HSTA’s Board of Directors approves demand for impact bargaining
Posted: August 15, 2021
Mahalo for your support
Thank you for your overwhelming response to our open letter to interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi, the Hawaii State Board of Education, and Gov. David Ige. Since our Member Matters email newsletter went out Friday evening, we’ve collected more than 1,000 signatures, and more continue to come in. We will submit the letter with all of your signatures Wednesday morning to the Board of Education as public testimony. If you haven’t signed on, please do and encourage your colleagues to do so as well. We will also send a copy of the letter to key community leaders and stakeholders, as noted in the letter, to ensure they are aware of the realities that are taking place in our schools.
Please submit testimony ahead of Thursday’s BOE meeting
Many have asked what else you can do, or what our supporters can do. The Board of Education will be meeting this Thursday, Aug. 19. On the agenda for the general business meeting, which starts at 1:30 p.m., is discussion item VI-A: Presentation on opening schools for the 2021-2022 school year. Please submit testimony for that discussion item to tell the BOE your stories and raise your concerns. All testimony is public, however, if you do not want your personal information posted, submit your testimony as an attachment and include “NO PERSONAL INFORMATION” in the subject line, as outlined here. Although the meeting will start before the end of your work day, there is an opportunity to provide late oral testimony at the end of the meeting. HSTA will livestream the meeting on Facebook and YouTube, and these streams will be archived for later viewing.
HSTA’s Board of Directors approves demand for impact bargaining
On Saturday, Aug. 14, HSTA’s Board of Directors adopted a new business item that calls for HSTA’s executive director to make a formal, clear, and unambiguous demand for impact bargaining related to the changes in working conditions from COVID-19. Your HSTA Negotiations Team has scheduled a meeting to address this directive and will be formally communicating a demand for impact bargaining in the near future. While the state and HIDOE were unwilling to renew and update a memorandum of understanding around COVID-19 earlier this year, as proposed by HSTA during collective bargaining negotiations (see item 38), interim Superintendent Hayashi has power to make agreements with HSTA separate from state negotiators. We hope this push for collaboration will lead to productive discussions and solutions that keep our schools and communities safe.
Please wear Red for Ed on Tuesdays
Please wear Red for Ed on Tuesdays to show your solidarity, and encourage your colleagues to do the same. If you don’t have an HSTA T-shirt, please contact your school-level leaders. Share your #RedForEd photos with us to share on social media.