Cayetano yesterday assigned his chief of staff, Charles Toguchi, to serve as the state's lead negotiator in contract talks with the Hawaii State Teachers Association. A union representative immediately praised the move.

"I am relying on him to take the lead with my negotiation team to facilitate agreement on both sides in a timely but fair manner," Cayetano said. "Public schoolteachers deserve to have a contract as soon as possible, so that they can get on with their business of educating Hawaii's youth."

Toguchi, state superintendent from 1987-1994, also served as chairman of both the state House and Senate education committees while serving in the Legislature from 1976-1987, and worked on the HSTA's staff for three years in the early 1970s.

"We're pleased with that," HSTA deputy executive director Joan Lee Husted said.

Rebecca Wimmer, HSTA representative for King Kamehameha III on Maui, said Toguchi will help restore teachers' confidence in the long-stalled contract negotiations.

The teachers' old contract expired 14 months ago but has been extended for short periods of time since then. The latest extention expires Oct. 31, and the HSTA's 49-member board of directors will meet Saturday to decide whether to ask for an additional extention.

Teachers are seeking a 14 percent raise over two years. State negotiators contend there is no money to support any increase.

In July, a nonbinding fact-finding panel appointed by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board recommended an across-the-board 10 percent raise for teachers. After that, the clock started ticking on a 60-day "cooling-off" period during which teachers could not vote to strike.

With the end of that cooling-off period in late September, teachers can strike on 10 days' notice.

Husted said the union is still working as hard as it can to avoid that possibility.

"Our basic position is that we want to get this settled," she said. "We are not interested in disrupting the education of youngsters, but it takes two parties to settle. So we're asking the community to support its teachers so we can get a fair and equitable settlement."

The pay raise remains the dominant issue in the negotiations. Teachers have not had a raise in two years, and the fact-finding panel said their salaries have 10 percent less buying power than in 1993.

Starting teachers make $23,656 a year, while top teachers make $50,606.

Teachers at King Kamehameha III and Princess Nahienaena elementary schools in Lahaina are taking one of the most dramatic protest steps they can short of a strike: abiding strictly by the terms of their contract.

Since the beginning of this month, teachers on both campuses have been doing what they're supposed to do - and only what they're supposed to do.

That means adhering to a strict seven-hour workday and declining to volunteer for extracurricular activities that do not fall within their job description.

Open houses, intermural sports, student council meetings, May Day and field trip preparations and the student-run closed-circuit TV broadcasts all are on hold.

"What we wanted to do is say, 'These are the things we do extra.' We like to do them. They're an important part of the school, but they are extra. With a lot of people having to work two or three jobs, we cannot afford to do them," said Patty Omura, a fifth-grade teacher at Kamehameha III.

Faculty at Kamehameha III is set to meet today and Princess Nahienaena teachers are scheduled to meet Monday on whether to continue the action past Tuesday.

Rebecca Wimmer, another fifth-grade teacher at Kamehameha III and HSTA's representative for the school, said all but three of her school's 45 faculty members voted to go ahead with the decision to "honor the contract."

At Princess Nahienaena, only one teacher out of 36 voted against the action, said Wendy Johannson, HSTA's representative.

As far as Wimmer knows, no other teaching staffs in the state have taken similar actions. But she said a few are considering it.

"What we feel like we are is a ground effort and it's kind of spreading," she said.

Kamehameha III PTA President Dianne Lagbas said parents she's talked to have been sympathetic toward the teachers and none have shown anger about the work-to-rule action.

Kamehameha III Principal Richard Paul said he, too, is sympathetic toward his staff.

"I was a teacher for 12 years, so I know exactly where they're coming from," he said. "I think the message they're trying to say is, 'We just want people to understand the extra things we do.'"