Public schools' future cloudy

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

In a time of teachers strikes, a threatened takeover by the federal courts and continually disappointing student test scores, the scandal-ridden resignation of the Hawai'i schools chief seems only the latest storm in what has been a vast sea of troubles for the public school system.

The agenda of Paul LeMahieu, former schools superintendent, was widely praised. Now that he has resigned, concern centers on whether Hawai'i's schools can continue toward reform without him. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

By any account, the 183,000-student school system is wounded.

Facilities are crumbling. There's a critical teacher shortage. A November hearing will determine whether the federal courts will take over the system to improve special-education services.

But with LeMahieu's agenda widely praised and recognition from most quarters that education is finally moving in the right direction, some are wondering whether Hawai'i's schools can continue on the path of reform without him.

"I'm concerned about this," said Carol Nafus, president of the Hawai'i State Parent, Teacher and Student Association. "We believe Dr. LeMahieu had a wonderful plan. It might have taken a while to implement, but we are confident that it would have worked."

The question Nafus and others are asking is, what happens now?

The answers are varied.

In addition to moving 279 schools, 18,000 full-time employees and 183,000 students toward reform, the department will have to deal with questions about its basic administrative structure and the ramifications of the Felix consent decree, a 1994 agreement to improve special-education services as required by federal law.

"The big thing is to not lose the momentum that we've had the past few years," said Cassie Crescenzi, a member of the PTA at Kapa'a Middle School. "The superintendent did more for education in this state than anyone has done in years."

For their part, state education officials have been trying to reassure staff and faculty that they will not change course even as they change leadership.

Although LeMahieu was the primary advocate for reform, Karen Knudsen, Board of Education member, said the agenda belongs to the board — not LeMahieu.

Work will continue on improving special education services; a statewide student assessment test will be rolled out this year, she said.

"There are too many things in place right now for this to fall apart," Knudsen said. "We do have safeguards in place. People are totally committed to this."

But Randy Hitz, dean of the University of Hawai'i's College of Education, said the board will have to make an effort to stay with the accountability and standards agenda that LeMahieu pushed.

"The agenda needs to continue," Hitz said. "The board's challenge is to find someone who can fit with that agenda."

For now the board has turned to Pat Hamamoto, the former principal of McKinley High School who has spearheaded the department's efforts to improve special-education services to comply with the Felix consent decree. Hamamoto was named acting superintendent Thursday night and has repeatedly said she thought LeMahieu's policies were sound.

"The direction of the department is not changing," Hamamoto said yesterday at a Hawai'i State PTSA conference. "We are moving to a standards-based system. We believe in accountability."

But while most seem to agree on the agenda, there appear to be calls for a renewed look at the department's administrative structure.

The House Republican Caucus is calling for the Legislature to adopt a local school board structure and increase use of charter schools.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the state could reconsider the way the members of the Board of Education are chosen. Instead of a general election, Sakamoto suggested an electoral college that would choose school board members. Each school could pick a member of the electoral college, and other community members and advocacy groups could also have a vote, he said.

"You have a more informed group selecting the people who make the policy," Sakamoto said.

Thomas Glass, an education professor at the University of Memphis School who studies America's superintendents for the American Association of School Administrators, said Hawai'i should consider breaking up its system.

"If I were Hawai'i, I would think seriously about creating school districts: at least one on the Big Island, one on Maui," Glass said. "I would bust that baby up. How in the world can a person in Honolulu exercise some degree of control of what all of the schools are doing on Maui?"

But Carl Takamura, executive director of the Hawai'i Business Roundtable, said Hawai'i should look at its top leadership and the budget system first to create ways to give power to the schools. He would not want to see Hawai'i's schools split into individual districts, he said, because that would require changing the state constitution.

"That would take two to three years," Takamura said. "I don't think we've got that kind of time."

The department is also looking for ways to change.

"We, too, have been taking a hard look at ourselves," Hamamoto said.

The DOE could start to concentrate even more authority in its school complexes in rethinking its structure, she said. The state has 41 complexes; each consists of a high school and its feeder intermediate and elementary schools.

"The complex idea is very powerful," Hamamoto said. "I think what drives home the complex idea is the Felix consent decree."

The decree has forced the schools within each complex to work together and share resources.

The state is being measured on how many complexes come into compliance with the consent decree; 27 of the 41 must reach compliance by November.

While DOE officials say they are confident about their progress, it also remains to be seen whether LeMahieu's departure brings ramifications for the state in its efforts to avoid a federal court takeover of the special-education system.

A legislative committee has been looking at questions of conflicts and overspending in special education.

The committee's questions had focused in large part on an affair between LeMahieu, who is married, and a woman to whose company he granted a contract. LeMahieu and the woman last week admitted their relationship had "crossed the line."

On Friday, Gov. Ben Cayetano said he didn't believe the legislative investigation would delay compliance with the Felix consent decree, though.

"If anything, I think that the (education department) right now and the Department of Health should be charged up more to try and comply, with the leader of the Department of Education now having resigned. His troops are going to pick it up, and I think they're going to do it."

Hitz believes that attitudes will have to change along with the transition in leadership.

"It's really easy to use the superintendent as a scapegoat, and we have to stop doing that," Hitz said. "If the system's not working right now, Paul LeMahieu's not responsible for that all by himself. There's plenty of people who should take responsibility for that. What we need more than anything in this state is unity. Everybody says education is important. Well, show me."

Hitz is frustrated that LeMahieu's resignation has left some people with the attitude,

" 'Here we go again.' It's very demoralizing to teachers, to parents, to students," he said. "It just creates cynicism."

He says he hopes BOE members reflect on what happened to LeMahieu and try a new approach with the next superintendent.

"Whoever we bring in has to have support for a sustained period," Hitz said. "You've got to stay with them."

The board will likely have to significantly increase the next superintendent's salary, Hitz and others have said.

When the board hired LeMahieu in 1998, his salary was $90,000 — $50,000 less than the national average for superintendents of similarly sized districts.

The Legislature authorized the Board of Education to raise LeMahieu's salary to as much as $150,000, although it never did.

"If you're talking about $90,000 that's not going to cut it," said Marcia Tingey, manager of the Chicago-based educational search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. "Not to live in Hawai'i, thank you very much."

Tingey said the Board of Education could go with either an educational search firm or a traditional headhunting company that would pull candidates from a variety of backgrounds.

"You're talking about a state superintendent of education," she said. "It's not a traditional search. The governor may have a huge amount of input. You're talking about someone who is making policy for districts that run on their own. It's a totally different ball game than a regular school superintendent."

John Friedman, immediate past president of the Hawai'i State PTSA, said he hopes the search will not be protracted and that the transition will not prove rocky. A new superintendent would likely start next August.

"The more you change the person at the helm of the ship, the more you change the direction you're moving," Friedman said. "That can be a detriment to the children as a whole."

Staff writers Alice Keesing, Dan Nakaso and Lynda Arakawa contributed to this report. Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.