Judge clears
lawsuit by subs

Substitute teachers are asking
the state for $15M in back pay

Substitute teachers who claim that the state has shortchanged them out of millions of dollars in wages will get a chance to make their case in court.

"I'm thankful the judge is going to allow us our day in court," said David Garner, a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit. "Without that, we'd have absolutely no protection."

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn ruled yesterday that the substitute teachers can argue their case based on contractual claims. But she agreed with the state's attorneys that the statute of limitations bars them from seeking back pay prior to Nov. 8, 2000.

The substitutes had sought $25 million in back pay dating to July 1, 1996, when a law took effect linking their pay to one salary classification for full-time teachers. The amount in dispute now is closer to $15 million, Garner said.

Ahn ruled only that the court has jurisdiction in the case, David Garner et al. v. the State of Hawaii Department of Education. She did not address its merits.

The state had sought to have the entire case dismissed, but Deputy Attorney General Jim Halvorson said he was not disappointed that it will go forward.

"We think we have very good defenses on the contract claims," he said.

Substitute teachers are now paid $119.80 per day. The plaintiffs claim they should get $150 a day.

Trial in the class-action suit had been set for Feb. 28, but attorneys for both sides expect that date to be pushed back.

The Department of Education plans to cut the pay of substitute teachers to $112.53 on Jan. 24, the same day a raise for full-time teachers goes into effect. Paul Alston, attorney for the substitutes, said he would return to court before then to try to block the pay cut.

About 1,000 substitute teachers, out of a pool of 3,900, work in the public schools every day.

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State plans no pay cut
for part-time teachers

The Department of Education does not plan to cut the pay of part-time teachers when it reduces substitute teachers' wages by 6 percent on Jan. 24.

Some part-time teachers had been concerned that their wages would be docked because they are linked to the substitute teacher rate, which is a formula set in law. But department spokesman Greg Knudsen said the department has more flexibility in paying part-time teachers.

"We're compelled by law to apply the formula to the substitute teachers, and we do not have that same requirement in calculating the part-time teacher salary," Knudsen said. "There is no plan to change the current pay rate for part-time teachers."

Part-time teachers have been receiving $19.97 an hour, an amount equal to one-sixth of the substitutes' daily pay, Knudsen said. The department is working to amend the portion of the school code that links the two pay categories.

Rumors of a pay cut had angered some part-time teachers. Bea Welz, a full-time English teacher at King Kekaulike High School on Maui, has a second job as a part-time driver's education teacher, but said yesterday she would quit if her pay were reduced.

"It's not worth it to take your life in your hands for student drivers for less pay than that," she said.

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