Hawaii Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto said she is not supporting a potential 20-percent pay cut for teachers, which several Board of Education members called a “last resort” during a budget briefing Thursday afternoon.
Kishimoto also said she hopes to use federal coronavirus relief funds to continue differentials in three key shortage areas.
“We are not supporting a pay cut, but we are asking that if there is a possibility to switch out general fund dollars that are used for salaries with CARES Act funding, that we evaluate that as a state so that we can again, protect our design, our instructional model, and our ability to have all students back, all staff back next school year,” Kishimoto said during a Board of Education briefing about the pandemic’s potential impact on school funding in Hawaii.
Kishimoto also told the BOE she wants to use federal COVID-19 funding to continue funding shortage differentials for teachers in special education, Hawaiian language immersion, and at remote or hard-to-staff schools.
“If I can get that funded through those CARES Act funds, it is a priority for me,” Kishimoto said of the differential program.
She said the department has initial data showing the differentials caused some teachers to move into these shortage areas “but there’s a lot of hesitation now, and my concern is the COVID impact without the differentials is only going to exacerbate that crisis and concern about those shortages.”
If Kishimoto is unable to continue funding the differentials, she said, “what I am seeing in conversations with some individual principals is I have the potential of a few schools not having sufficient teachers who are going to opt the other way around. Teachers who have been there, stable, now saying ‘Okay, there’s a potential of not only no differential but also this concern and this panic around the 20 percent which was really shocking to everyone.’ So there’s been an interest in moving out of these areas.”
Board of Education Chair Catherine Payne said the board wants to maintain the shortage differentials in spite of Hawaii’s economic tough times because of the coronavirus's effect on tourism and tax revenues in the islands.
“I agree that it’s very, very important and I think all the board does agree that that continues to be a priority,” Payne said.
Hundreds of educators, parents and others turned in more than 1,100 pages of testimony, the overwhelming majority of it opposing possible pay cuts.
The administration of Gov. David Ige told public-sector union leaders that pay cuts of up to 20 percent for state workers may be necessary because of falling tax revenue from the pandemic starting as early as June 1. State legislative leaders plan to go back into session Monday and said their main purpose will be to avoid state budget cuts and furloughs.
Some teachers already planning to move away
But it’s already too late for some educators. Mary Garrett, who teaches at Honokaa Elementary on Hawaii Island, told the board she made the difficult decision this week to leave Hawaii and move back to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she has accepted a teaching position.
“I will be making nearly $4,000 more in my salary and my living expenses will decline. In Paauilo, my roommates and I live in a three-bedroom, one-bath, 800-square-foot camp home. We split the $1,500-a-month rent. My roommates and I also carpool to save gas. When I move back to North Carolina, I have already secured a three-bedroom, two-bath home that’s 1,200 square feet. My rental price is $650. Gas prices in Fayetteville are about $1.58 a gallon. I will have a much better quality of life than I do living here,” Garrett said.
Garrett told the BOE that potential cuts in teachers’ salaries “are going to hurt Hawaii more than they will help. More teachers like me will leave. Some will retire because they will not want the drop in salary to affect their ‘high three years,’ on which their retirement is based. Others will go back to the mainland where poorly paid teachers can at least afford to live without feeling like college students sharing a room.
“Hawaii’s shortage of more than 1,000 teachers each year will grow. This will impact students because there will be more classrooms with unqualified teachers, or they will be in classrooms that are overcrowded,” she added.
Mireille Ellsworth, a Waiakea High English teacher who has spent 16 years teaching in Hilo, told the board, “When Governor Ige first announced the 20-percent pay cut that was supposed to start May 1, I started packing, and I have not unpacked those boxes yet.
“We are now trained on distance learning and there are plenty of other places that pay more than here,” she said.
“We will not put keiki last yet again just to balance the state budget,” Ellsworth said, imploring the board to avoid cutting Hawaii teacher salaries, which are already the lowest in the country factoring in our state’s high cost of living. “The best thing we can possibly do for our future is to invest in our students.”
Nanakuli teacher says cutting pay would have a 'devastating impact'
Julie Reyes Oda, a math teacher at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School, told board members, “Cutting teacher pay has a devastating impact on our communities. I ask you to find other ways.
“Schools do not exist without students and teachers, and that’s the foundation of why we’re here,” Reyes Oda said.
Special education teachers ready to quit, or leave special ed
Amanda Lacar, a special education teacher at Aliamanu Middle School, said a pay cut would negatively affect teachers and the students they serve.
“I have heard from about five coworkers who have made the comment that should the 20-percent pay reduction go into effect, they will leave the profession. That is going to be five more classrooms and hundreds of students losing a licensed teacher,” Lacar said.
If the special education $10,000 annual differential is eliminated next school year, “why should I stay in special education?” Lacar asked. "If the SpEd differential is taken away, there is nothing stopping me from going into a general education position.”
“Special education already has a shortage. I beg that you donʻt make it worse by cutting our salaries by 20 percent and taking away the differentials. There are so many of us who love being special education teachers but with the shortage, we are getting burned out and fear our workload will only get more stressful and overloaded as more experienced educators leave the profession,” Lacar added.
Dana Shishido, a 30-year veteran who teaches at Wheeler Elementary, told the BOE, “There’s a dark grey cloud called pay cuts looming over my head, and I don’t want to retire, but I feel that I’m not being valued.”
Hawaii already has an annual teacher vacancy rate of about 1,000 positions each year, spots that are filled by emergency hires and long-term substitutes.
“What will happen when that turns into 2,000 teachers? Board members, I’m asking you to please stand up for the keiki by standing up for their teachers,” Shishido said.
HSTA president: Starting Hawaii teachers would make less than $40k with 20% cut
Corey Rosenlee, a longtime social studies teacher from Campbell High School, is president of the nearly 14,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association.
“The HSTA is asking that the Board of Education unequivocally state that pay cuts for teachers should be off the table. Cutting pay for teachers would have a devastating impact on our schools, on our economy and on our keiki,” Rosenlee told the BOE Thursday.
“The decisions we make in the next couple of days and weeks will impact Hawaii for years, if not for a decade or more,” Rosenlee said.
Beginning teachers would earn $39,000 a year with 20-percent cuts, Rosenlee said, adding that emergency hires will be earning $28,000 a year, less than substitutes.
“If these cuts are instituted, I cannot guarantee that we will have enough bodies to fill the classrooms, forget about qualified teachers,” Rosenlee added.
Deborah Bond-Upson, a leader of Parents for Public Schools of Hawaii told board members, "At this time when our families and our students need so much from our teacher, this would be an absolutely devastating time to reduce teacher pay.”
Many BOE members agreed with those sentiments.
“Our job is to minimize student impact in the classroom as much as possible,” said board member Bruce Voss.
Another BOE member, Kaimana Bacarse, told colleagues, “I’d also like to support the idea that reducing teacher pay be the last resort we look at.
“A lot teachers going above and beyond to make sure that students and families get what they need and that they are supported,” while school buildings are closed, Bacarse said.
He said after the teacher pay cut proposal first was revealed last month, he spoke with a number of educators “and it was like the wind was taken out of their sails. They’re not only willing they have been going above and beyond for a very, very long time. Our children are the future for Hawaii nei, and our teachers are the ones who are going to guide them there, so we have to empower them as much as possible.”