Teachers union Department of Education officials discussed carrying out teachers bonuses over two years, not one year as stated by Gov. Ben Cayetano, a teachers union official said yesterday.
says bonus was
for 2 years
Officials were to ask the Legislature
for funds, the union saysBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com"Very clearly in the meetings we talked about the second year," Hawaii State Teachers Association Executive Director Joan Husted told Star-Bulletin editors and reporters.
Husted also said the department even talked about going to the Legislature to get additional funds during meetings on implementing the newly negotiated teachers contract.
"The first thing the state proposed is in the second year, 'We'll go only with the teachers who got master's degrees and (professional diplomas) from UH.' That would cut down the cost of the second year," Husted said. "And then finally the DOE came up with, 'We'll go to the Legislature to get the money for the second year.'"
Education personnel director Sandra McFarlane said the option to seek extra funding from the Legislature was discussed but in connection with exceeding the original $6 million price tag of the bonuses, an amount state negotiators have said shows the state negotiated the bonuses for one year only.
"It wasn't related to paying a second year but related to (the superintendent's) original offer of $6 million," McFarlane said.
The dispute between the teachers union and the state stems from a 3 percent differential negotiated in the yet unsettled contract, a bonus for teachers with master's degrees and professional diplomas.
The contract language says the bonus is to be paid during "each year" of the last two years of the contract.
Gov. Ben Cayetano, however, has said that the contract language is in error because the agreement reached at the bargaining table called for the state to pay the bonus for only one year. State negotiators discovered the error a few days after the contract was ratified by teachers.
Cayetano said the $6 million original cost of the bonus shows that the state intended to pay because the Department of Education was going to pay the bonus within its budget with a one-time windfall of federal funds.
"That was true. It was very clear that the department was going to pay for this out of existing funds. There was never any doubt about that," Husted said. "But remember we're working on the fact that we have a two-year provision, so when it became evident that they were gonna have more people then they expected to have in the provision, that's when we were told by department people that, 'Maybe we can go to the Legislature and get the money from them.'"
State Schools Chief Paul LeMahieu decided to expand the criteria for which teachers would qualify for the bonus.
"When we went back to check on the numbers of who had a master's degree related to their area of teaching, per the superintendent's request, then the numbers started getting larger," McFarlane said. "If we exceeded the amount provided by impact aid, what we would do in that situation."
The number of teachers who would qualify is just under 6,500 at a cost of about $9.7 million.
The department discussed going to the Legislature. "Perhaps that was an option that we needed to explore."
McFarlane also said the department's task is to implement not negotiate, the contract.
"The issue is what the governor offered the teachers and what they left the governor's office with. We're (the department) not the ones negotiating with the union."
The HSTA has filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to force the state to implement the contract. The state's chief negotiator, Davis Yogi, declined comment, noting the labor board case.
>> HSTA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site
