLS, SONOMA COUNTY SCHOOLS, SANTA ROSA, CA
Mr. Herrington. Thank you.
As an elected county superintendent of schools for Sonoma
County, California, it is an honor to share with you the
lessons learned from responding to the Tubbs Fire that
devastated my community in 2017, and my experiences in helping
the other educational leaders with similar disasters, such as
the recent catastrophic camp fire in Butte County, as well as
Shasta and Ventura Counties.
I commend you for convening this hearing so that educators
and emergency response agencies can be better prepared to
support schools and children when the next disaster strikes.
In Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, my office is
privileged to serve 40 school districts that provide care and
education to more than 71,000 students. Some districts are
small and rural, serving as few as 10 students, while others
are large and urban. Wine country is associated with high
wealth, but more than 45 percent of our students are
socioeconomically disadvantaged.
In October 2017, our community experienced the Tubbs Fire.
At the time, it was the most destructive and catastrophic
wildfire in California history.
In my 46 years as an educator, 36 as a superintendent, I
have responded to numerous floods and earthquakes, but I have
never seen a natural disaster take such a toll on the
educational community as did the Tubbs Fire.
The wildfire swept from the dry hills and into the city of
Santa Rosa overnight, leaping a six-lane freeway and
overwhelming our emergency services, forcing the closure and
evacuation of two regional hospitals. It destroyed numerous
school sites and the homes of nearly 1,500 students and 250
school employees in Sonoma County.
Wildfires in California that fall resulted in $8 billion in
property damage and more than 40 deaths. Since then, as you
know, similar wildfires have burned into California
communities, causing even more devastation than ours.
Today, I would like to share with you a few lessons my
colleagues and I have learned from these disasters and how I
believe the Federal Government can help schools reopen. The
committee has a full copy of my report. I will highlight a few
items.
Reopening schools. Schools are essential to restoring
normalcy within a community. Because of the catastrophic size
of our fire, there were unprecedented issues to deal with, such
as the ensuring of safety of buildings and dealing with toxic
ash and waste debris.
The State convened a special task force to help schools
address unanswered questions and reopening. Still, guidance is
needed to be provided from EPA on how toxic ash should be dealt
with in this situation.
School facilities. When school is destroyed, finding an
alternate location to hold classes can be a challenge,
especially when 90 percent of the community is destroyed, such
as in Paradise, California. If the Federal Government could
provide portable classrooms from the Department of Defense--I
served in the Army during the Vietnam war--or FEMA, it would
greatly resolve this problem and schools could reopen sooner
and create a sense of normalcy to a community.
Grants, such as RESTART and Project SERV, are valued and
appreciated; however, to enable a school district to best
utilize these funds, there needs to be greater flexibility
built in to regarding how they can be spent and over what time
period.
Disasters like ours and schools have experienced have
consequences that unfold for years, and effectively utilizing
these funds to address community needs may take longer than the
current time constraints on the grants.
Preparation. The likelihood of a similar disaster is very
high. A report commissioned by the California recently
predicted that if emission trends that lead to climate change
continue, the average burn area in California will increase by
77 percent by the end of the century.
My office has applied for a hazard mitigation plan grant
after finding that schools are often omitted from county and
city plans. We recently learned that schools may be eligible
for additional funding in the event of a disaster if they have
these plans in place.
Mental health support. It's effects of trauma on community
events are long lasting. Sonoma County Schools are still
dealing with a large number of traumatized student staff, with
surveys of schools showing that this has a serious and negative
impact on students.
Testing waivers were not granted to our schools. We applied
for testing waivers to the Federal Government and we did not
receive any waivers for testing.
This is true in the Tubbs Fire of this year. So flexibility
was not shown there. It was granted by the State of California,
but when it went to the Federal Government it did not. And this
means those schools will have negative scores posted on their
accountability report cards in the State of California.
Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Herrington follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Herrington.
Under Committee Rule 8(a), we will now question witnesses
under the 5-minute rule. As chair, I have decided to go at the
end, so I will yield to Mr. Morelle, who will be followed by
the ranking member, Mr. Allen. We will then alternate between
the parties.
But, Commissioner Muna, my apologies, when it is my time to
question, for questioning, we would have your video--I mean,
your slide show on. We were not able to do that.
So Mr. Morelle, you have 5 minutes, please.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman again. Thank you for
what is a really very enlightening and important hearing.
And thank you to all the witnesses for being here.
