If schools reopen, priority will be given to students in lower elementary school grades, eighth-graders and high school seniors, the superintendent said. School openings for each day will be announced the day before by 4:30 p.m.

Hawai'i State Teachers Association Executive Director Joan Husted today criticized the plan as unsafe.

"If I were a parent, I wouldn't send my child to school to an unknown person with no training," Husted said.

LeMahieu also notes in his letter that all state education employees not on strike must report to work on Thursday, the first day of the strike. "Patience, humility and aloha are encouraged to alleviate any situations that cause frustration or delay," he said.

The superintendent noted the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board has tentatively approved the DOE's request that 322 teachers be classified as "essential workers" and not permitted to strike.

"With more than 2,000 special education teachers in our system, the 322 essential workers, if allowed, will be able to service only those students with the most critical needs for continuous support," he said in the letter. "Details on which teachers and students covered will be provided following the HLRB's final decision and order."

No new talks between the state and HSTA have been scheduled. The two sides last met at the bargaining table on Wednesday.

The union says Hawai'i is facing a teacher shortage crisis and the state needs to improve pay to boost recruitment and retention. The state says it has a limited amount to pay and wants to tie any pay raise to improving performance.

Officially, the union has requested a 22 percent package with a price tag of $260 million. Informally, it has offered to accept a deal worth about $161 million. The state's package averages a 12 percent increase, ranging from 10 to 20 percent. The total cost is $67 million. It includes $5,000 a year for teachers who gain national certification.

Teachers earn between $29,000 and $58,000 and have been without a contract since January 1999.

Meanwhile, a federal judge yesterday said he may step in if services to special education children are disrupted.

After weeks of speculation about how the Felix consent decree could affect a strike, U.S. District Judge David Ezra yesterday said that, while he does not want to interfere in the teachers' labor dispute, there are certain circumstances in which he could intervene.

"One of those circumstances may be present here, and, in fact, probably is present here," he said. "But even were the court to exercise that authority, I would do it in a very careful and measured way."

Ezra also reiterated his threat to take over special education in the state if the Legislature does not appropriate enough money to meet the needs of those students.

Ezra has the power to take over the education system or divert state money to ensure special-needs children are getting the services they are entitled to under the Felix decree, which he issued in 1994.

Both the court monitor and attorneys in the Felix case say they will monitor the effect of a strike on special-needs children.

"If a strike occurs on (Thursday), we're going to wait and assess the information that comes to us," said attorney Eric Seitz. "I assume the phone will start ringing off the hook the next day with parents who tell us about all the problems their kids are having."

As soon as it appears special-needs children are being harmed or that the Department of Education is falling behind in its implementation of the consent decree, Seitz said he will present the information to Ezra.

"What the judge decides to do with it on that basis is up to him," Seitz said. "We're certainly not going to ever go in and ask him to issue an injunction against a strike."

The federal judge made his comments yesterday during a conference on a motion to grant Gov. Ben Cayetano more power in the Felix case.

Ezra warned that Felix should not be used as a "bargaining chip" by the governor, teachers or any other party in the contract dispute. It was partly for that reason, Ezra said, that he turned down Cayetano's request.

"I do not want to have this order, or any order I have issued, misconstrued as authority for the governor or anyone else, for that matter, to either block or interfere with the collective bargaining process," Ezra said.

The state's motion asked Ezra to give the governor the extraordinary powers already granted to Superintendent LeMahieu and state health director Bruce Anderson to help improve special education services.

"(The governor) would like to be able to make sure that he would be able to exercise his powers as the head of the executive branch, such that the departments would be able to say, based on the court order, we get to do this, and governor, you can't tell us what to do," said Deputy Attorney General Holly Shikada.

While turning back the request, Ezra said Cayetano already has "enormous powers as governor" and can use them to exert his influence in the Felix case.