State and teachers
close to settling bonus
qualification issue

Cayetano says if he had
known they would cost $20
million, he would not
have agreed to them

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

The state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association are close to reaching an agreement in a dispute over salary bonuses to teachers with master's degrees or professional diplomas, a union official said yesterday.

HSTA President Karen Ginoza said that once this and another issue has been resolved, both sides will sign the contract, which was settled following a statewide teaches strike in April.

In a June 12 online message, the HSTA told members, "We hope to have the contract signed and in place by the end of July if not sooner."

The union had talked about possibly going to court to settle the question of who should qualify for a 3 percent salary bonus to teachers with professional diplomas or master's degrees.

The union said the Department of Education had been "balking" at the $20 million price tag for the bonuses and was seeking to reduce the number of people eligible by limiting the degrees and educational institutions accepted. The department also wanted to pay once and not in both years of the contract, the union said.

About 57 percent of HSTA's membership -- 7,300 teachers -- would qualify for the bonuses.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday that the state was not trying to renege on anything.

"When we took a look at this particular provision, we worked with HSTA in terms of developing the number of people who would qualified because the Department of Education simply did not have the information," Cayetano said. "So relying on the information that we got from HSTA, we came to the conclusion and calculation that the particular provision would cost us about $6.7 million."

Cayetano said that at the time of negotiating the contract, they did not know the cost could be upward of $20 million.

"Had we known that it would cost instead as much as $20 million, I can assure you that we would not have agreed to it," Cayetano said, though he added that he believes that the issue can be resolved.

Ginoza said the union did not agree to a dollar amount.

Laurel Johnston, assistant schools superintendent, said surplus federal impact aid has been looked at as a source to fund the bonuses, but the actual source will depend on what the final numbers turn out to be in an agreement.