If Hawai‘i’s teachers follow through on their threat to strike, "sports at public schools statewide will come to a standstill," the union president promised yesterday.
Members of the Hawai‘i State Teachers Association will hold a strike vote March 14. They would be legally permitted to strike 10 days later, but the HSTA board has ordered that no strike begin before April 5.
Karen Ginoza, president of HSTA, said, "Many teachers are also coaches, and get additional pay through our contract. They will be on strike."
She said the compensation paid to coaches who are not teachers also is tied in to "our school bargaining code," and they would be affected by a strike as well.
Even if nonunion coaches could be found and practices held away from schools, Ginoza said, "games basically are played at school sites and our picket lines will be on."
HSTA representative Danielle Lum stressed, "We will shut down any activity on a school campus."
If a contingency plan is being developed by the Department of Education, sports officials don’t know about it. "We are awaiting direction from the superintendent," said Dwight Toyama, executive secretary of the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association, which conducts sports for the island’s 23 public high schools.
A strike would not affect the private-school Interscholastic League of Honolulu. However, ILH executive secretary Clay Benham acknowledged, "Without public schools, I don’t see how we could hold any state tournaments."
"That’s true," said Keith Amemiya, executive director of the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association, which has scheduled eight state tournaments between May 3 and May 19.
In the 56-year history of the HHSAA, there has never been a disruption of state tournaments.
