Senate education chair says HIDOE ‘had no plan B’ for distance learning

State senators complained Thursday that the Hawaii State Department of Education did not have an adequate plan to scale up distance learning this school year and failed to adequately support teachers and principals during the coronavirus pandemic.

At a COVID-19 briefing before the state Senate, HIDOE interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi presented a table of data showing that teacher retirements skyrocketed 49% from 287 in school year 2019–20 to 427 in school year 2020–21. The total number of teachers departing the department (for other jobs, moving away from Hawaii, retirement, etc.) increased 16% over the same one-year period.

HIDOE said the average annual teacher separation amount over the last five years is 1,079 teachers out of about 13,000 teachers statewide, equaling a turnover rate of approximately 8%, an indication of the state’s continuing teacher shortage crisis.

In his presentation on the state’s overwhelmed distance learning program, Hayashi said, “The state’s program currently has limited capacity due to staffing.”

“This school year, distance learning options across the state are limited,” Hayashi added.

State Senate Education Chair Michelle Kidani told her colleagues, “To be fair, they’ve had little time to plan for this because the board and the previous superintendent had no plans at all.”

The HIDOE began ramping up distance learning plans in the final weeks of the summer after the Board of Education directed then-Superintendent Christina Kishimoto to do so at July 15 meeting. Educators returned to campuses July 28 and classes resumed for most schools on Aug. 3.

“My whole beef is that there was no plan B,” Kidani said.

“To expect every student to be back in a classroom and not being able to really social distance, was you know, I don’t what you guys were thinking, but it was not something that really happened. And now with the Delta variant and who knows what comes after that, we need a plan B. And I just think you guys have done a very big disservice to the students and the parents … and the whole community. Because these are the leaders of tomorrow,” Kidani added.

Hayashi, who took over as interim superintendent on Aug. 1, just two days before students returned to class, said, “For me, I was really amazed that they could do it (create state- and complex-level distance learning programs) that quickly considering that we also needed to hire teachers. We are also still in the process of doing that.”

But the department remains unable to keep up with the growing number of requests for remote learning. There are two types of distance instruction available from HIDOE currently: a program run at the state level as well as distance learning slots at some schools and complex areas.

HIDOE’s statewide distance program had about 460 students enrolled as of Thursday, Deputy Superintendent Phyllis Unebasami told senators. She said another 146 students are on a waiting list for distance slots from primary school through the 8th grade.

“If they find that there is a desire for the family for distance learning and we believe that the child can be successful, then they get on this waitlist and we’re then opening up more seats for statewide distance learning. We have a list and we’re watching that, and we’re hiring more teachers,” Unebasami said.

“As we get those teachers on board, then we can open up more seats. That is something of a work in progress. Our goal is that, as we said before, in-person learning is really important,” she told senators. “There are students who did not do well with distance learning. So we want to make sure that they have a seat for them in the school.”

Kidani, the Senate Education Committee chair, said, “Although we may be filled up, and I will tell you that many schools were not prepared to do distance learning.”

“So even though they’re doing distance learning, they’re only assigning a teacher to correct your homework and that kind of stuff. So it’s not really distance teaching,” Kidani told Unebasami and Hayashi.

State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kapalama, Alewa, Kalihi Valley) said, “We already have a teacher shortage. You haven’t been able to get them before. How are you going to get them now?”

Unebasami responded that the HIDOE has taken out ads for distance learning teachers because the department wants to create a statewide pool of distance teachers.

State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe, Iroquois Point) raised a number of concerns about school safety and lack of support and clear guidance for educators during the pandemic.

“When you have a classroom of 40 and you only have less than a foot apart, no matter if you take out all the desks and all the bookshelves out, you only have less than a foot going forward. So I know it says ‘as much as possible,’ but how long do you stay in a classroom that is air-conditioned with one door?” Fevella said.

“Teachers in there never got the proper training. They still never got the proper training. That’s what they’re worried about. And now, here we are implementing another school year with no oversight,” Fevella said.

“I understand you said it was because it’s up to the principals. But again, we have 3,000-plus students in Campbell High School (the largest high school in the state, which is in Fevella’s district). The possibility of having every teacher on the same page without training, without oversight” is not good, he said.

He said his mobile phone was going off during the briefing with texts from teachers who were complaining about a lack of training and support in crowded, aged facilities.

“What can we do as leaders in giving these teachers and kids and principals a break?” Fevella asked, noting that it’s been over a year already “and still yet, no support for the principals and the school in saying that it’s up to the principal and the school.”

Unebasami said the HIDOE is seeing an increase in distance learning requests, but the percentage of those interested in learning from home averages one to three percent across the state.

Distance learning requests amount to about three percent of students in the Campbell-Kapolei complex, the area represented by Fevella, Unebasami said.