My first question was actually going to be, what are the
direct impacts that you have observed of natural disasters on
the student experience? And I think, Dr. Herrington, you
certainly, I think, detailed at the end of your testimony
exactly some of the things that you have seen. So I will pass
on that.
But I do thank you, because I think sometimes we think of
these big picture things, understandably, we think about
buildings, facilities. This is really about children as well,
more importantly than anything, and talking about those
impacts, I think, was very, very important.
I am curious, and this may be more for you, Dr. Herrington,
as a school superintendent, how have the disasters that you
have faced changed your approach to preparedness? And do
students feel a sense of preparedness, or are they not likely
in the moment to be thinking about that?
Mr. Herrington. Well, we have applied for a preparation
grant that I told you about earlier, which was not known to us
at the time. And I think FEMA and the Department of Education
needs to make a proactive approach to that so districts can
prepare for those grants--our application is pending for this
year--because cities and counties apply for it, but they often
forget to bring the school system into the planning.
Another one of your questions was as it deals with the
impact on students. The Tubbs Fire, which occurred this year, I
don't know if you had the chance to see the aerial view of the
wind pattern, but all the smoke from the Tubbs Fire, which was
in Butte County, landed for some reason in Sonoma County.
Now, we are 250 miles away from Butte County, but the
residual impact was there, and it came in October when our fire
occurred. So you want to see trauma reenacted? Children, once
again, started to panic.
So planning for these type of things, we are doing long-
term psychological training for teachers on how to deal with
trauma in the classroom.
Mr. Morelle. And you are doing this in anticipation of
further events, so you are doing it proactively.
Mr. Herrington. I anticipate further. This is a proactive
event. We train every year now.
Mr. Morelle. Good.
I am interested, clearly, the importance of making schools
safer and more resilient. I mentioned this a little earlier
when the Assistant Secretary was here.
In my previous experience as Insurance Chair of the New
York State Assembly, this was a big issue for hurricanes and
other disasters at the State level, how to improve school
buildings, make them safer proactively, so that they are more
resilient, that we have less property damage, but less of an
impact on health and safety.
What would it mean for your school districts--and I am
happy to hear answers from any of your observations--to receive
support from the Federal Government to improve your existing
school infrastructure in anticipation?
Anyone?
Dr. Herrington, you obviously have physical facilities.
Mr. Herrington. Okay. California has the Field Act, which
is a very stringent act for earthquakes. We are very prepared
for earthquakes and we deal with them all the time.
But I will tell you that, from my perspective, it is for
preparation of a facility in California. I don't think it is as
needed. I think the islands here seem to have more of a need
for Federal Government because of the Commonwealth standing for
that. And so I would defer to Dr. Muna if he might wish to
speak to that.
Mr. Morelle. Yes, Commissioner, do you have observations
about that in terms of creating greater resiliency in a
proactive way prior to natural disasters hitting?
Mr. Muna. Well, one of the things that I mentioned in my
oral testimony is really taking a look at our islands. So we
know that we are prone to more typhoons. We need to harden our
roofs, get rid of all the tin roofs, and just put concrete.
Make it really sustainable to withstand stronger winds.
The buildings that were damaged were really those buildings
that had tin roofs and also some of them that were wooden.
Those were all the ones that were really severely damage.
Mr. Morelle. So support from the Federal Government
potentially to be able to deal with some of those issues prior
to additional episodes would be, I assume, welcome on your
part?
Mr. Muna. Well, I am also thinking of, like, the FEMA
requirement beyond the tarps and plywood. That is considered
temporary repair. If we want to do the needed repairs and do
permanent repairs then that tends to limit the amount in
terms--or our chances of applying for hazard mitigation. So
maybe a little more flexibility in regards to that.
Mr. Morelle. Very good.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Morelle.
I now recognize the distinguished ranking member for his 5
minutes of questions.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Winn, I know, and of course you shared in your
testimony that you were Commissioner during a particularly
difficult hurricane period for Florida. You mentioned in your
testimony four hurricanes that struck the State in 2004, and I
think hearing a little more about these would give the
subcommittee a better understanding of the magnitude of the
challenge State and local officials face.
Can you tell us what the extent of the damage to the
schools resulting from those hurricanes in more detail?
And also, I want to give credit to the State of Florida for
your excellent response. I have heard about the readiness and
many of the things that you did to make sure that any future
disasters are dealt with in an appropriate way.
So if you could go into more detail on that, I think it
would be helpful for us.
