Strike over; classes likely to resume Thursday

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer

It's over.

State chief negotiator Davis Yogi left the HSTA headquarters on Red Hill at 4:45 this morning after reviewing the settlement. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

If the union's nearly 13,000 members vote to accept the contract today, schools will reopen to students on Thursday.

"The negotiations committee and the Board of Directors are very pleased," said Hawai'i State Teachers Association Executive Director Joan Husted moments after the deal was sealed.

Teachers are expected to continue to picket until the agreement is ratified.

In anticipation of the deal, the Hawai'i State Teachers Association last night called in its 50-member board, which had to approve any deal before sending it out to a vote. They arrived at HSTA headquarters around 7 p.m. carrying blankets, pillows and food. By around 10 p.m. they were considering the last offer.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. A news conference was scheduled for 10 this morning in the offices of Gov. Ben Cayetano.

With last night's settlement, the state narrowly avoided federal court intervention. U.S. District Judge David Ezra was scheduled to hear a motion at 9 a.m. today requesting him to appoint a receiver over the school system and restore services to special-education students.

What ended last night began more than two weeks ago as the nation's first-ever shut down of an entire state education system from kindergarten through graduate school. More than 12,000 public school teachers and 3,100 university professors walked off the job April 5. The dual education strikes closed down schools, stranding more than 220,000 students and sending families scrambling for child care.

It was the Department of Education's first strike since 1973 and education leaders are still surmising the damage it has wrought. It has derailed school reform efforts and many worry how strikers and non-strikers will pick up the pieces to work together again.

And while students won't have to make-up time over the summer, they and their teachers will be racing to save whatever they can of this school year.

The strike also reached out to touch the state's fragile economy as teachers and others reined in the their spending. And as politicians cozied up to striking teachers, the ramifications likely will be felt in the next election.

After expectations of a settlement this weekend were dashed, teachers and parents had been on tenterhooks as the two sides inched toward a deal. For many the strike had become an emotional and economic hardship.

'Aikahi Elementary parent Carol Shafer was thrilled to hear of a deal last night.

"As much as the parents want their kids back in school, I think the children want to be in school," she said. "I think they miss their friends, and I know that both my children very much miss their teacher. My daughter's been writing to her teacher every day."

Like many parents, Shafer said she supported the teachers' bid for better pay.

"As the PTA president, I have not received one call that was against what the teachers were doing — not one," she said.

Resolving the teachers' contract proved to be the toughest of all the labor deals the state has negotiated this year. As all other public employee unions settled, the teachers were left out on the picket lines as negotiators struggled to find middle ground.

Teachers staked their turf early in the talks, calling for better pay to tackle the state's worsening teacher shortage. Gov. Ben Cayetano also was firm in his resolve that there be enough money left over for social programs that suffered during the state's economic crisis. He also wanted to foster educational reform by linking pay raises to improved performance.

But the most contentious issue was always money.

Public school teachers and supporters marched around the grounds of the State Capitol yesterday after a morning rally in the atrium. Thousands of teachers gathered for the rally and asked their lawmakers for help in ending the strike. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Driven by growing work loads and rising expectations of the education system, teachers went onto the picket line in an overwhelming show of solidarity. Many were determined to get a better deal than in 1997, when they received 17 percent but had to add seven days to their year.

Throughout the strike, more than 99 percent of nearly 13,000 teachers were marching the picket line. And, contrary to expectations, the numbers stayed strong as the strike dragged on. They missed their first pay check on Friday, but yesterday they were still hanging tough, saying they were in it for the long haul.

Throughout it all, the Department of Education was only able to open one school: the two-teacher, 39-student school on the private island of Ni'ihau.

Some of the teachers' determination came from resentment of the governor and what they perceived to be his hard line in negotiations. Anti-Cayetano signs and songs sprung up on the picket lines, as teachers asked how he could call himself the education governor while the schools sat closed.

There was some friction at schools like Campbell and Farrington where high numbers of teachers crossed the lines, but, overall, pickets were peaceful.

Driven by the threat of federal court intervention, the pressure to reopen schools and to get funding approved this legislative session, negotiators for the two sides worked around the clock last week, setting up makeshift beds in the meeting rooms and ordering in pizza and Chinese food while they inched closer to agreement.

Up until the end, retroactive pay was the thorniest issue that neither side appeared willing to concede. But negotiators forged a breakthrough late last week when they agreed on a retention bonus or "differential." That one-time payment costs the state less because it is not built into the base salary, but it does add into teacher retirement benefits.

The deal also includes pay raises for the last two years of the four-year contract.

While the union did not reveal details last night, it apparently won its bid for across-the-board raises. The state had wanted to give higher raises to entry-level teachers in an effort to boost recruitment, which has been difficult during a nationwide teacher shortage.

"I think the problem that everybody had was for the more senior teachers," Cayetano said yesterday. "We felt that putting the resources up front was what was appropriate for addressing the shortage problems, but they made a big point about the senior teachers and the ones in the middle."

In a surprising move, the administration also "gave back" five of the seven additional classroom days the administration won in 1997. Instead of classroom days, those will be "professional development" or class preparation days.

With those details settled and the right number of dollars on the table last night, a deal was struck.

Advertiser Staff Writers Ronna Bolante, Kevin Dayton and James Gonser contributed to this story.