Transcript
The President of Hawaii Teachers Association Corey Rosenlee says it has been a long time coming for public school teachers who teach children from age five to 18 years old.
With members voting clearly in favour of the move, it means an almost 14 percent increase in wages, with some salaries going up by about US$10,000.
“Well for a long time we have had a chronic teacher shortage here in Hawaii and so the question is how do we recruit and retain teachers? It doesn't solve every problem but it is a good start moving forward to try to make sure that we can keep teachers here in Hawaii.”
He says some teachers have class sizes of up to 40 to 50 students.
Amy Perusso has worked as a teacher for seventeen years and currently works at Mililani High School.
She's happy and thankful to the negotiations team saying many new teachers don't stay long in the profession due to poor pay.
“We're seeing some issues around compression and around rising health care premiums but overall financially this is a solid contract and an opportunity to look at how to better meet the needs of our english language students.”
Mr Rosenlee agrees the challenges are many.
“Pay was one issue. The other issue that was of primary concern to teachers was the evaluation system. The current model too often was punitive and it doesn't have a collaborative feeling to it. With the new teacher evaluation that we were able to negotiate, it becomes a process where I hope we are able to encourage more collaboration between principal and teacher and it helps teacher practise.”
Negotiator Osa Tui said it has required a lot of bargaining with the Board of Education, the Department of Education and Hawaii's Governor, David Ige.
He says the governor's backing made a huge difference to getting it through.
“I'd say teachers are very satisfied with this settlement and they are very happy that there is going to be some stability for the next four years with regards to their contract and their pay. I have not seen teachers this positive about a settlement in a very, very long time.”
Amy Perusso says she found it quite harmful to children if teachers need to work a second or third job, just to meet the high costs of living in the state.
“Because you can't devote your full attention to what you need to do in the classroom if you are worried about making it to your second job so that you can pay your rent or pay your health insurance so ultimately it comes back to like this vicious cycle.”
Corey Rosenlee says the more pay should reduce the need for this.
With over 90 percent of members voting in favour, the changes take effect from 1 July until June 2020.