Mr. Winn. Thank you for the question.
The devastation in Florida was just incredible. We had $48
billion worth of damage in the State of Florida in a period of
basically 48, 50 days.
And so if you can imagine, particularly, we had swaths
through, when Hurricane Charley hit in Charlotte County, Punta
Gorda on the western side of Florida below Tampa, went across
the State, virtually obliterated all of the mobile home parks
in its path.
Charlotte County completely lost the use of 8 of its 16
schools. And we worked with a variety of partners and the
school district to establish double sessions. So, the remaining
eight schools had to work on double sessions, starting earlier
in the morning and then the second session in the afternoon.
One of the things that we realized there were the school
bus routes were not limited to just the main roads. Cities and
counties, their top priorities for getting traffic moving are
their main roads. We had people living out in the rural areas
through dirt roads and everywhere else.
So we got the school districts, and we did this for all of
them, got the school districts' bus routes, and since our
National Guard was mobilized, they have a construction team in
Florida they call the RED HORSE Construction, who cleared those
roads so that school buses, when the schools were ready to
open, the school busses could get there.
We had 8.5 million people in Florida, families in Florida,
were without electricity, and that was at a time when Florida
had 16 million people. So we had 9.5 million people evacuate at
some time during that summer.
So you can see basically half of Florida was affected. We
had every school district in Florida lost at least 1 day due to
hurricane or closing in anticipation of a hurricane.
Preparation at that time, unfortunately, was nowhere near
what it is today. For example, in Hurricane Charley, it was
supposed to hit, according to all the predictions, supposed to
hit Tampa, and it took a sharp right turn and hit Charlotte
County instead. So Charlotte County had not really prepared.
So the cone, although that is very helpful to have a cone
in your--people are really focused on whether it is going to
hit their particular school district. And Florida has very
large school districts, only 67 in the State.
So the devastation, every hurricane had different problem
areas. Hurricane Charley was wind damage, Hurricane Frances and
Jeanne flooding, and not only flooding at the time because of
the rain, but flooding because of swollen rivers. I can
remember walking through four, five, six inches of water in
elementary schools and middle schools.
Mr. Allen. I am just about out of time.
How did you coordinate all these partnerships? In other
words, somebody had to be directing the efforts of the National
Guard. And we have got 4 seconds to answer that.
Mr. Winn. Well, the Governor assigned me to coordinate for
purposes of opening schools.
Mr. Allen. So you did it all.
Mr. Winn. So, we established a contact for each school
district, and I personally went to school districts to meet
with superintendents on their needs.
All these partnerships don't happen by accident. Somebody
has to invite or request. We had a lot of private companies
providing free books to students while they were out of school.
We had companies donating backpacks, school supplies, not just
for students but for teachers as well when they went back to
school.
Mr. Allen. I am out of time.
Mr. Winn. We were incredibly fortunate to have those kinds
of reactions and partners.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, and I yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Allen.
I would now like to recognize Mr. Scott for his 5 minutes
of questioning.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Soto-Thomas, your testimony was cutoff because it was
going over 5 minutes. Was there something you were not able to
say?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Well, one of the major issues that we are
facing in the Virgin Islands is, of course, we have heard it
over and over again, is--
Chairman Sablan. Is your button on? Can you turn it on?
Thank you.
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Thank you.
One of the major issues that we continue to deal with in
the Virgin Islands is, you know, the slowness of the FEMA
monies coming to the Virgin Islands, the release of funds, the
drawing down of funds, and that has been happening since the
storm.
And members and citizens, parents, my members, teachers,
paraprofessionals, support staff are very concerned because we
are approaching summer, we have about 2 weeks left of school,
and there is no plan in place for the repair of our buildings.
A lot of the members continue to get sick and, you know, we
continue to want answers. We want communication to flow
smoothly. We are not getting updates in terms of the FEMA
monies.
And the Department does not, apparently, have a plan. They
don't have a clear plan in place as to what maintenance is
going to take place over the summer.
There is always this talk about temporary versus permanent
repairs, and I am not certain where we are with that. But it is
very confusing because many people continue to conduct
assessment of our schools, and we are not seeing results at the
level that we need to.
Mr. Scott. Well, and how is that affecting the students'
ability to learn?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Well, it is affecting it because a lot of
them are out sick. Those who have respiratory problems like
asthma and whatnot, they are out sick on a regular basis.
