Personnel service
may be hired to
end logjams
hurting teachers

The BOE budget panel backs
plans to seek $44 million
more for operations

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

Public school officials are discussing the idea of hiring a private personnel service to relieve the government logjam that delays putting new teachers into classrooms and getting recruitment bonuses into their pockets, state Board of Education members were told yesterday.

Another prospect is to put new teachers into service before checking their resumes, state Superintendent Paul LeMahieu told the board Budget Committee.

Concerns about teacher shortage problems, the subject of a Thursday board meeting, still claimed the members' attention as the committee met to discuss the Department of Education supplemental budget requests for the 2002-03 fiscal year.

The committee approved the department's plans to ask for a $44 million addition to the $1 billion operating budget approved by the state Legislature, and to make up a $16 million shortfall in funding special education mandated by the Felix consent decree.

Deputy Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said the brainstorming under way in the department in the wake of hundreds of applications to fill teacher vacancies has suggested that "if DAGS (Department of Accounting and General Services) cannot proc- ess them any faster, we may contract out to a private firm. Many employees are not getting the incentive bonuses, relocation pay. ... It's not happening fast enough." She said temporary employees were already hired to help applicants complete forms. "In reality it should have been done a month ago."

LeMahieu told the board members that "from recruitment to paying, we need to streamline. The whole system is collapsing if we don't do something." He said the hang-ups involved in having a separate state department handle the payroll underscores the need to have "reasonable authority over our own affairs. It doesn't make sense that the same action that hires you isn't paying you ... that someone else does the next step."

The superintendent suggested that to avoid a three-week delay while an applicant's credentials are checked, "we treat them like professionals and put them in the classroom. If one out of 1,000 is engaged in fraud," the department could pursue perjury penalties, he said.

LeMahieu said the delay in putting teachers into classrooms reflects a bureaucracy that is "risk-avertive. ... You must never be caught doing anything wrong."

The supplemental request includes $25.9 million for pay obligations under collective-bargaining agreements and about $5 million designated as incentives such as signing bonuses or relocation fees for mainland recruits, a figure that "will be tweaked," said Assistant Superintendent Laurel Johnson.

It is considerably less than $80 million requested last year, but board members were concerned whether it would be accepted in the state administration's budget.

"I don't want to irk the guy," BOE Chairman Herbert Watanabe said, referring to a letter from state Finance Director Neal Miyahara telling departments they should ask only for "critical unanticipated health and safety emergencies, unforeseen requirements of court orders, consent decrees or federal mandates." Even the latter "are not a carte blanche for unrestricted appropriations," Miyahara wrote.

Committee Chairwoman Karen Knudsen said "we lost credibility last year" when the department agreed to pare the requests.

Members quizzed department officials about separating $8.2 million of funding for the 23 charter schools. "Why not list it out so they know we're talking about 23 principals?" asked Knudsen.

"I firmly believe they should not be supported to the disadvantage of other schools," said LeMahieu. He told the board the distinction makes it clear to the charter schools, operated separately from the public schools, "I'll tell them that as much as we are scaled down, they will get a pro rata."

The committee also approved an $89,000 supplement to its own budget to fund positions for staff auditors and a clerk-reporter. A $2,500 item would contract for a private guard to provide security at each board meeting. The individual schools now provide security when meetings are held on their premises.