Teachers consider new action on contract

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer

The teachers union and state remain deadlocked over their contract as the union threatens another strike or a lawsuit.

The settlement that ended April's teacher strike is in limbo as the two sides continue to argue over the cost of a 3 percent bonus for teachers with master's degrees and professional diplomas. During negotiations the bonus was calculated at $6.7 million, but estimates have since increased its cost to as much as $20 million.

Yesterday the Department of Education was expected to decide on the number of teachers eligible for the bonus. However, there still is no agreement on what could be the biggest sticking point: whether the bonus is to be paid for one or two years of the contract.

Although the money is to come from the department budget, the ultimate decision lies with the governor, according to the state's chief negotiator Davis Yogi.

The Hawai'i State Teachers Association last week said it would take legal action or issue another strike notice if the matter was not settled this week. HSTA attorney Vernon Yu said yesterday that he has not yet been authorized to take action, but that he is prepared to do so.

Both HSTA President Karen Ginoza and Executive Director Joan Husted have been on the Mainland this week attending the National Educators Association conference.

While the matter remains unresolved, the teachers contract remains unsigned. That already has delayed a $1,100 retention bonus that returning teachers were to receive in their July 5 paychecks and has revived some of the anger of the recent strike.

Yogi said yesterday that, in hindsight, he would have taken another day to put the finishing touches to the contract before sending it out for a ratification vote by the state's striking teachers. However, negotiators wanted to get teachers off the picket lines and also avoid the intervention of a federal court judge on behalf of special-needs students who were without school services during the strike, he said.

At the heart of the dispute is a disagreement on what was agreed to in negotiations during the three-week strike. The union says the agreement on the professional bonus was for two years. The state's chief negotiator says it was for one year.

And the parties involved continue to point fingers over how and why a proposal that was supposed to cost $6.7 million could end up costing as much as $20 million.

It was schools chief Paul LeMahieu who put the proposal on the table, offering to pay for it with existing department money. LeMahieu said the offer was made with the price tag of $6.7 million and he does not know how that changed during negotiations because he was not part of the negotiating team.