And right now--well, prior to--I guess about 2 months ago,
there were major problems with the water situation, water
pressure, water pressure on the island, and that caused the
schools to be canceled regularly. But since then, I am glad to
report that the Governor got some pumps fixed, and so the
system is working. But there is still a lot of rust in the
water that is coming through the pipes.
Mr. Scott. Well, how is all of this affecting test scores?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. I would assume that it is affecting test
scores, because when following the storms we were in split
sessions. Kids only received 4 hours of instruction immediately
following the storm, so they lost a lot of instructional time.
So definitely I would think that would have a great impact on
scores, on their performance.
Mr. Scott. Is there any effort to use the summer to try to
catch up?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. I know there are some summer camps that
are planned, but I don't know the extent of it, I mean, how
many students will be accommodated, if they are funding to
accommodate a great number. I am not certain about that at this
time.
Mr. Scott. I think it was your testimony that suggested
that some post-traumatic stress was occurring.
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Correct.
Mr. Scott. What kind of educational strategy will be used
to address this trauma?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Well, I know that the union is trying to
get some assistance in terms of the post-traumatic stress
disorder because we started to experience a lot of winds and
rain. Now we are in the hurricane season. It started June 1.
So, the fears and anxieties are emerging again. And I am hoping
that the Department of Education in the Virgin Islands is also
looking at that.
The issue is collaboration. I am hoping that they
collaborate with the unions more. And we have a partner with--
we have a relationship with the Department of Health, the
union, so we are reaching out to them in that regard also and
talking to the Commissioner of Education to ensure that these
programs become available for the students of the Virgin
Islands to address the post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mr. Scott. Before they can get to the students, they have
to get to the teachers. Is there technical assistance to inform
teachers how to deal with students who have experienced trauma?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. I believe that there are programs in
place. As a school psychologist, when I worked, there is a
referral process. If teachers see students exhibiting, you
know, certain behaviors, then referrals are put in place so
students can be referred to respective agencies or what have
you.
But to say that there is a major contracting of
psychologists or counselors or what have you, I haven't heard
of that happening.
Mr. Scott. Or working with teachers so they will be
empowered to deal with students who have been subject to
trauma?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. I want to add that teachers have access to
counseling. The insurance that the employer provides gives them
that latitude. There are a number of visits that they can have
to a counselor if they choose to.
Mr. Scott. Mr. Chairman, could I just make a quick point?
In teaching, there are ways of teaching students who have
been exposed to trauma, and I think we need to make sure that
is available, that strategy that teachers could use would be
available.
I appreciate your indulgence.
Chairman Sablan. The chairman's point is very well noted.
I would now like to recognize Mr. Taylor. I thought you
switched sides, but I guess you went back.
Mr. Taylor. Thinking about it.
Chairman Sablan. Mr. Taylor for 5 minutes.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just want to build on Chairman's Scott line of
questioning, Mr. Winn. In terms of thinking about school
districts that suspend education because of a disaster, what
are you seeing, and how do you think about helping students who
miss 3 weeks, a month, 2 months of school? Are you extending
the school days? Are you extending the school year? Are you
doing afterschool programs based on testing performance? How do
you think about making up the time that is lost as a result of
a disaster?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Well, I--
Mr. Taylor. I am sorry. That was for Mr. Winn. I was asking
about Florida.
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Oh, Okay.
Mr. Taylor. I was thinking about a Statewide question. Are
you doing that by--is it district by district, county by
county? Is there a Statewide answer? How are you thinking about
that?
Mr. Winn. Yes. That was a huge issue. Legislation, our
statutes in Florida require that students receive 180 days of
instruction during the school year. So the school calendars are
already set.
Mr. Taylor. Does it stipulate the number of hours per day?
Mr. Winn. A hundred and 80 days.
Mr. Taylor. But not the number of hours?
Mr. Winn. Five and a half hours a day.
Mr. Taylor. Five and a half hours of instruction or time on
campus.
Mr. Winn. Yes. So that was a big issue. There was already
legislation that allowed up to 3 days for disasters. That was
clearly not enough. And as a part of my authorization as
Commissioner of Education by the Governor, I was able to
negotiate with school districts how they would use either extra
hour during the day or some of the breaks during the school
year, where schools would normally be closed, they would be
open.
And also to negotiate a larger amount of time--a shorter
amount of time. So, for example, many school districts, instead
of only getting 3 days may have gotten 6, 6 days of waiver of
the school year.
