HSTA president addresses thousands of members at 2024 Teacher Institute Day

HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. addressed thousands of members live during the virtual 2024 Institute Day, one of the most successful and well-attended union events of the year.

During his nearly 20 minute speech, Tui delivered remarks to a captive audience of educators from across the state.

You can watch the video, access clickable slides, and read the full speech transcript below.

Speech transcript

Aloha kakahiaka, good morning. I’d like to thank you once again for joining us this year for HSTA’s Institute Day, 2024.

Before I begin, I’d like to send my love and thanks to Ms. Ashley Olson of Lahainaluna High School for my Luna Strong shirt. (heart)

Today, I’d like to take us through some of what’s been going on in the past year. As a fair warning, I’m going to begin with some items which will be heavy on all of our hearts and proceed on to things that are a bit more hopeful for the future.

First, we remember Joan Lee Husted who passed away last October at 85 years old. She was with HSTA for over 30 years from director of field services to chief negotiator and eventually HSTA’s first female Executive Director. Joan Lewis, HSTA’s former Vice President, said of Joan Husted, “She was formidable. She didn’t suffer fools gladly.” Joan Lewis also said, “I look at our contract. That’s the book Joan wrote.” Mahalo, Joan Husted, for your service to public education and to Hawaii’s educators.

Next, we remember the 101 souls who were lost as a result of the Maui wildfires. We pause now for a moment of silence.

In addition, our hearts go out to Geanna Bradley, the 10 year old whose broken and abused body was discovered last month. Her foster parents and grandmother were charged late last week for her heinous torture and murder, gruesome details of which continue to come to light.

It’s especially heartbreaking to learn that her withdrawal happened over the objections of her third-grade teacher and counselor. As a school registrar, I’ve seen students withdrawn from school for questionable reasons.

When children disappear from our system, especially under the guise of “homeschooling” as Geanna did in October of 2022, more needs to be done to ensure proper monitoring and wellness checks are carried out.

May they all rest in peace.

Oftentimes, those on the front lines working to deal with these horrible situations are our school counselors. Last week we celebrated National School Counseling Week. Given everything we’ve been through – a global pandemic, the Maui wildfires, we give special thanks to our school counselors and other school mental health professionals who do their best to address the social, emotional and mental health needs of our students.

Across the front page of the Star Advertiser this past Sunday was the headline, “DOE seeks support for teens’ mental health needs.” The first sentence of that story said, “More than one-third of Hawaii’s public high school students in a survey reported that they had felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row in the prior 12 months, and one-fifth of the high schoolers surveyed said they purposely hurt themselves without wanting to die.”

These students are in our classes with so much on their minds that they’re often not ready or not receptive to the lessons we teach nor the assessments we’re forced to administer.

But it’s not only the students.

This is a slide from a recent Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund meeting. It shows the prevalence of depression for those under Kaiser health plans by union. The purple bars show data from 2022 which is the most recent data available and that highest bar represents HSTA members with EUTF plans. The other HSTA VB bars are those who were on and have stayed with HSTA health plans from before 2011. You can see the number is troublingly high. The silver lining is that at least they’re being identified and hopefully receiving treatment or therapy to address the issue.

You may remember back in July 2022 we had to start using 808 when we wanted to make phone calls instead of just the normal seven digit phone numbers. This was because “988” (which used to be the first three digits for some Hawaii phone numbers) was repurposed nationwide.

Now, calling or texting 988 will put you in touch with free support services available through Hawaii CARES 988. You can also visit their website at hicares dot hawaii dot gov. If you ever feel the need, please reach out to 988 – you have nothing to lose!

Likewise, we have this web page setup for you at hsta dot org slash mentalhealth. Here, in addition to Hawaii CARES information, you can also find information on the federal government’s Disaster Distress Helpline, information on NEA’s mental health phone app powered by Sanvello, the Hawaii Department of Education’s sponsored Employee Assistance Program, and many others.

