Compression pay fix on Oct. 6 BOE agenda

The Hawaii State Department of Education Friday submitted a plan to the Hawaii Board of Education to make one-time salary adjustments for roughly 9,200 public and charter school teachers, which will be discussed at a special board meeting Oct. 6.

On Friday afternoon, the BOE released the HIDOE’s memo to address salary equity and compression, along with the department’s Implementation Plan for Salary Adjustments to Address Compression in Teacher Salaries. The memo and plan will be discussed during the BOE’s Human Resources Committee meeting next Thursday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m. with a report to the full board during a special meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Hawaii State Teachers Association President Osa Tui, Jr. said, “After years of pursuing a fix to the salary compression issues our educators have faced, we are glad to see the final hurdle will be cleared with the Board of Education taking up the implementation plan next week.

“We look forward to a swift implementation after the board approves and thank everyone along the way who has helped to make this a reality. Ultimately, our keiki will benefit by seeing more of their teachers remain in the profession during a time of severe teacher shortages throughout the country,” Tui added.

In his memo to the BOE, Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said, “The lack of step movements for teachers in the past has resulted in the compression of teacher salaries and veteran teachers not being compensated for their years of service in the classroom.”

HIDOE collaborated with HSTA to draft and finalize the implementation plan and will continue to do so until its final implementation.

Hayashi’s memo noted that “the implementation plan is the product of a truly collaborative effort” involving the education department, the HSTA, the state’s Department of Human Resources Development Office of Collective Bargaining, and the Department of Budget and Finance.

While the pay changes are expected to begin sometime in the second quarter, it’s still not clear exactly when the increased salaries will appear in paychecks. The HSTA will update members with additional details as soon as we learn them.

The department’s implementation plan says the pay adjustments:

• Apply to about 9,196 teachers who were actively employed on the last teacher workday of school year 2021–22 and continued employment on the first teacher workday of school year 2022–23,
• Will bring increased pay to approximately 72% of the teaching workforce, and
• Will be retroactive to the beginning of this school year for eligible teachers.

Public charter school teachers are eligible for those salary adjustments. HIDOE will work with charter schools to process salary adjustments for charters that purchase payroll services from the department or have HIDOE-funded positions. Salary adjustments for public charter schools that do not purchase payroll services from HIDOE are the responsibility of the respective charter school.

The department projects the cost of the pay adjustments will amount to roughly $55 million, funds the state Legislature appropriated in the state budget and Gov. David Ige signed into law earlier this year.

HIDOE says current figures show that more than 5,432 are clustered between Steps 9 through 13 on the salary schedule. Many of that group are more than two steps below where they would be if Hawaii offered its teachers regular step salary increases, as nearly every school district in the country does.

Because Hawaii public and charter school teachers’ pay doesn’t currently properly reflect their years of service, HIDOE’s action memo prepared for the BOE says salary compression negatively impacts the department’s ability “to recruit and retain licensed, tenured teachers who are essential in ensuring equitable access to highly qualified teachers for all students.”

How will teachers’ years of service be calculated?

Under the rubric to make teachers’ pay consistent with their years of service, any educator with 22 years or more of teaching service would automatically move to Step 14B, the top spot on the salary scale. HSTA’s research shows that when compression is fixed, about 2,300 veteran teachers who’ve been stuck in the middle of the salary scale or compressed for years will move to the top salary step.

Teachers with 14 years or more of teaching service, but less than 16 years, will move to Step 12. Those with ten years but less than 12 years will be adjusted to Step 10.

Ten-month teachers will receive one year of service credit if they served on paid status from the first teacher workday to the last teacher workday of the school year. Twelve-month teachers receive one year of service credit for each year they were on paid status from July 1 to June 30, a period that will be considered their school year.

The HSTA is compiling an updated list of frequently asked compression fix questions and will publish the FAQs in the days ahead.

Plan reflects years-long effort to make pay scale fairer

The HSTA began working closely with HIDOE three years ago on a comprehensive plan to end teachers’ compressed pay while creating and increasing differentials in key shortage areas. Throughout 2019, both sides collaborated on a plan that was presented to the BOE and state lawmakers.

While the shortage differentials received BOE approval in late 2019, the compression fix required additional funding from the state Legislature in the 2020 session. Legislative committees began hearing the proposal, and things looked promising until COVID-19 hit, scuttling our plans and causing lawmakers to end their session after only hearing a few emergency measures as the pandemic worsened.

In the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers introduced bills to fund a compression fix and assure that veteran teachers are compensated for their years of service in the classroom. They then added funding to the state budget to cover the cost of repricing the salaries of thousands of educators. Gov. David Ige signed the state budget into law July 7, approving money to fix compression, restore paid professional development and make shortage differentials permanent. On July 25, the day before classroom teachers reported back to campuses for the new school year, State House Speaker Scott Saiki and House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke joined veteran HSTA teachers for an “unretirement party” to celebrate their plans to remain teaching instead of retiring this year.

HSTA will live stream Thursday’s BOE meetings

The HSTA plans to live stream the BOE’s discussion Thursday, Oct. 6, about the compression salary fix implementation plan during the board’s Human Resources Committee meeting at 10 a.m. and its special meeting at 1:30 p.m. Both meetings can be viewed live or at any time afterward on HSTA’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and YouTube channel.

Contract negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement will begin this fall. HSTA plans to pursue a variety of improvements to salary and benefits, including across-the-board pay raises, step movements, options for educators to reclassify beyond Class VII, and other means of compensation.