Interesting to note that our 13 districts, school
districts, that had 10 or more days in which schools were
closed, those students in the State assessment program
outgained, in terms of reading and mathematics, outgained the
State average, each and every one of them.
And I attribute that to the tremendous work of the school
personnel and teachers who realized that they were sort of
behind the eight ball with regard to loss of instructional
time, and I think they redoubled efforts to improve
instruction.
I think students were happy to be back in school, a sense
of normalcy, for air conditioning if for nothing else.
But anyway, all of the reports were that the students were
doing well. And, of course, we had upgraded counseling services
for students who had issues of loss at home and needed some
counseling to help them through those.
Mr. Taylor. Well, let me just say that is really inspiring,
and it sounds like you have done the longitudinal study to
determine the performance of the districts where there were
losses of time. Is that correct?
Mr. Winn. Yes.
Mr. Taylor. Okay.
If you could share that report with us, and I will speak
for Chairman Scott. I think he is interested in seeing that as
well, based on his previous questioning, because that is
interesting to us.
And so it's not just they are going back to school, they
are actually extending the day or putting more instruction time
into the day, so you are going from 5 and a half hours of
instruction to 6 or 6 and a half? Is that accurate? Is that
what is happening?
Mr. Winn. Yes. Each school district had their own plan on
how to extend, how to meet that requirement. So we negotiated,
depending on their own calendars, how many breaks they had and
those kinds of things.
So we negotiated to get--our goal is to have as many days,
as many instructional hours as possible with all the students,
but to also be realistic in resetting those schedules.
As you know, schedules, once they are set, it could be very
controversial with parents and vacations and all that goes on
with school breaks and that sort of thing. So each school
district had its own kind of tailored plan to help get students
in schools for the full year.
Mr. Taylor. All right. Well, thank you very much. That is
very informative testimony.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Taylor.
At this time, I would like to recognize Ms. Schrier for her
5 minutes.
Ms. Schrier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all of our witnesses.
Dr. Herrington, I have some questions specifically for you.
You are from California, you have gone through a ton of
wildfires. I am from Washington State, and we are experiencing
some of the same, not to the same degree. But climate is
changing, and we are now at a point where our family plans our
road trips based on when fires happen.
I represent a district that straddles the Cascade
Mountains, and so I live in the western or wet part of the
State, where you would think we would be absolutely insulated
from fire, but that has changed. As of April, we now have high
risk areas even in western Washington.
When you cross the Cascades, it is the dry part of the
State, fires every year, absolutely predictable. And we have
forests that need management. We are looking at a tinder box
over there.
We have stretched resources and firefighters who are
thinking they might not be able to go to the next California
fire because they will be busy in our own State.
My son spent the first couple weeks of the last couple
years at PE having to be in the gym with hundreds of other kids
because they couldn't go outside.
And so, I wanted to just ask you as we get further into
this scenario what you would recommend for us because we may
have this fire season going into September, even October, how
we can best help our students in western and eastern
Washington.
Mr. Herrington. Well, first of all, I relied on Washington
for the air quality index. Yours is one of the few States that
has an air quality index for schools. And we had the smoke from
the Butte fire come into ours, so we had to use that as a
guideline.
But I think every school district in the State of
California has now given guidelines, needs to set air quality
control index standards for fires so you know what is safe for
children and the exposure level.
Whatever rate you set, I will tell you this as a
superintendent, it is not going to be the right rate for some
parents. And I advise parents who have children with asthma,
you are a parent, take control, decide what is safe for your
child. If you keep them home, it is an excused absence. But
whatever you set won't be satisfactory because I have been
there.
But I would also tell you that we are going through in
California an extended fire season. We have extended our fire
season. So we have gone through training for evacuation, what
does every household have ready to go. We learned that from
Florida. And so we picked up on other States what they have
done, because we have never had a fire season as horrific as
this past one.
And you need to know about evacuation patterns and routes.
You want to move a community. I had to house 20,000 residents.
That was the call I got at 1 a.m. in the morning: Dr.
Herrington, open the schools because we need to put shelters in
place.
How do you get them there? And the routes are all jammed
because everyone is evacuating a fire that is moving one
football field a minute through your community because of the
winds. Use your school buses. So we have learned that school
buses are a resource to our main transportation system.
Now, in the Butte fire, the buses actually melted on the
road, because the tires were melting because the fire was so
hot. So you had to get the children off the bus and into
private cars to get them out.
