HSTA president thanks governor for compression fix, other education initiatives

As Gov. David Ige’s eight-year tenure comes to a close, Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association President Osa Tui, Jr. sat down with the governor and first lady Dawn Ige to thank them for fixing salary compression and spearheading additional key education initiatives while in office.

In an exclusive interview at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol, Tui thanked Ige for fixing one of the longest-standing issues facing teachers in recent memory: compressed salaries. Roughly 9,200 bargaining unit members had their salaries adjusted this fall to be in line with their years of service after decades of not being properly compensated.

“People don’t think that the government can work sometimes, but we saw legislators, we saw the Board of Education, the superintendent and yourself all coming together to make sure that this could happen — we can fix this long-standing problem. So mahalo to you, Gov. Ige,” Tui said.

Ige responded, “As teachers spent time in the system, they were for falling further and further behind teacher pay in comparable school districts all across the country, and it broke my heart to see teachers have to choose to leave the state because they could get higher pay, especially when they get to 10 years of service or 15 years of service.

“I’m glad we had a general agreement about trying to get this compression taken care of. We were ready. We thought we had the revenues. (Then) the pandemic happened and the budget cratered. I’m glad that we were able to pick up on that proposal and finally get it implemented,” the governor added.

Jump to:

• 0:45 The Iges remember their public school teachers
• 2:20 First lady talks about why she became an educator
• 4:00 The Iges remember HSTA’s early support for his 2014 governor campaign
• 8:00 Reforming teacher evaluation system
• 12:15 Improving classroom air conditioning, tribute from Corey Rosenlee
• 14:30 First lady on efforts to feed hungry public school students
• 16:24 First lady on efforts to improve keiki literacy
• 17:30 Governor thanks teachers for hard work during the pandemic
• 19:30 Osa thanks governor for helping to solve salary compression problem
• 23:00 Governor talks about the future of public education in Hawaiʻi

Improving the teacher evaluation system

Ige noted with pride that “as governor, we were actually able to complete most of the big bucket list items that we were committed to,” such as reducing unnecessary burdens in the Educator Effectiveness System (EES) that evaluates teachers.

Ige was a state senator during the system’s initial development. As chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that manages the state budget, he warned officials at the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education not to “assign (teacher evaluations) to some educator bureaucrat and design something that’s not workable.”

Ige said it was frustrating “to see the exact opposite happen — the creation of this monstrous evaluation system that required five times more resources with the legislature gave the system essentially zero resources.” Ige said schools were forced to reallocate staffing and funds to manage the system’s cumbersome workload.

First lady Dawn Ige, a former public school teacher at Waimalu Elementary School and vice principal at Kanoelani Elementary School and Moanalua High School, experienced this first-hand. She said, “the quantity and the volume, and the length of those evaluations was just tremendous.

“I remember having to evaluate 40 teachers at one school, and that’s a lot. It’s scheduling, it’s timing. We need accountability for sure. But how can we do that in a way that is fair, that is efficient and that we can do it in a way that is meaningful to both the teacher and the administrator?” Dawn Ige said.

The governor called the system “high stakes” because “teachers were the only ones that had a bad outcome if the evaluation wasn’t good.” He said, “It was a lose, lose, lose, lose on all fronts. Clearly, when I became governor, I knew we had to change. It did not make sense.”

Tenured teachers now undergo comprehensive evaluation every five years instead of every year. Tui thanked the governor for the change, noting it alleviated a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety.

“I remember teachers having to put on a little show,” Tui said. “It wasn’t evaluating what was truly happening in classrooms.”

Cooling Hawaiʻi’s hot classrooms

Cooling Hawaiʻi’s hot classrooms was another top priority. The governor said he worked to get most of Hawaiʻi’s classrooms outfitted with air conditioning within an 18-month period.

“Many people didn’t think we could do it, to start a program from scratch and get it done,” he said, “and we were glad that we were able to get to the hardest classrooms. We continue to air condition more classrooms as we’ve kind of progressed.”

The first lady recalled teaching in a classroom with no air conditioning: “You have to deal with the dust, the noise from the street, and the heat, of course, so being in a comfortable room makes a huge difference in learning.”

In a recorded message, former HSTA President Corey Rosenlee told Ige, “Your first year as governor was my first year (as HSTA president). You took on one of the big challenges facing our schools, and that was hot classrooms.

“You made it a priority in your first year to take $100 million and with that, we were able to air condition 1,200 classrooms. But then I took one of your ideas, governor. You wanted to use GEMS (Green Energy Money Savers financing approved in 2017) funding to bring down electricity costs of our schools. With that, we were able to air condition another 1,000 classrooms. And just this year we will get funding to do another 1,000,” Rosenlee said.

“As you’re leaving office, most of Hawaiʻi’s hot classrooms are now cool so our students can learn. On behalf of teachers and students across the state, I just want to say thank you,” Rosenlee said.

HSTA’s support boosted Ige’s first gubernatorial campaign

Looking back at his run for governor in 2014, Ige thanked HSTA and credited the union’s support as critical to winning his race against incumbent Neil Abercrombie, who had significantly more in campaign funds with a $2 million war chest.

“In the very, very early days, before HSTA made the endorsement, it was hard,” Ige said. “We’d be talking to people and asking people for support. They were afraid because they didn’t want to be taking on an incumbent governor. They were not so confident that we actually had a chance of winning when it had never been done. So that endorsement by HSTA was the first cornerstone, I think, of trying to get the establishment to recognize that we actually had a chance to win.”

First lady Dawn Ige said HSTA’s support was critical in their “David-and-Goliath” battle to get into office. She said, “The people made a difference. It just added so much more momentum, and excitement to the campaign. I got to know more teachers, and it just made a huge difference.”

The future of public education in Hawaiʻi

Ige’s term ends Dec. 5, and current Lt. Gov. Josh Green will be sworn in as Hawaiʻi’s next governor.

“I’m excited for the future of public education,” Ige said. “The state is in the best financial condition it’s ever been in our history, so we will have the resources to make the difference.”

Ige said he’s optimistic the state can expand its public preschool and early college programs. “I think that we put the foundation blocks in place, and I’m just excited about the opportunities that the sound financial condition of the state will give us in the next few years to make a real difference in this community,” he said.

Tui thanked Ige and the first lady: “I believe you’ve been a governor of great integrity, and we appreciate so much everything you’ve done.”