Questions and answers addressing ratification vote, salary, EUTF, 21 hours, and more

Updated: May 26, 2023

The following frequently asked questions supplement the information shared Sunday, April 16, regarding the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s tentative settlement late Friday with the State of Hawaiʻi and the Board of Education for a new four-year contract from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027.

Ratification vote

All employees who fall under Bargaining Unit 05 (HSTA), Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) as well as public charter school (PCS) teachers have the right to vote on this contract. In order for the contract to be ratified, 50% plus 1 of the votes cast must be in the affirmative.

Certain groups of teachers are being automatically sent absentee ballots on Tuesday, April 18. Those automatically mailed an absentee ballot include teachers on long-term leave for 30 days or more; all state and district office teachers; community school teachers; detention home teachers; teachers on department-directed leave; and teachers at Hana High & Elementary, Holomua Elementary (Red Track), Kilohana Elementary, Maunaloa Elementary, Niʻihau High & Elementary, Hawaiʻi Tech Academy PCS, and Ke Kula ʻO Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu Ka Papahana ʻO ʻAlo Kēhau o ka ʻĀina Mauna (Waimea campus). We expect those teachers to receive their ballots by the end of the week.

You must request an absentee ballot no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, April 21. Teachers may request an absentee ballot by calling the HSTA office at (808) 833-2711. Those who request absentee ballots will be emailed a confirmation once their ballot has been processed and mailed. Absentee ballots may be returned via mail and must be received by May 3. Teachers may also take their ballot and drop it off at any ratification site on Wednesday, April 26. You may also drop off your ballot at HSTA’s Honolulu office, 1200 Ala Kapuna St., through May 3 during normal business hours. There is no need to sign in when dropping off your ballot at a polling site or the Honolulu HSTA office. Note: Once an absentee ballot is requested, the request cannot be changed.

As a new option, HSTA is offering teachers the option to request to change their assigned voting site. This request must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, April 21. Requests can be made by calling the HSTA office at (808) 833-2711. Those who request an alternate polling site will be emailed a confirmation that the reassignment has been processed and they can report to the different site. Note: Once an alternate site is requested, the request cannot be changed.

District and state resource teachers are automatically sent an absentee ballot.

We would have to go back to the table with the employer to try to negotiate with no guarantees that what is currently being offered would remain on the table. It would also mean that we will miss the final decking at the State Legislature of fiscal bills on April 28, 2023, and any negotiated increases in compensation (salary and health premiums) would have to wait for the 2024 legislative session to approve funding, likely pushing back raises and other improvements until July of 2024.

In the case of health premiums, no agreement would mean employees will take on the burden of any increase in premiums. The employer would continue to pay the current health premium dollar amount it pays without the boost in payments in the tentative agreement. At current enrollment rates, HSTA calculates that the employer will shoulder the load for more than 95% of the additional healthcare premium costs for the next coverage year, which is worth more than $7.5 million. Without an agreement, the entire additional cost would fall to our members.

Salary

The total cost of salary increases ($532 million), lump sum payments ($37 million), and increases in supplemental pay ($8 million) adds up to approximately $577 million.

Those hired after June 30, 2012, cannot use supplemental pay, bonuses, and lump sum payments in the calculations for pension calculations. This rule was a result of a change in the retirement system law in 2012, which defines compensation eligible for pension calculations for those hired after 2012 to be limited to regular pay and shortage differentials. More information can be found here.

Charts for 10-month and 12-month teachers outline the increases as they impact each class and step over the next four years. Please note, the charts are for illustration-only purposes. While we don’t believe there are errors, we have to check all the final numbers, down to the penny, with the state prior to any final printing of new salary schedules. In addition, the charts do not factor in any of the lump sum $3,000 bonuses, supplementary pay, shortage differentials, reclassification, or any other additional pay educators receive.

Yes, go to pages 32-36 of the tentative agreement document. Salary changes are also outlined in our settlement summary.

A new hire would include those teachers who are newly hired in that particular school year.

Yes. Those on paid leave will receive the payments at the same time as others. Those on unpaid leave will receive payment upon return to paid status.

Those currently on Step 14 will benefit from two reclassification moves, thus they will be at the top of the schedule (14B) in the third year of the contract.

The HIDOE’s form 5 does not allow for more than two characters to reflect the step. AA stands for Step 14A and BB stands for 14B. Thus, if you see a BB on your form 5 that means you are at Step 14B.

The HSTA team felt very strongly that they should share with members their initial proposal, to be as transparent as possible, even though it risked raising members’ expectations too high. While we would have liked to have secured more, it became very clear that there were other priorities in the state budget for things such as housing and tax relief, which also cost significant amounts of money. We also know some of those same efforts to address the high cost of living in Hawaiʻi will benefit our members. The state was firm: if we wanted a settlement, the most they were going to be able to afford was the $577 million in wage, bonus and supplementary pay increases, plus the unknown cost of potential Class VIII reclassifications. The team decided it was more valuable for our members to benefit immediately with a settlement than to miss the fiscal deadline and wait another year for funding.

Initially, the employer rejected both our proposal for a new salary construct and efforts to create a Class VIII. The rejection was based on the unknown cost and concerns that teachers would have no incentive to continue to pursue new coursework in the future. Then, after much back and forth, the employer was initially only willing to agree to a Class VIII by earning 30 credits and with other significant restrictions. While we tried very hard to negotiate a Class VIII without restrictions, the employer was firm: under no circumstances would they agree to allow teachers to use banked credits.

