Posted on: Saturday, December 15, 2001
New schools chief seen as source of stability
• Q&A: Superintendent ready to take helm
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
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| Hamamoto: Says she'll keep moving schools in direction set by predecessor
. . . At a glance Work experience
Education
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The McKinley High School song plays every time Pat Hamamoto turns on her office computer, a sure sign that the new state schools superintendent is someone who has come up through the ranks and has roots in Hawai'i.
Hamamoto, whose last jobs include deputy superintendent, principal of McKinley High and teacher, enters her new job with the savvy of an insider. It is one of the key reasons the Board of Education decided to forgo a national search and give her a four-year, $150,000 contract.
A national search likely would have taken months. School officials say the state didn't have that kind of time.
With an impending $21 million budget cut, the start of the legislative session in January and mounting pressure from a federal judge watching over special education in the so-called Felix case, board members said they couldn't afford to hire a superintendent who didn't already know the ropes.
"I could almost guarantee that we would have lost the Felix consent decree," said board member Winston Sakurai. "The only way to protect the system from a federal takeover was to go to someone who understands Felix. Pat is the one person who has been leading us through the consent decree.
"Under different circumstances and different conditions we might have done a national search. I think we realized that we didn't have time to go into a national search. We need to take care of Felix and get through compliance. There's no one more qualified than Pat to do it. She is an educator from our system. She's led us through the reform process. We're looking at stability in the transition."
Board member Karen Knudsen said Hamamoto's appointment will allow the department to focus on its work instead of the hubbub a superintendent's search would bring.
"We're too busy for the sideshows," Knudsen said. "We just want to keep with the job that we're doing and try to make it better."
Hamamoto is already meeting with legislators, Knudsen said. Having the permanent job will make sure that lawmakers take her ideas seriously, she said.
The school board in October appointed Hamamoto, then the deputy superintendent, as interim schools chief.
"Going into session she can make decisions and long-term commitments with the Legislature," said Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-16th (Moanalua, Salt Lake, Aliamanu, Foster Village). "She won't have to just go in and say, this is what we can commit to doing until August."
She replaces Paul LeMahieu, who resigned after questions were raised about his relationship with a woman whose company was granted a special-education contract.
The hiring of LeMahieu in 1998 was seen as a radical departure for the board, which historically had picked home-grown candidates. He was a nationally known education researcher and consultant from Delaware with great knowledge of the Hawai'i system, but no experience in the state's schools.
LeMahieu's reform-minded agenda remains popular within the department and in the halls of the State Capitol, even as the board returns to its more traditional and internal method of finding new leaders.
Rep. Mark Takai said Hamamoto and LeMahieu bring different values to the system. LeMahieu already changed the way people think about education, and schools don't need to now search far and wide for an outsider with a new vision, said Takai, D-34th (Waimalu, Newtown, Waiau, Royal Summit).
"Without LeMahieu and his new ideas and really challenging the system to make some hard choices to refocus energies on standards, I don't know where we would be," he said. "When Dr. LeMahieu came in, the system made a radical shift. There was a whole ton of energy and a whole bunch of people putting in effort to create this new system. I don't think the system could handle another brainstorming session of rethinking what we want to be."
LeMahieu in March 1999 released a Comprehensive Needs Assessment report. It was pulled together by more than 3,000 educators, parents and students and called the most comprehensive look ever into Hawai'i's public school system. LeMahieu said it was the necessary first step toward improving Hawai'i's schools.
He later developed performance guidelines, which measure how well students have mastered what they are supposed to know and do, followed by reformed benchmarks to see if those standards are being met.
All the while, Hamamoto acted as LeMahieu's right hand. She has said she supports the agenda he set, and will continue moving the schools in that direction. Takai said Hamamoto's background allows her to win the confidence and commitment of the rank and file.
"The most important thing about Pat is that she has gone through the ranks," Takai said. "She has a very difficult job, but she is able to jump into the fire feet first."
Hamamoto began teaching at Highlands Intermediate in 1975. Her first job as principal was at Pearl City Highlands Elementary in 1987. She also has worked in the personnel office at the state level and was appointed deputy superintendent by LeMahieu in 1999.
"We should just get the best person for the circumstances that we're in," Sakurai said. "The circumstances call for someone from our system."
Board member Donna Ikeda said that after a year with a teachers' strike, a leadership change and a legislative investigative committee on special education, the board is more interested in stability and boosting morale than in finding someone from the outside who might want to upend the system.
"We thought about a national search. As far as I was concerned, I think stability and regaining trust and credibility was more important at this time," Ikeda said. "We need to implement our plan. The last thing we need right now is upheaval."
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