But I will tell you that you need to have an evacuation
pattern for schools. And it came to our benefit this year when
we had floods. I mean, we got hit with fires. Now we have a
flood.
And so when the Russian River flooded in Sonoma County, we
knew how to evacuate in the middle of the day, what routes to
use. We have a communication system with the California Highway
Patrol.
So having your resources connected is important. Having
schools in your command center for emergency services is
essential. And we are advising our local schools that if you
are in a city jurisdiction, that you should be part of the
city's command center. It is not an afterthought, because
schools create normalcy, as we were talking about, and you need
to reopen schools as soon as possible because it gives children
a sense of security.
So those are some of the key things is, do you have an
evacuation plan? Do you have an air quality control index plan?
How do you reopen a school that has air and ash? Once again,
ash is a big thing if it is a residential fire. So I hope that
gives you some guidance.
Ms. Schrier. That was really helpful. Thank you.
I yield back my time.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much.
Now I will claim my 5 minutes for questioning.
I am going to give a minute each to Superintendent
Herrington, Ms. Soto, and then I come to Commissioner Muna,
because you all mentioned in your testimonies about addressing
the mental health of your students and school staff. I am
following up with Mr. Taylor and Bobby Scott's questioning.
There is no question trauma impacts a student's ability to
learn and an educator's ability to teach. Now, what I want to
know is, starting with Dr. Herrington, what I want to know is
how each of your schools have approached addressing this need
and the source of funding? How would you assess the Federal
Government's response to addressing mental health at your
schools? One minute.
Mr. Herrington. We are using Project SERV funds as much as
possible. We have reapplied for an extension of those funds
with the State of California.
But basically I have 4,000 students impacted by trauma,
they are still recorded, they are still on our records, and
over 400 teachers or public employees, school employees, that
are still impacted from the fires.
Chairman Sablan. And you have access to private
professionals?
Mr. Herrington. With the cooperation from New York Life
Insurance, we have created a trauma support system. They have
an outreach grant. Medtronics has an outreach grant. So we have
gotten private funding, public funding to extend those
behavioral health counselors.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you.
Ms. Soto-Thomas, same question. How does your school
approach addressing this need and the source of funding? And
how would you assess the Federal Government's response to
addressing mental health at your schools?
Ms. Soto-Thomas. Well, like I mentioned earlier, the health
insurance that is offered to the members of the AFT, it comes
with sessions. If teachers feel the need to attend sessions,
they can. It comes at no cost.
But I do see a greater need in terms of our students to
build resiliency. And we are in that hurricane season right
now. There are a lot of challenges because a lot of our homes
are not fixed.
Chairman Sablan. Right. But you have private providers.
Ms. Soto-Thomas. We do have private providers for the
teachers, all right, and paraprofessionals. I am not certain
how much of the mental health services in the community are
being offered to the children of the Virgin Islands, Okay,
because the hospital isn't fixed yet. I mean, there are many
challenges that we have on the island right now. They are still
erecting the modular hospital.
So there are a number of challenges, but I would assume
that the health commissioner is actively engaged in that
process. I may be unaware of it.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. I need to move.
Mr. Muna, in working with our veterans, I know we have
hardly any mental professionals in the private sector. So, I
want to know how your schools are addressing this need for
mental counseling and the source of funding. How do you assess
the Federal Government's response to addressing mental health
at public school systems?
Mr. Muna. So within a month after our typhoon, I mentioned
that we were able to secure funding through Project SERV. We
were able to hire two mental health counselors that have been
working with our students and our staff and their families.
In addition to that, those two mental health counselors are
working with our school counselors to provide them with
training and support so that they can reach more students and
staffs and their families.
Chairman Sablan. But those two aren't enough for students,
let alone the teachers.
Mr. Muna. So that's the reason. And that is true. But
that's the reason why that they are also working with other
counselors, our school counselors.
Chairman Sablan. And your slides are coming up at the same
time, Commissioner.
Commissioner, can you tell the committee more about the
FEMA tents which Hopwood Middle School students are learning
in? And how does this learning environment affect the student
grades, attendance, and teachers? Are there aspects of the
school's curriculum that has to be changed as a result? Am I
going to attend graduation at Hopwood or at where they are now?
Mr. Muna. Well as the panel up here or the witnesses
mentioned, opening the schools really determines how fast we
are able to get that sense of normalcy to our students and the
families. That we took into consideration when we were
coordinating with FEMA.