In the final settlement, we were able to move the employer back to the 15 credits. However, they wanted teachers to pursue new professional development, and to incentivize teachers to obtain their sheltered instruction qualification (SIQ). The team worked toward the best possible solution for teachers given the restrictions set firm by the employer. While not perfect, they felt the 15 credits with some restrictions is a better option than having no Class VIII at all, as two-thirds of the bargaining unit are not at Class VII just yet. Note: The Class VIII restrictions do not affect reclassification rules for other classes, and by the third year of the contract, teachers will have earned six new credits via 21 hours of job-embedded PD. If teachers have already earned their six SIQ credits (and have not already used them for reclassification), they will only have to earn three additional credits to qualify for reclassification to Class VIII in 2025.

Credits earned (end of course date) prior to July 1, 2023, continue to be eligible for reclassification between Class II and Class VII. Only Class VIII has additional restrictions. Banked credits may be used to reclass from any step except from Class VII to Class VIII.

Yes. For professional development courses, the end date of the course is what will be used to determine if the course meets the “after July 1, 2023” requirement. For university coursework, the last day of the course is also used.

Yes, in order to reclassify from Class VII to Class VIII, the sheltered instruction qualification (SIQ) requirement must be met via one of the seven options.

No, the intention of the exception to the “credits earned after July 1, 2023” rule is only for credits specifically earned in obtaining the SIQ qualification. Other additional credits earned prior to July 1, 2023, are not eligible.

The employer rejected the new salary construct early on and was adamant that they were not interested in any plan to significantly change the structure of pay for Bargaining Unit 05. They felt our proposal was too complex and too expensive, and difficult to estimate and plan for future costs. In fact, their initial proposal would have started us on the path back to salary schedule compression.

HSTA proposed multiple configurations to recognize more than just six years of non-BU service. The employer rejected any plan to recognize those with previous outside teaching experience for additional compression adjustments. They were unwilling to make any changes or adjustments in this area.

Correct, those teachers would receive $6,000 in lump-sum payments. If the teacher started prior to 2012, those payments are factored into their high-three ERS pension calculation.

If an employee is on workers’ compensation, any pay change will occur as scheduled while on leave.

The language only allows us to negotiate additional increased health premium contributions by the employer for EUTF. This does not preclude the employer from coming to us with increased compensation at any point during the contract duration.

Employer Union Health Fund (EUTF)

The newly negotiated employer contributions change all previously reported EUTF information on the employer/employee cost split. Please be sure you are referencing the documents that HSTA released April 16 and thereafter.

The EUTF extended the open enrollment period for EUTF plan changes to Friday, May 12, 2023.

The EUTF and the various plans and contributions are one of the most complex and difficult parts to explain, mainly because there are so many options for health plans. Everyone should make sure they review the newly negotiated rates to determine whether or not your health care premiums will increase and see the plan information on the EUTF website. Note that new rates for Bargaining Unit 05 will not be posted to the EUTF website until after ratification.

EUTF contributions by the employer have to be negotiated as specific dollar amounts by law. We were able to negotiate a continuation of the employer paying 60% of the premium for the HMSA 80/20 plan for all plans. Generally, this amount would more than cover the full cost of some of the less expensive plans like the HMSA 75/25 plan. In the past, the employer was only willing to pay for 84.3% of the monthly premium cost, instead of 100%. Under this new agreement, the employer would increase its maximum contribution towards these less expensive plans to 90%.

HSTA confirmed with EUTF that they will be using the last form they receive. So if you submit two change forms, the second one will be the one they use to process the change. For those who may have submitted an earlier form, EUTF has asked that you write “Amended” on your second form. This will alert EUTF that you submitted an earlier change.

Those enrolled in HSTA VEBA plans prior to Jan. 1, 2011, who have maintained continuous enrollment are eligible to continue on EUTF VB plans via a court decision. Those who have the right to be on VB plans can move plans within the VB family of plans, but if you move to a plan that is not VB, you have no rights to return to VB plans in the future.

21 hours of job-embedded professional development

Yes, teachers will still receive the 3 PD credits. Teachers are also compensated for the equivalent of 3 days (21 hours) pay for this extra time. As with this year, 10-month teachers report to campus for 189 days of work, however, they are paid for a total of 193 days of work. The additional four days are broken down to one day of six hours of extended day and three days of 21 hours. Upon ratification, this language will become a permanent part of the contract.

There is no opt-out provision for the 21 hours.

Additional questions

Despite many hours of discussion, the employer would only agree to a small change in language in the areas of SPED. While they acknowledge that there are areas of improvement needed, they were unwilling to agree to any additional language. The HSTA is committed to continuing to pursue this issue through its joint committee work and exploring other options to organize for change around SPED.

As with the issue of SPED, the employer refused to make any language changes in the areas of class size or counselor ratios. They were not even willing to incorporate the current BOE policy on class size into the contract.

Yes, the Appendix VII MOU Recruitment/Retention Incentive for Hard-to-Staff Locations was not renewed. The MOU is no longer necessary as the shortage differentials implemented by the employer address this area. Appendix X MOU Travel and Per Diem was also not renewed, as the changes to Traveling Teachers in the main body of the contract addressed the issues in this MOU. All other MOUs were renewed, renewed with edits, or incorporated into the main body of the contract.

Related posts:

  1.  What you need to know about health coverage (EUTF) open enrollment
  2.  Frequently asked questions about salary compression, potential teacher pay changes
  3.  FAQs: Deadline to obtain Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) credits
  4.  2022 health coverage (EUTF) open enrollment information