HONOLULU (AP) — Teachers were expected to return to schools across the islands on Wednesday with classes reopening Thursday. The Hawaii State Teachers Association achieved its three objectives in the new contract: retention bonuses, establishing longevity increments and across-the-board raises,
HONOLULU (AP) — Teachers were expected to return to schools across the islands on Wednesday with classes reopening Thursday.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association achieved its three objectives in the new contract: retention bonuses, establishing longevity increments and across-the-board raises, Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said.
The strike ended just hours before a federal judge could have intervened and appointed a receiver to take over the school system.
Teachers who lined road sides and picketed school yards for 19 days turned out for more sign-waving Tuesday, only this time to thank the public for its support with strike signs pasted over with “mahalo,” Hawaiian for “thank you.”
Cayetano said the state also achieved its goals of raising salaries to be competitive with the mainland and addressing the state’s acute shortage of teachers.
“Of course, it doesn’t compensate for cost of living,” he said, referring to one of the cores of the dispute, a feeling that Hawaii teachers should earn even more than the national average because of the state’s high cost of living, estimated at 20 percent to 30 percent higher than on the mainland.
The strike began April 5 after the union rejected the state’s offer of 14 percent over two years. The union had demanded 22 percent over four years, retroactive to July 1999.
The proposed agreement includes a $550 “retention incentive” bonus payment for each of the last two school years, according to sources familiar with the proposal. It also includes
It also includes 5 percent pay raises in September, 2 percent in February, 6 percent in September 2002, and another 3 percent in February 2003.
Teachers with advanced degrees will get additional differentials.
The proposed wage hikes would cost the state more than $109 million over the next two fiscal years, Cayetano said.
The proposal also includes converting four teaching days to “professional development days.”
“I feel very comfortable” that the Legislature can find room in the state’s two-year, $14 billion budget to fund the raises, said House Speaker Calvin Say.
Superintendent of Education Paul LeMahieu said the strike, which cost students 14 days in the classroom, won’t require an extension of the school year, but will force cancellation of a standard achievement test that was intended to serve as a new baseline.
Teachers are being asked to cut back year-end field trips in the remaining 30 school days. Classes for high school seniors will continue right up to graduation day, eliminating the traditional “senior week” in which graduating students generally skip classes.
“We’re very pleased with the settlement. Our board overwhelmingly ratified it,” said Joan Husted, executive director of the union.
“I think the teachers feel the strike accomplished their goals. If they had to do it again, they would,” Husted said early Tuesday.
A separate strike by University of Hawaii faculty that began the same day public school teacher’s walked out, April 5, ended when professors reached a two-year contract agreement with the state last week. The coinciding strikes were the first time a state’s entire public education system had been closed by labor disputes.
Hawaii’s teachers earn between $29,000 and $58,000 a year. The state ranked 18th among the 50 states in a National Education Association list of average 1998-99 salaries, at $40,377 a year. But Hawaii’s cost of living is often estimated at about 20 to 30 percent higher than most mainland communities.
The agreement ended a threat by U.S. District Judge David Ezra to intervene.
Ezra had scheduled a hearing Tuesday under his authority to appoint a receiver to reopen the schools due to a federal consent decree which orders the state to improve services to special needs students by December. The strike was denying education and health services for some 11,000 children with behavioral problems.
Jeff Portnoy, special master appointed to oversee the state’s progress in reaching compliance with the decree, said the court was “pleased” the teachers strike was concluded without federal intervention.
The state’s last public school strike was in 1973, when 9,000 Hawaii teachers stayed out of the classroom for 17 days. That strike was settled with an 18 percent pay raise over a three-year contract.
On the Net:
www.hsta.org
www.hawaii.gov