At the time when we started to work on trying to identify a
location for Hopwood Middle School, we were looking at Project
SERV and the availability of commercial buildings. That was not
available at that time that we were trying to build our
schools.
So what we ended up doing was we coordinated with FEMA,
looked at different contractors that were able to provide the
facilities that we needed. And that is why we ended up going
with the Alaska model, 42 tents, that were made available to
the public school system.
Attendance. We did see a decrease of students coming to
school only because we also had to relocate from the central
part of the island down to the southern part of the island.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. And, Commissioner, chairmanship
doesn't give me extra time, but I will say that in one of your
concerns, about building resilient schools, Chairman Scott and
I and some of our committee members introduced RASA, a bill to
provide $100 billion for exactly that purpose. We are hoping we
could get it out of committee, onto the floor, and out of the
House and actually past Congress. Thank you very much.
Let me go to the admin stuff for now. I remind my
colleagues that, pursuant to committee practice, materials for
submission for the hearing record must be submitted to the
committee clerk within 14 days following the last day of the
hearing, preferably in Microsoft Word format.
The material submitted must address the subject matter of
the hearing. Only a member of the committee or an invited
witness may submit materials for inclusion in the hearing
record.
Documents are limited to 50 pages each. Documents longer
than 50 pages will be incorporated into the record via an
internet link that you must provide the committee clerk within
the required timeframe. But please recognize that years from
now that link may no longer work.
Again, I want to thank the witnesses for their
participation today. What we have heard is very valuable.
Members of the committee may have some additional questions for
you, and we ask the witnesses to please respond to those
questions in writing. The hearing record will be held open for
14 days in order to receive those responses.
I remind my colleagues that, pursuant to committee
practice, witness questions for the hearing record must be
submitted to the majority committee staff or committee clerk
within 7 days. The questions submitted must address the subject
matter of the hearing.
And I now recognize my friend, the distinguished ranking
member, for his closing statement.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I, too, want to thank the witnesses for being here
today and taking your valuable time to share with us some of
these events that have taken place, these disasters in your
communities. I also want to thank Assistant Secretary Brogan
for being here earlier.
We've learned that local and State leadership is critically
important to effective disaster preparation and recovery. We've
also learned that the Department of Education is working to
expand its capacity for supporting State and local preparation
and recovery efforts.
I look forward to working with the Department and State and
local constituents to ensure that they have the flexibility
under Federal law, under our jurisdiction, they need to
expedite recovery efforts as much as possible.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing, and I
yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Ranking Member Allen.
And now my closing statement.
I want to thank all our witnesses for your willingness to
share difficult memories of recovering. I want to thank
Secretary Brogan for also being here. And you're helping
students recover from natural catastrophe.
Today's hearing examined the Federal Government's response
to school communities devastated by recent natural disasters,
Super Typhoon Yutu in the Northern Mariana Islands, Hurricanes
Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin
Islands, and the Tubbs and Camp Fires in Northern California.
The challenges our witnesses recounted today of restoring
classrooms weeks or even months after natural disasters are
nothing short of harrowing. From rebuilding entire schools in
Saipan to battling toxic air quality in Sonoma County, already
undersupported school communities have disproportionately
suffered the devastation of natural crisis.
More importantly, our discussions today reveal that while
these communities have demonstrated resilience and strength in
recovery, they have had to do so largely without the Federal
support they deserve and need. The Trump administration
continues to deny the reality of climate change and ignore its
own research proving that climate change is making natural
disasters more destructive.
And Republican lawmakers, most of, not all, have repeatedly
blocked passage of a key disaster aid bill that would have
dedicated the funds necessary to help impacted communities
recover. That one actually occurred just last Monday.
As the climate change crisis continues to worsen, Congress
and this committee must commit to investing in public school
infrastructure, ensuring vital resources for school communities
recovering from natural disasters and putting the victims of
national disasters before politics.
All school communities deserve the assurance that the
Federal Government will aid them in time of need and crisis.
Only when we fulfill this promise can we ensure that students,
families, and school staff not only get back on their feet
after natural disasters, but stand stronger than ever.
Thank you again to our witnesses.
Thank you for the members, for their indulgence.
There being no further business, and without objection, the
committee stands adjourned.
[Questions submitted for the record and their responses
follow:]
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[Mr. Brogan's response to questions submitted for the
record follow:]
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[Mr. Winn's response to questions submitted for the record
follow:]
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[Whereupon, at 11:42 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]