2,000+ educators should see raises as a result of a court ruling late last year
Posted: March 11, 2026
The Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association is demanding a response and information from the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education after a judge’s decision which clears the way for more than 2,200 public school teachers to receive service credit for teaching experience outside the department that would result in raises worth thousands of dollars.
At this time, no action is required from HSTA members. The HSTA will continue to update members as developments occur.
The issue stems from HIDOE’s 2022 teacher salary repricing plan, also known as the compression fix, which boosted the pay for 72% of the teaching workforce by an average of $6,000. However, the plan failed to account for some educators’ previous teaching experience outside of the department.
Legal case, labor board rulings about compression repricing
The case began when three teachers successfully challenged the repricing plan before the Hawai’i Labor Relations Board (HLRB) after their previously credited teaching experience from the continental United States was excluded from the repricing calculation.
Late in 2024, the labor board ruled that the HIDOE violated state collective bargaining law when it left those years of experience out of the repricing formula. The board ordered the department to provide the teachers with step increases and back pay.
In late November of 2025, Circuit Court Judge John M. Tonaki issued an oral ruling from the bench to affirm a recent decision by the HLRB, rejecting an appeal by HIDOE to overturn the board’s determination. The day of that decision, HSTA asked HIDOE to immediately begin negotiations on the issue. But the state said it wanted to wait to address the issue once the judge’s written order was filed, something that didn’t happen for several months.
Tonaki ruled against the state on appeal, and his written order was issued more than two months later, in February.
HSTA seeks action for all affected educators
HSTA Executive Director Andrea Eshelman wrote a letter early this month to HIDOE, which said in part, “With the order now issued, we would like to continue negotiations, and the obligations identified in … (the HLRB’s decision) remain outstanding.”
Eshelman’s letter, addressed to Sean Bacon, assistant superintendent of HIDOE’s Office of Talent Management, asked for the following by March 30:
- Copies of the personnel action forms reflecting the salary adjustments for the three complainants, to allow HSTA to confirm HIDOE’s implementation of the HLRB order.
- A copy of the June 2, 2025 memorandum regarding (HLRB’s) Decision No. 526 and confirmation that all schools and offices prominently displayed the memorandum for 60 consecutive days.
- Confirmation of HIDOE’s timeline and plans for making similar adjustments for the 2,221 employees identified as similarly affected by the failure to consider prior teaching experience in the repricing action.
- Any updates to the preliminary list of similarly affected employees provided to HSTA on May 4, 2025.
Eshelman wrote “to ensure clarity moving forward, HSTA formally requests a meeting with HIDOE to discuss the department’s implementation plans and timelines, and to ensure similarly affected employees are provided salary adjustments to reflect prior teaching experience.”
“If HIDOE does not intend to take action for the 2,221 similarly affected employees, please provide a written explanation and the basis for that determination,” her letter continued.
“Please be advised that if HIDOE does not provide the requested information or does not indicate its intent to comply with Decision No. 526, HSTA will have no choice but to return to the Hawaiʻi Labor Relations Board to enforce the decision and seek all appropriate remedies,” Eshelman added.
Last year, after HIDOE appealed the HLRB decision in this case, the HSTA requested that the department address the hundreds and possibly thousands of educators owed back pay under the labor board ruling.
The HIDOE’s 2022 repricing initiative was authorized under the state’s collective bargaining law [HRS § 89-9(f)(2)], which grants the employer discretion to reprice classes within the bargaining unit without the consent of the union. Because the statute grants the employer the unilateral right to reprice, any attempt to legally challenge the plan could have led the HIDOE to withdraw it altogether, thereby jeopardizing over $50 million in significant salary adjustments that more than 9,100 teachers ultimately received.
Although the HLRB agreed that the HIDOE did not need to negotiate its repricing plan with HSTA, the labor board found that the department failed to follow the law in carrying it out. HIDOE had not established the mandatory procedures required under HRS § 89-9(f)(2) for periodically reviewing repricing, and based on HIDOE’s own evidence and testimony, it unlawfully excluded teachers whose six years of previously credited non-HIDOE service were ignored in the repricing formula. By excluding these teachers from the single class being repriced, HIDOE violated Hawaiʻi’s collective bargaining law, specifically HRS §§ 89-9(f)(2) and 89-3.
Read HSTA’s previous FAQs about compression from the fall of 2022.