Retaining teachers a top goal in Wai'anae
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By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
WAI'ANAE — In what has become an annual migration, dozens of Leeward Coast teachers will leave their classrooms at the end of the school year and transfer to jobs closer to home or that pay more.
At Makaha Elementary, as many as 10 teachers — almost 20 percent of its staff — are leaving.
The teachers will take with them experience, relationships and continuity, a drain that has been going on for years on the Leeward Coast.
Now the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board wants to do something about it.
At its meeting this week, the board presented proposals to encourage teachers to remain on the Leeward Coast by offering housing subsidies, low-interest loans, education loans, tuition assistance and classroom help that would tap retired professionals to teach technical courses.
The board has yet to discuss the plan with the Department of Education or to arrange financial backing, but its grass-roots effort at solving a community problem has sparked interest from teachers and praise from the state schools superintendent.
Steve Olbrich, co-chairman of the board's Education Committee, said the incentives are designed to entice teachers to buy a home on the coast and become part of the community.
"It is a terrible problem," Olbrich said. "We have more turnover here than anyplace else in the islands. The (state Board of Education) is aware we have teacher retention problems out here. We are just trying to come up with incentive programs to try to keep the good teachers here."
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to the Department of Education and to work together to find a solution.
Several solutions have been discussed over the years, including bonuses or mileage allowances for commuting teachers.
But those plans have targeted specific schools and were not continued long enough to prove effective.
The hiring system gives preference to those with the most teaching experience.
When positions open in Honolulu or Central O'ahu, the established pattern is for experienced teachers from rural, lower-performing schools to move to town.
Lauren Aki, a third-grade teacher at Ma'ili Elementary School, said the possibility of a low-interest loan to buy a home or loans to help advance her education would be great incentives to remain teaching on the Leeward Coast.
"That would definitely push me to stay on the Wai'anae Coast," Aki said. "Right now I cannot afford a home and am living with my family. I'm planning on getting married and would like to stay on the coast, but if I can't find a home that I can afford it won't be much of a possibility.
"Also, a tuition waiver or a loan would allow me to go back to school and bump myself to a high-paying bracket."
Aki said the long drive to the Leeward Coast and the neglected conditions of some schools pull teachers away.
On average, only about 58 percent of teachers on the Leeward Coast stay at the same school for five years or longer. And continuity suffers when large numbers of teachers leave a school every year.
Teachers receive the same pay no matter where they work, so no one is surprised when they choose a school closer to home, said Marilyn Harris, the Board of Education's Leeward District representative.
"I think it is wonderful to work out here, but it is expensive and tiring to drive that far after awhile," Harris said. "If you don't get anything extra for doing it, why not teach in town?"
Olbrich said the board is looking to help solve the problem.
"We are advisory only — we've got no real power — but if we make the Department of Education and Board of Education aware of the problem out here and try to work with them to find answers and solve the problem of teacher retention we are doing our job," he said.
State Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu was encouraged by the board's idea.
"I am very encouraging of grass-roots efforts and have respect for the community putting in the effort for doing this," LeMahieu said. "People's desire or willingness to stay in some of these hard-to-serve geographic areas like the Leeward Coast depends on the human elements. The people who come will experience and respond to it."
