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Ed board KEALAKEKUA, Hawaii -- On the same day state schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu credited the work of schools for an improvement in standardized test scores, teachers said he and the Board of Education can show their thanks by supporting a raise for teachers.
supports raises
for teachers
Students' improved standardized
test scores prompt tribute for
'the ones who are doing it'By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin"Our society shows its respect in many ways, and one of those is compensation," said Joan Lewis, teacher at Nanakuli High and Intermediate and a Hawaii State Teachers Association vice president.
"You're starting to see some gains. If you know we're the ones who are doing it, where's the appreciation?"
The board apparently agreed with the teachers union and voted unanimously last night in favor of a resolution supporting a pay raise for teachers in the current contract talks.
The vote on the resolution came a few hours after the board heard welcomed news that this year's Stanford Achievement Test results showed across-the-board improvement.
The Spring 2000 testing involved fewer tests than in 1999. Also, grades 7 and 9 were tested last year, while eighth- and 10th-graders took the test this year. Despite this, the Department of Education says the 2000 results can be matched with comparable 1999 results.
More than 80 percent of students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 scored at or above the national average in math problem solving. There were also gains in reading comprehension."I think the credit goes to the people in our schools," LeMahieu told the board.
"Teachers should be recognized, period, for their work, but they should also be recognized financially," LeMahieu said. "It promotes a sense that what they do matters."
Lewis said the sticking point in reaching a contract settlement with the state is salary.
Talks are scheduled to resume next week. Teachers have been without a new contract for more than a year.
Several teachers who testified before the board cited a statistic that with cost-of-living adjustments, Hawaii's public school teachers have the lowest salary in the country.
They said teachers are leaving or are contemplating leaving their public-school jobs here for either another state or another profession with more lucrative opportunities.
"Frankly, (state officials) are in a crisis with their teachers," Lewis said. "What you heard here is not the exception; it's the norm."
Teunisse Rabin of Honaunau said her daughter is a special-education teacher on Oahu who is looking with envy at what her cousins make in California.
"I want my children to stay in Hawaii," she said. "We need special-education teachers so badly."
Which is why, Lewis said, that it is a "slap in the face" to hear that a national recruiting firm is offering mainland special-education teachers $100,000 in salary, benefits and moving expenses to teach here to fulfill a federal court mandate.
Lewis pointed out to board members that one of the people serving them at the counter of a rental car company at the Kona airport is a teacher working her second job.
LeMahieu said he has also seen teachers not being able to live like professionals because they do not make enough. "I go out to eat. At some point in the meal, the person who's waiting on our table simply has to say, 'I work for you; I'm a teacher.' It makes you cry."