Please browse these options for yourself or for others. When we talk about recruiting and retaining educators, we’ve seen colleagues who struggle and we end up losing great educators because of these struggles which only exacerbates educator retention efforts.

Make it a habit to ask your colleagues, neighbors, and students how they’re doing. Sometimes, it’s just those little things that can help someone get through their day. Remember today’s theme – e ulu kini, connected to our students and our profession

The governor’s Office of Wellness and Resilience is expected to soon be putting out, in conjunction with the University of Hawaii, their Hawaii Workplace Wellness and Quality of Life survey to all state employees. If the state superintendent or your charter school director agrees, you will also be given work time to complete this optional survey. We encourage all of you to take the survey to help better understand the wellness of state employees and possibly help us to advocate for you on items of concern.

We have seen how the desire for wellness of our colleagues and the aloha spirit can be powerful forces in times of crisis. Specifically, when the Maui wildfires struck, HSTA members and staff statewide sprung into action.

HSTA organized caravans of food and supplies to take into the burn zone in the immediate aftermath. Shortly, thereafter, HSTA was organizing informational meetings and connecting affected members with free legal advice to navigate what would be difficult next steps. Members and retirees from across the state came together in other ways, too. For example, HSTA worked in conjunction with Kamehameha Schools to organize the packing of school supplies into generously donated backpacks for students in Lahaina that were distributed after Fall Break.

Even the First Lady of the United States made sure to check in, whether she was on Air Force One or at the White House, she met with the HSTA Board of Directors to let us know that we could reach out. We have been in touch with her office and FEMA about our concerns about mental health supports for students, especially those who were relocated to other schools on Maui.

We also saw during the Superbowl how the entire country was in support of our Lahainaluna football players and staff. The struggles in Lahaina were featured by Marcus Mariota as they team representatives participated in the coin toss for the big game. Congratulations to you Kansas City fans out there (and to the Swifties, too!) and condolences to those who were rooting for the 49ers!

One of the most impactful supports from across the country were the thousands of dollars that came in from personal donations or even a couple of fundraisers held by elementary schools and students outside of Hawaii. Our fellow state and local teacher unions from across the continent also made generous financial contributions. I’d like to especially thank the Arizona Education Association’s Foundation for Teaching and Learning for their $30,000 contribution, and NEA and NEA Member Benefits for their $50,000 contributions each.

Our first round of checks were for $500 to all King Kamehameha III members who lost their entire school and $1,000 for those who could not access their homes if they even still existed anymore. Some King Kamehameha III teachers received both payments. And as more funds came in, we distributed a second round of checks right before Winter Break for those who still had housing issues in the amount of $2,665.

In all, HSTA disbursed over $434,000 to affected members. Mahalo to all who contributed.

The road to recovery will be long, and HSTA will continue to advocate for all who have been affected. We look forward to the opening of the temporary Pulelehua campus after Spring break as we await planning for the replacement campus for King Kamehameha III Elementary.

On the day I was hand delivering checks in December to members in Lahaina, you can see here a fire that broke out right in the vicinity of the Lahainaluna High, Lahaina Intermediate, and Princess Nahienaena Elementary campuses. Thankfully, it was quickly contained, but it’s a reminder of the importance of fire safety plans in our schools – and not to mention functional fire alarm systems, too!

What you’ll see on these next few slides are the active fire alarm projects that were discussed at a Board of Education committee meeting last week. You’ll find a link to this report in the chat.

These fire alarm system failures are a hot button issue at the Board of Education and at the state legislature after the Maui wildfires and after HSTA helped bring light to the plight of schools like Konawaena Elementary on the Big Island who have been without a working fire alarm system since December of 2020. You can see on that list schools like Kainalu Elementary and Kapalama Elementary that have been without functional fire alarm systems for even longer and are utilizing a “fire watch system” instead.

