Anxiety grows as all plans left in limbo

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

As the strikes by public school teachers and university professors hits the one-week mark, Kim Camara nervously watches the calendar and counts her hours.

A police officer directs traffic as University of Hawai'i faculty members walk the picket line at the Manoa campus. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

As a student in the esthetician program at Honolulu Community College, Camara needs to accumulate 600 classroom hours by May or she cannot take the state licensing exam to become a skin-care specialist.

"I'm starting to get stressed," Camara said. "After this week, there's no way we can get our hours. I just think it's a big loss. I didn't think the governor would let it last this long."

The strikes that have shut down most of the state's education system hasn't taken long to hit home for many Hawai'i residents. A prolonged strike by either the Hawai'i State Teachers Association or the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly threatens a range of end-of-year activities from high school proms to college finals and the start of summer school in both systems.

One of the biggest band events of the year has fallen victim, wiping out four months of preparation and practice by hundreds of music students across the state. The O'ahu Band Directors Association has canceled its 54th music festival, which includes a Parade of Bands and Select Band concerts that were scheduled for the end of the month and early May, said Gregg Abe, association member and band director at Roosevelt High School.

Testing plans threatened

The new Hawai'i-based test students were scheduled to take this month will likely be derailed.

The new test underpins the department's sweeping reform to a standards-based school system.

Students will not take the test if the strike lasts until Monday, said Selvin Chin-Chance, the Department of Education's testing specialist.

The strikes also throw into question what will happen to students from kindergarten through high school who are weeks away from finishing a semester.

At the University of Hawai'i, rumors abound about cancellation of the semester. In fact, though, the administration is working on plans to finish this semester on time and stick to the final-exams schedule, said Dean Smith, senior vice president and executive vice chancellor of the Manoa campus.

"We're spending a lot of effort trying to work out the various options here," Smith said. "Our goal is to finish the semester on time." That includes possibly scheduling classes on Saturdays and Sundays, or in the two "dead days" the university has between the end of the semester and the start of finals, he said.

Deadlines are looming. Students are supposed to move out of their dorms May 11 and commencement is scheduled to be May 13. The first summer school session is set for May 21, giving the university just one week of wiggle room between semesters.

The DOE has not released a list of school sites and dates for summer school, but faces other major issues. "One can imagine that if the strike is prolonged, summer school could very well be impacted," said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen.

Special education

In a complication with special education and the state's efforts to comply with federal court mandates, the so-called Individual Education Plans of the state's more than 20,000 special needs students would have to be redone if the strike lasts longer than 10 days. The meetings that establish the plans, which lay out the services each child is entitled to, are notoriously drawn-out sessions requiring the coordination of up to a dozen people.

April 19 would mark the 10th day of a strike.

Attorneys representing special education students under the Felix consent decree already have said they will ask a federal judge to intervene if a strike continues. They say any strike would affect the care of special-needs children and derail the state's efforts to meet a December deadline for improved special education services. It is still unclear if U.S. District Judge David Ezra would intervene in the strike, although he does have the power to take over the school system to ensure the needs of special-education students are met.

The DOE also has another critical deadline in mind: May 3.

That would be the 20-day mark of a strike. Before May 3, administrators can waive school days that have been missed, but after May 3, the state Board of Education would have to determine whether to require make-up time from students.

Students entered the fourth quarter of the school year just days before the strike started. "We're in the final stretch," Knudsen said. "Somewhere along the line we're going to have to consider how much instruction is sufficient to call it complete.

At the university, a prolonged strike could have a negative effect on grants and training projects worth $180 million a year.

About 85 percent of faculty members at Manoa, the research campus, have honored the picket lines.

While participation in the strike has been solid across the campus, many researchers acknowledge that, at some point, they may have to chose between the picket line or losing months or years of academic work.

Threat to research

Roger Lukas, a professor of oceanography who has brought in more than $15 million in research grants to the university, said the strike could also affect future research. Striking professors are not allowed to submit new grant proposals, he said. Time sheets and purchase orders for their employees also cannot be signed, he said.

College students, especially those who are graduating seniors with jobs waiting or others with internships lined up for the summer, could face a host of problems if the semester schedule changes.

The university fields more calls each day from students and parents who want to know how they should plan for plane tickets for commencement, or what they should do about work plans for the summer.

There are personal costs as well.

Mary Ross, a graduate student in speech pathology, flies from Kona to O'ahu every week to take 18 hours of classes at Manoa.

She misses out on seeing her family Mondays through Fridays to pursue a degree that will allow her to teach special education.

"With a strike, in terms of personal cost to me, it would set me back an whole entire year," said Ross. "It also affects the state's efforts to comply with Felix. The repercussions are just way bigger than what you immediately think of."

Advertiser staff writer Eloise Aguiar contributed to this report.