"This was a test of the true spirit of our teachers and our profession and we passed with flying colors," said Annmarie Ho, a sixth-grade teacher at Liliuokalani School.

Like other teachers, Ho said she was relieved she didn't have to go on strike.

But some educators said the differences between the union and the state should have been resolved sooner.

"Why put off something until tomorrow what you can get done today? We're glad we don't have to walk the picket line, (but) all this could have been prevented a while ago if there was more effort on the governor's part," said Dave Dunaway, a speech and drama teacher at Jarrett Intermediate School.

"Our union was very cooperative and ready to negotiate, but the administration played hardball and put a lot of people through undue stress and pain," he said.

As English teacher Amy Berglund tidied up her McKinley High School classroom yesterday, she remembered the stress and pain of 1973, the last time Hawaii teachers went on strike.

Berglund said she reluctantly crossed the picket line midway through that work stoppage to help pay her mother's nursing home bills.

"I wish I hadn't, even though I had to then," she said. "There were teachers that never spoke to me from that day on."

If teachers had gone on strike today, Berglund was prepared to be a fixture on the picket line.

"I'm not militant, I don't think. I just feel that this is a time when we're not being treated fairly," she said yesterday. "It's the lack of a contract that I think has solidified the intent of the teachers. It's like being a day laborer and having to go each day without knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow. It's unconscionable to let it go on for two years."

After talking to some of his colleagues early this morning, Kalani High School history teacher Greg Van Cantfort said teachers seemed to be satisfied with the settlement offer.

"It was a moral victory for education and for teachers," Van Cantfort said. "A lot of teachers are relieved. I don't think anyone wanted to strike, but we were certainly ready."

Sharie Dale, a 10-year teaching veteran, said she was happy to hear that she wouldn't have to walk the picket line at Kaimuki High School today. But she said the public's attitude toward teachers would have to change. "I think we would have the best system if teachers were treated like doctors or lawyers," said Dale, a Kaimuki sociology teacher.

On the neighbor islands, teachers were also happy to hear a strike had been averted.

"I think it's going to work out. I'm hopeful," said Terry. L. Maddox, a kindergarten teacher at Kula Elementary School on Maui.

Maddox said adding seven additional teaching days is fine with her.

"We work seven days anyway. I go in two to three weeks in August just to set up my room," she said.

On the Big Island, a handful of teachers waited in the darkness at Hilo High School this morning to tell their co-workers that a settlement had been reached.

"It was so last-minute. I didn't get a good night's sleep," said Merle Yoshida.

On Kauai, Shimoru Takenaka was drinking coffee with other residents when she heard the strike had been called off.

"It would've been a real shame," Takenaka said.

"It's no good for the kids to see their teachers on the line."

Cathy Sugahara, who works as a teacher's aide and an A+ assistant at Kilauea School, breathed a sigh of relief to learn she wouldn't be losing her income. "That's our grocery money," she said.

A veteran of the 1973 strike, Berglund said she reluctantly crossed the picket line midway through that stoppage to help pay her mother's nursing home bills.

"I wish I hadn't, even though I had to then," she said. "There were teachers that never spoke to me from that day on."

If teachers had gone on strike today, Berglund was prepared to be a fixture on the picket line.

"I'm not militant, I don't think. I just feel that this is a time when we're not being treated fairly," she said yesterday. "It's the lack of a contract that I think has solidified the intent of the teachers. It's like being a day laborer and having to go each day without knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow. It's unconscionable to let it go on for two years."

As negotiations continued into the night, Nancy Major crafted picket signs. Although she was ready to go on strike, she said her second-grade students at Waialae Elementary School didn't want her to.

"We've been talking about how this is what grown-ups sometimes do when they're trying to work out their problems," Major said.

McKinley High world history teacher April Nakamura went straight to work on her picket sign after the final bell rang yesterday afternoon. Two students came by to offer their support.

"This will be a whole lesson in itself," Nakamura said.

"They're learning a lot about government and what it takes to get things done."

While teachers prepared to picket, most parents prepared to enlist grandparents, aunties, uncles and professionals for child care help.

But families of severely handicapped students wondered how they would cope if schools were closed because of a strike.

"I don't know a family who could tell you a plan, because there can be no plan," said Lyle Moody, whose 16-year-old son Marc is deaf, blind and severely mentally handicapped.

Marc attends Pohukaina School, a stand-alone school for the severely disabled on the Kaimuki Intermediate campus.

Moody, a contractor, was prepared to lose income in order to stay home with his son for the duration of a strike.

He said he had no alternative. The Hawaii Labor Relations Board on Tuesday rejected the state's request to categorize special education teachers of high-risk students such as Marc as "essential workers" who legally could not strike.

The board declared only nine teachers at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind as essential, ordering them to report to work in the event of a strike.

Child care centers will not accept Marc and do not have the resources to care for him, Moody said.

Marc "lives for school," his father said. "He waits for the bus. On the weekend he doesn't know what to do because he's in a routine, and if you break the routine, it confuses him and he regresses."