Posted on: Friday, January 21, 2005

Substitute teachers fail to halt pay cuts

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Circuit Court judge yesterday denied a motion by the state's public school substitute teachers to block a planned pay cut set to take effect Monday.

The nearly 9,000 substitute teachers filed a class-action lawsuit Jan. 7 and sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the Department of Education from implementing the pay cut. The DOE last year announced that the daily pay for substitutes will drop from $119.80 to $112.53 beginning Monday.

The substitutes argued that the cut violates a 1996 law that set pay schedules. If the law were being followed, the substitutes argued, they should be getting about $30 more per day.

In denying the motion, Circuit Judge Karen Ahn ruled yesterday that the substitutes would not suffer irreparable harm if their pay is cut by $7 a day, according to Paul Alston, one of the lawyers representing the substitutes.

"We're disappointed because we believe that we've demonstrated that the DOE is violating its obligations towards substitutes," Alston said.

The pay cut is based on an October 2004 memorandum signed by schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. The memorandum set classifications for teachers and substitutes, even though the HSTA does not represent the substitutes.

The DOE maintains that the pay scale that will be enforced Monday is in accordance with the law, said Greg Knudsen, department spokesman.

Ahn has yet to rule on a 2002 lawsuit by the substitutes, who claim that they are owed about $15 million in damages because the state has not followed the pay scale set by the 1996 law. The trial on that matter was tentatively set to begin next month.

"We remain hopeful that she'll see that the DOE is mistreating the substitutes," Alston said.

In a related matter, Knudsen said the Board of Education last night adopted a legislative package that includes a measure that would allow the board to set the pay for substitute teachers.

"We do feel that that would be a better way of dealing with it instead of being tied to the statute because in the current situation we had no real choice when we apply the current teachers salary schedule to the statute," Knudsen said. "We feel that would be a welcomed change to give authority back to the board, as it used to be."

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.