Schools chief keeps job
The Board of Education retains
By Debra Barayuga
Aizawa—but without a contract
Star-BulletinHerman Aizawa won't be moving out of his Queen Liliuokalani office when his contract as head of Hawaii public schools expires April 29. The Board of Education voted 9 to 4 last night to retain Aizawa as superintendent effective April 30, subject to periodic review. But this time, he won't have a contract.
"The current contract is so broad and detailed, it's difficult to hold one person accountable for everything in the contract," said board chairwoman Karen Knudsen. A committee of board members will meet soon with Aizawa to establish new criteria so the board will have a way to evaluate his performance.
Aizawa said he looks forward to hearing the board's concerns and identifying what needs to be done to raise student achievement. "All we do should focus on that," he said.
He was the first school chief to have a contract when he was appointed superintendent for a four-year term in 1994. He was also the first to have his job tied, in part, to benchmarks such as school climate and student achievement.
By the end of the 1996-97 school year, Aizawa had met or surpassed six of 26 goals, including raising individual schools' performance on fire and building safety inspections, graduates receiving the more demanding Board of Education recognition diploma and lowering the dropout rate.
But performance ratings dropped on SAT scores, attendance, the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies and teacher retention.
The board also rated Aizawa on professional standards, the effectiveness of his highly touted Success Compact initiative on raising literacy, and the implementation of School/Community-Based Management.
Board members gave him a rating of "satisfactory but with some continuing concerns" on his third evaluation, last month, but made no decision then on whether to keep him on after his contract expired.
Kelly King, one of four members who voted last night against keeping Aizawa on, said the issue boils down to accountability.
"The contract created was to hold people accountable to the school system," she said.
"I was elated when he said he wanted to be held accountable."
But benchmarks used to evaluate Aizawa's performance were not met, and King said she doesn't believe that they can be met by the time Aizawa's term expires.
"When our main job is to hire the state superintendent, the only way to hold us accountable is hold him accountable," she said.
"It's not an easy thing to do, but a necessary thing to do."
Board members Garrett Toguchi, Lex Brodie and Francis McMillen also voted against keeping Aizawa on.
Voting for Aizawa were Knudsen, Mitsugi Nakashima, Winston Sakurai, John Michael Compton, Noemi Pendleton, Keith A. Sakata, Denise Matsumoto, Ronald B.Y. Nakano and Herbert Watanabe.
Toguchi said Aizawa has failed to provide effective leadership in areas such as special education and the Hawaiian language immersion program.
There are more than 16,000 students in the public schools identified with special needs. To provide for "every student, every time," requires strong leadership, Toguchi said.
The same could be said for the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program, which hasn't been getting much support from the department during the past few years, he said.
Per-pupil spending sought in the supplemental budget for the program has been declining in the past three years.
Complying with the Felix consent decree, which covers special education, has taken up much of Aizawa's and his management team's time, Compton said.
At the same time, Compton said, they have had to deal with shrinking resources, increases in student enrollment and overcrowded classrooms.
"By itself, it's a major undertaking. Under adverse conditions, he's held the line."
