The Hawaii Labor Relations Board ruling also found the state has a commitment to provide "some sort" of bonus in the second year, and ordered the two sides to resume bargaining on the issue.

Both sides said they were happy with the ruling. The dispute between Gov. Ben Cayetano's administration and the union dragged on long after the two sides settled the 21-day statewide teachers strike last year.

Joan Husted, executive director for the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said union officials were pleased with the outcome, even though it wasn't everything they had sought.

"It's better than what they had yesterday but it was not as good as it was on April 23," Husted said.

Husted said the union would contact state negotiators today to see when both sides can meet.

"We would hope that the negotiations on the second year can get in progress in the next month," Husted said. "It should be a relatively uncomplicated process."

But the process has been hard for teachers, she said.

"I think the teachers have grown weary of having to fight every inch of the way to get their contract implemented," she said.

Cayetano said his administration "always said the bonus agreement was for one year only, and after examining the facts the board validated this."

John Nippolt, a Kaimuki Intermediate art teacher, is already certified to teach fine arts and will receive his master's degree in education this summer. He said the HLRB's decision was disappointing, but not surprising for teachers.

"It's another political game and the teachers really lost," he said.

Derek Minakami, a former Teacher of the Year and the first public school teacher in Hawai'i to earn national certification, is one of the 6,400 teachers who would have qualified for the bonus. He said that with the Department of Education already facing a $35 million budget cut, the HLRB's decision means that even less money is going into Hawai'i's schools.

"It is disappointing just because the expectation was there that it would be available at the end of the strike," Minakami said. "It's very disheartening that it was still a sticking point at the start of the school year."

The teachers and the state have been at odds for more than nine months over a 3 percent bonus for teachers with master's degrees and professional diplomas and whether the bonus should be paid for one or two years.

More than 6,400 of Hawai'i's nearly 13,000 teachers were eligible for the so-called "P-track" bonus at the end of the last school year. The estimated cost of the bonus has ranged from $6 million to $10 million a year.

Months of talks and forced mediation failed to resolve the dispute, leaving the decision on the contract to the HLRB's three-member panel.

The state argued that it orally agreed to pay the bonus for one year only, but that the union staff changed the agreement while typing up the contract. State officials did not notice the change until one week later, and union members voted to ratify the new contract with the understanding the bonus was for two years.

The union says the agreement was always for two years and asked the board to rule that the signed contract is the valid one.

The months-long dispute delayed payment of a $1,100 retention bonus and other negotiated raises until the governor in September agreed to implement the contract with the exception of the disputed professional bonus.

That agreement was a major breakthrough in the contract negotiations, which had become increasingly contentious. Some charged that the dispute was leading to morale problems in the schools and hindering efforts to end Hawai'i's teacher shortage.

In its ruling yesterday, the Hawaii Labor Relations Board found that both the state and the teachers' union engaged in a prohibited labor practice by failing to write out and implement the agreement the two sides reached on April 23.

That agreement, according to the board, included a bonus for one year, but not for two. However, the board also ruled the state in effect committed to paying the teachers something in the way of a bonus in the second year.

The board noted negotiators for the state reviewed language drafted by the HSTA that described a state commitment for bonuses "for each year," and did not object. That language was then ratified by the teachers.

State negotiators claimed they missed the "error" because they were distracted or exhausted, but the labor board concluded that "the state should share in the consequence of its error."

Yesterday's ruling in effect finds the state has a commitment to provide a bonus in the second year, and orders the two sides to resume bargaining on the issue. Any additional bonuses must be paid out of federal "impact aid" the state receives each year, and cannot come from state funds, according to the ruling.