The department has refused to negotiate with the union about safety concerns this school year

State House Education Committee Vice Chair Rep. Jeanne Kapela had a straightforward question for top Hawaii State Department of Education officials Wednesday afternoon at a hearing about COVID-19 and public schools.

“When will the DOE sign an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with HSTA regarding safety protocols to ensure that there is accountability for violations that occur on school campuses? There was an MOU in place, so it has existed before, but it expired with the last superintendent,” Kapela said.

“Every single day my office is getting more and more information and calls about safety violations from both teachers and parents,” said Kapela, who represents Kailua-Kona, Capt. Cook, Kealakekua, and Naalehu on Hawaii Island.

“HSTA has also filed a class-action grievance because they can’t get the DOE to respond to concerns about basic safety measures. Why has this not been done yet?” Kapela asked interim schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi during the briefing.

“It just seems like the department doesn’t want to be held accountable for following basic safety guidelines. So I would really ask that you folks make this a top priority, especially since teachers took a pay cut this past year in returning to work in extremely hazardous conditions,” Kapela added.

Hayashi declined to answer her question, saying, “I want to be sure that I say what I’m supposed to say and not what I’m not supposed to,” and asking interim Assistant Superintendent Sean Bacon to answer instead.

“Last year, the department did have an MOU with the HSTA regarding some of the protocols around the COVID-19 pandemic. That MOU did expire at the end of the school year,” Bacon told House members at the online briefing.

The HSTA tried for months, going back into December, to negotiate with the state on another MOU for this school year, but the state refused to even discuss any of the union’s proposals related to COVID-19 and would not allow any contract language around COVID-19 to be bargained as part of HSTA’s new contract that began July 1.

“We have been actively engaged with the HSTA and the HGEA in monthly meetings regarding COVID-related issues. We’ve been addressing some of their concerns and keeping them up-to-date on some of the concerns that they’ve been having regarding the COVID-19 safety protocols, anything that involves anything with COVID-19,” said Bacon, who oversees recruiting, development, retention, employee and labor relations for the department.

HSTA Deputy Director Andrea Eshelman, who also serves as the union’s chief negotiator, said, “Assistant Superintendent Bacon is technically correct in his statement. The HIDOE has agreed to continue to meet once a month on COVID-19-related issues through this December. The HSTA brings extensive lists of issues and concerns which need to be addressed and resolved at these meetings.”

“While the HIDOE responds to some of our concerns, such as inquiries about how many teachers have submitted verification of vaccination, the consistent response from HIDOE officials on any substantive issue has been to provide little response other than ‘We will have to get back to you’ or ‘We don’t know the answer,’” Eshelman said.

For instance, HIDOE has promised for months that it was updating a report on the ventilation status of school facilities statewide and would pass it over to HSTA. We were told at our Aug. 26 meeting we would have the report within days, and it still has not yet been transmitted. HSTA believes this is because the facilities branch is doing no such monitoring or data tracking and has no current or valid data on this important mitigation method.

“Despite Hayashi’s implication that these monthly meetings are some version of negotiations, the superintendent is not present, HIDOE makes very clear that the meetings are not for bargaining, and they do not result in binding agreements that would assure the employer committed to following through with anything,” Eshelman said.

When Hayashi sat down with Eshelman and HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. for an hour-long COVID-19 discussion on Aug. 30, he made it explicitly clear that the meeting was to be treated as an informal discussion and not a “negotiation.” Hayashi remains noncommittal on the request to schedule additional meetings with Tui.

While HSTA has demanded impact bargaining on the impacts of COVID-19, the employer has so far failed to formally respond.

At Wednesday’s legislative briefing, HIDOE’s Bacon said, “At this point, I know that there has been a request for us to come back to the bargaining table. That’s something I’d rather not have us discuss in this public setting right now.”

In response, Kapela, the West Hawaii lawmaker, said, “I think it’s just having clear clarity on what’s going to happen and that’s what I think the MOU is there to provide. Words are one thing, but having something on paper that really helps guide the safety protocols for teachers and parents and administrators is incredibly helpful, especially when we feel like things are changing every single day.”

On Sept. 3, HSTA filed two class grievances over unsafe working conditions during the pandemic and issues related to the state’s directive that unvaccinated education employees must be tested for COVID-19 weekly.

Class grievances represent all teachers who have been wronged by action or inaction on the part of the employer.