HSTA will continue to monitor the situation and advocate for more to be done. If your school is on those lists, reach out to your legislators and let them know that funding for these fire systems needs to be a priority!

Your HSTA Board of Directors also specifically wants to see:

• An increased number of fire alarm pull stations;
• An increased frequency of inspections of school fire alarm systems;
• A fully functional fire suppression system in every school;
• Multiple evacuation points for emergencies for every school; and
• A fully functional fire extinguisher in every classroom.

The legislature is also, rightfully, focused on Maui wildfire rebuilding which will take hundreds of millions,if not billions of dollars to accomplish.

Unfortunately, to secure some of that money, the DOE proposed to lapse over $465 million in capital improvement projects that our schools desperately depend on and that legislators worked hard to secure funding for.

Despite that setback, we are working this legislative session to restore funding for some of those capital improvement projects that the department can handle. Additionally, we’re looking for funding to address school busing issues and to develop a registered teacher apprenticeship program to pay aspiring educators while they work their way towards earning their certification. The current student teaching model is a barrier to some, including our EAs and others, who would love to become licensed teachers. None of this comes cheap which is why we are also backing a new constitutional amendment effort to tax non-resident properties valued above $3 million. There are many more details that will be shared, including loopholes that have been addressed since the last time an effort like this was undertaken in 2018. Stay tuned!

You may have heard that vacancies are down this year, and that’s absolutely true. However, the percentage of positions that are filled by qualified educators is also down.

Part of that is the new contract that voting bargaining unit members approved by over 92% last May.

Emergency hires are a vital part of our educator workforce and their pay was increased from a meager $38,000 last year to over $50,000 this year. What you see here in red is where we chopped off the bottom three steps and consolidated them into a Step 4, right before the entry level Step 5 for those who have completed a state-approved teacher-education program. These emergency hires have helped to start the school year filling some of those vacancies that would otherwise be covered by a short- or long-term substitute.

Additionally, many of you have decided to stick around a few more years (hooray!) to reach the once-elusive Class VIII which will go into effect in the 2025-26 school year and will help with your pension calculations that will make a difference for the rest of your life!

This contract also contains a number of new or continuing working groups. The English Learner, EES, and Special Education joint committees continue and we’ve added working groups to discuss with the employer issues such as student discipline, career and technical education, leave benefits, the teacher transfer process, and Hawaiian education.

These groups are all engaged in important work, but I would like to give special attention to our Hawaiian Education workgroup and HSTA’s Hawaiian Education Special Committee given that we are now celebrating Mahina ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i or Hawaiian Language month.

Through the Hawaiian Education Special Committee we’ve had the opportunity, with the help of NEA, to advocate in DC for issues that matter for Hawaiian education. We are also advocating here at home for more funding for the Office of Hawaiian Education as our kaiapuni or Hawaiian immersion enrollment continues to rise without critical support staff being added for that office and in our growing list of kaiapuni schools.

This is the first year that HSTA will be hosting a few of our breakout sessions for Institute Day completely in ‘ōlelo Hawai’i.

There are many other wonderful breakouts that you’re welcome to attend this morning. Mahalo to everyone who helped to put them together and who helped to put this Institute Day together. Please be sure to fill out the evaluation form once you attend the breakouts to help us plan for Institute Day 2025.

Also, we are in the middle of HSTA election season. You should have received your voting credentials so please exercise your right to vote if you are an HSTA member!

I will end today with a mahalo to each and every one of you for the opportunity to be your president.

Yes, a lot of what I’ve talked about today has been a bit depressing, but we must be open about talking about our issues so that we can begin to address them head on. But not all is doom and gloom. We’ve come a long way in making progress on salaries and other issues that matter in just a few short years. Mahalo for being here for the profession and for the keiki who you inspire each and every day.

I also extend a warm mahalo to our chapter leaders including your Board of Directors and to the entire staff of HSTA who work hard every single day in the struggle towards attaining the schools our keiki deserve!