Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Watanabe believes
teachers need raise

Herbert Watanabe
was elected BOE chairman
by a unanimous vote

Where the largest schools are

---

By Gary Kubota
Maui correspondent

WAILUKU -- The new chairman of the state Board of Education said he feels teachers in Hawaii should receive the 22-percent wage increase they are seeking from Gov. Ben Cayetano.

"But whether the state supports it is another thing," said chairman Herbert S. Watanabe. "That's a matter of whether we have the money."

As the 72-year-old Watanabe became the head of the board in a unanimous vote last night, the state administration faces a salary conflict with public school teachers that could erupt into a strike.

Watanabe said he was worried that a lack of a comparable wage with other states would result in teachers leaving the profession and put the state in a vulnerable position.

"Other states might come to recruit in Hawaii," Watanabe said.

Watanabe was elected to the board as the Big Island representative in 1996.

Before his retirement, he worked for 40 years for the state Department of Education and served in various positions, including an industrial arts teacher, a vice principal and a business specialist for the Hawaii district.

He was born in Wailuku and graduated from Lanai High School. He has a master of science from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Winston Sakurai, 27, was selected as the first vice-chairman. He said he had no significant differences with Watanabe and believed they would be able to work well together.

In his remarks after his election, Watanabe said he was an Eagle Scout and noted that he had worked for 57 years in scouting.

He closed his speech with a portion of the oath of allegiance from the Boy Scouts of America: "On my honor, I will do my best. ..."

---

Largest schools
in Leeward, Central

WAILUKU -- Hawaii's largest public high schools are Farrington, with a student enrollment of 2,455, followed by Waipahu, 2,411; Campbell, 2,102; Mililani, 2,044; and Pearl City, 2,032, according to an update released yesterday by state schools superintendent Paul LeMahieu's office.

Intermediate and middle schools with the largest enrollments were Mililani Middle, 1,814 in grades 6-8, multi-track; Kapolei Middle, 1,261, grades 6-8; Waipahu Intermediate, 1,192, grades 7-8; Kalama Intermediate, 1,137, grades 6-8; and Highlands Intermediate, 1,103, grades 7-8.

The largest elementary schools were August Ahrens, 1,221; Lihikai, 1,119; Holomua, 1,077, multi-track; Mililani Mauka, 1,076; and Kapaa, 1,069.

Official public school enrollment for 2000-2001 has decreased for the third year in a row to 183,520, down 1,516 from last year.

---

Gary T. Kubota, Star-Bulletin