Teachers to get
bonuses next month

But pay raises will be given
in November to ensure correct
accounting, DOE says

---

By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Teachers will receive retention bonuses promised under the recently negotiated contract in their Oct. 20 paychecks and their long-awaited pay raises and retroactive pay in their Nov. 20 paychecks, a Department of Education official said yesterday.

Personnel Director Sandra McFarlane said the raises will be paid a month later because calculating the raises for each of the state's 12,000-plus teachers is complicated and the department wants to make sure it is working with accurate data.

"It's the sheer volume and making sure we have the most current information. We didn't want inaccurate information to cause a missed paycheck," McFarlane said.

For example, her staff is manually checking the status of teachers who have transferred to different schools because the starting date of that particular school may have been different from the previous school, and that information would affect the calculations, she said.

"Once we know the start of the school year, we can calculate what they're entitled to, but we need the information first," she said. "That's why it's a pretty complex process."

Joan Husted, Hawaii State Teachers Association executive director, said while teachers have been waiting for their pay raises and would certainly like to be paid earlier, she's aware of the constraints the department is working under while it's also trying to recruit and hire new teachers.

McFarlane said her staff has been working seven days a week to process new hires to address a teacher shortage, but she believes her staff passed a crucial test with the Sept. 20 paychecks.

The contract was thought settled after the teachers union approved it April 23, ending a statewide strike. But its implementation was held up while the state and the HSTA tried to resolve a disagreement over whether a 3 percent bonus for teachers with master's degrees and professional diplomas should be paid once or twice during the contract.

The Hawaii Labor Relations Board is handling the dispute, but the governor last week agreed to implement all the sections, including the pay raises, that are not in dispute.

The contract calls for retention incentive payments of $550 for each of the first two years of the contract that began in 1999. McFarlane said new teacher hires aren't qualified for the retention bonuses.

The contract also includes across-the-board raises of 2 percent each in September and February of this school year and of 3 percent each in September and February next school year. All but teachers at the top of the pay scale will receive a total 6 percent step increase over the next two years.