Day 1 comes to a calm conclusion

By Dan Nakaso, Beverly Creamer and Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writers

Picket lines moved smoothly, parents showed up for work and daycare centers had plenty of room as Hawai'i's teacher and university faculty unions shuttered almost an entire educational system for the first time in the nation's history.

Determination, spirit and some rhythmic beats of radio music kept pickets going at Kaua'i Community College yesterday. What kept the radio going? Solar power. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

The biggest difference was that students who normally would be in classrooms — from kindergarten to college — instead flooded shopping centers, neighbors' homes and beaches from Waimea to Ala Moana.

"Kids are surfing, absolutely," said lifeguard Capt. Ed Pestana.

The University of Hawai'i at Manoa had a minor flare-up of tensions yesterday when some professors yelled at students who crossed picket lines.

But at the lower levels, thousands of students stayed away as teachers set up picket lines around schools on all islands.

Neighbors and parents offered food and drinks and opened their homes to let teachers use bathrooms.

The simultaneous strike by 13,000 public school teachers and 3,100 UH faculty affects 226,000 students.

Working parents seemed to have enough support from grandparents, aunties and neighbors to cover their daycare needs.

But military parents who don't have the extended families that many others in Hawai'i do were particularly hit by the sudden need for child care.

Raymond Sanborn, president of the private Kama'aina Kids daycare company, said some of the biggest enrollments came from sites near military bases.

'Hanging out'

Benson Bali's mother gave him $100 and let his cousin drive him from Wai'anae to Pearlridge Center.

Benson, an eighth-grader at Waipahu Intermediate, spent the day "hanging out," he said.

By 4 p.m. he had spent $30 and was planning to stay at the mall for dinner before heading home.

"We just cruise around and have fun," said Benson's friend Ferdinand Felix, also an eighth-grader at Waipahu Intermediate.

Their biggest dilemma was deciding whether to move on to play billiards at Aiea Cue, Ferdinand said.

His parents? "They don't mind," Ferdinand said.

Anthony Bannwa, a student from Wai'anae Intermediate, hitched a ride with his sister to Pearlridge. "We just walk around looking for chicks," he said.

Dave Tanji, customer service representative for the Fun Factory arcade, watched the mall swirl with kids.

"There are a lot more for a Thursday," Tanji said.

At the gate of Pearl City Preschool — a Kama'aina Kids "strike care" site — Waimalu Elementary School fourth-grader Payton Otani bounded down the steps ahead of his mother.

"Say hello to freedom!" he exclaimed, evoking laughter from the care workers.

Some parents who dropped their children off at the site said they had made child-care arrangements early in the week.

"I think we already had enough warning," said Margie Murray, who brought her 7-year-old daughter. "I just hope it doesn't last long."

Pearl City resident Julie Herring left her second-grade daughter Celene at Kama'aina Kids and kept her sixth-grade son at home with math and reading assignments and chores.

"I took his books and said, 'You know this. Now do this,'" Herring said. "Maybe tomorrow I'll give him a break. But they have very minimal days at school already. If (the strike) goes long, that would be detrimental to the children."

Around the state

• A big crowd of children failed to materialize for a makeshift $10-a-day program at the Maui Family YMCA in Kahului.

"We anticipated there would be a line running out the door," said director Mike Morris. "We were worried we would be turning people away," he said. Instead, only 40 children showed up.

• Some teachers crossed picket lines on Kaua'i. Two of 61 teachers crossed at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School near Puhi. Kamakahelei principal Maggie Cox stood at the school entrance alongside pickets to wave nonstriking employees and strike-breaking teachers through the lines.

• On O'ahu, teachers at 'Aikahi Elementary School in Kailua were almost festive as they formed a 41-person picket line in the pre-dawn darkness beginning at about 5:40 a.m.

One of them, Myra Grist, remembered the strike of 1973 and the benefits teachers won.

"We got people to clean the classrooms instead of cleaning them ourselves," she said. "We got duty-free lunches instead of having to work at lunch. We got preparation time built into our schedules, and we got some small raises."

Teachers' pay was $3,000 a year when Grist started in Waimanalo in 1966. Today, after 35 years of teaching, she makes top scale, about $58,000 a year.

Still, her salary is far smaller than the $81,000 a year her brother and his wife earn as teachers in New York, she said.

Special needs

Col. Jim Harbison, a military engineer at Camp Smith, said his 12-year-old daughter, Katie, will miss the "excellent" programs she receives as a special-needs student at He'eia Elementary School.

Katie kept hugging her father and didn't want him to go, but he went down the list of activities on the "Kama'aaina Kids Strike Care Calendar," including an outing to Kailua Beach at 9 a.m.

"Look, Katie, there's a scavenger hunt, and kickball," he said.

A retired teacher walked to the picket line at one of the entrances to Pearl City Highlands Elementary School and gave them a plate wrapped in aluminum foil and a small cooler.

"I fought 30 years ago," she told them, patting a striking teacher's arm. "Eat it, it's still warm."

The woman walked quickly away and declined to offer details, saying only: "This is between me and my friends."

Buoyed by public support

Despite a beating sun, sore feet and exhaustion, teachers picketing at McKinley High School appeared to be in good spirits as the day came to an end.

"The public support all day long has kept the energy level up," said physical education teacher Peggy Anderson, as yet another driver on the busy Pensacola street honked and waved.

"After a good night's rest we'll be back tomorrow," she said, rubbing another layer of balm on her lips. "I wish it would be over tomorrow, but we're prepared for the long run."

Social studies teacher April Nakamura smiled from under her green visor.

"I'm tired, I have a blisters on my toes, my back is sore," she said.

But Nakamura was prepared to picket as long as it takes.

"You want to be an example to your students," she said, "and stand up for what you believe in."

Advertiser staff writers Lynda Arakawa, Brandon Masuoka, Timothy Hurley, Jan TenBruggencate, Scott Ishikawa and Hugh Clark contributed to this report.