Posted on: Friday, February 7, 2003

School principals blast Lingle's plan

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Public school principals showed up in force at last night's Board of Education meeting to oppose a proposal by the Lingle administration to remove principals from their union.

Principals are members of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, but Gov. Linda Lingle has said that the school administrators are part of management and have no place in a union. In her State of the State address last month, the governor said the union membership has "proven disastrous for our children" and she proposed that local school boards be empowered to hire and fire principals.

The board late last night voted to oppose the proposal, although the final say is with the Legislature. A bill to place principals in non-union status is scheduled to be heard by the House Labor and Education committees at 8:30 a.m. today in House conference room 309.

Last night, nearly 50 principals and vice principals criticized Lingle's idea at the BOE meeting. Vice principals are not targeted in House Bill 1085, but many said that they would not seek the higher office if it were a non-union position.

McKinley High School Principal Milton Shishido said principals have worked in "partnership" with the Department of Education, even during labor problems. To remove them from the union would be "demoralizing" and would hurt retention and recruitment of principals.

"Many who are about to retire would, and those who would consider educational administration as careers would have second thoughts," said Shishido, who also is the president of Unit 6 of the HGEA. "Excluded educational officers would also be conservative in establishing innovative programs and initiatives."

Part of Lingle's proposal would do away with the centralized school system and create up to seven school boards. Each board would be able to negotiate and enter into four-year "performance-based" contracts with the principals.

Many principals last night said their jobs are stressful enough without having to worry about whether they were meeting certain performance standards. Some said they would not be willing to take risks if they knew their jobs would be on the line.

"Our morale is low with increasing demands and fewer resources," said Pearl City High Principal Gerald Suyama. "Now the governor sees fit to destroy what little we have left by acting against us with no research data to indicate that taking us out of the union will improve student performance."

Annette Nishikawa, principal at Kapolei Middle School, said that instead of placing blame on principals for the current state of education, elected officials should be supporting their efforts. "There are no hordes of people waiting to become educational officers," she said. "Why would teachers want to be administrators where there is more responsibility and liability?"

Several people last night also spoke out against the plan to decentralize the education system and create seven district school boards. Lingle's proposal has run into trouble at the House and the measure, House Bill 1082 has been deferred by committee.

Kailua-Kalaheo complex superintendent Louise Wolcott criticized the Lingle plan and said it would lead to a case of the "haves and have-nots."

"I would suggest that our new governor do her research on school finance to realize that the state of Hawai'i is the envy of other states in the nation because our state educational system assures equity of funding and resources," Wolcott said.

No one spoke in favor of decentralizing the school system last night, but about 40 people submitted written testimony in support of the proposal.