HSTA educators to embark on voyage of a lifetime once conditions allow
Congratulations Farrington High teacher Ellie Kantar and Sunset Elementary teacher Laura Cummings for being selected as 2021 Grosvenor Teacher Fellows!
HSTA offers ‘Office Hours’ online seminars for new educators
The Hawaii State Teachers Association is proud to offer Office Hours, a series of online seminars designed to educate and inform our new educators on a variety of topics.
Almost all weighted student formula, special education funding restored for next school year
Most of the millions of dollars worth of sweeping job cuts and program reductions planned for public schools next fall will be restored, Hawaii State Department of Education officials informed the Board of Education Thursday. Board members also made shortage differential funding a priority for next school year and did not approve using federal stimulus funds to hire outside tutors.
Responding to testimony, BOE overrules superintendent to keep shortage differentials
The Hawaii Board of Education Thursday afternoon voted overwhelmingly to continue paying shortage differentials to public school teachers across the state, directing Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto to rescind her memo by the close of business Friday that would have ended the $3,000 to $10,000 payments to teachers in areas faced with chronic vacancies.
Lawmakers direct HIDOE to use federal aid to preserve school jobs, avoid pay cuts
The schools superintendent faces increasing pressure from state lawmakers to rescind budget cuts and direct federal stimulus aid to keep school employees on the payroll and maintain their current levels of pay instead of implementing pay cuts, layoffs, or hiring tutors.
Submit testimony to BOE by Wednesday to restore school-level budgets, positions, salaries
Join us in asking the Board of Education to prioritize restoring all cuts to the weighted student formula (WSF) and special education per-pupil allocation (SPPA), which would eliminate the need for layoffs of any HIDOE employees, including all teachers. HSTA will further ask HIDOE to follow the law by using federal stimulus funding to avoid future pay cuts.
HSTA survey: 52% of members have received one or two vaccine doses
A slim 52-percent majority of members who completed a Hawaii State Teachers Association vaccination survey during Institute this week reported receiving one or two doses of coronavirus vaccines; a sign that progress has been made, but there’s still a long way to go.
CDC issues new school COVID-19 guidance
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Friday released new guidelines about the safe delivery of in-person instruction at K-12 schools.
Superintendent plans to discontinue shortage differentials that decreased vacancies
The superintendent’s memo is misleading. While she indicates that the shortage differential program was a pilot, this is not the case. These differentials were enacted and approved by the Board of Education based on Kishimoto's request on Dec. 5, 2019.
Lawmakers’ bills direct HIDOE to avoid layoffs instead of hiring tutors
State Senate and House leaders have introduced bills that direct the Hawaii Department of Education to use millions in federal stimulus funding to preserve educators’ jobs, contrary to a HIDOE plan to use nearly one-third of stimulus funds bound for the education department to hire outside tutors.