Posted on: Friday, January 21, 2005

Board accepts advisory on principals' contracts

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

KANE'OHE — The state Board of Education voted 12-0 last night to accept a report on implementing principal performance contracts.

The report now goes to the Legislature, Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said. The board met at Castle High School.

The DOE report, "Implementing Principal Performance Contracts in Hawaii Public Schools," was done as part of a push to make principals' contracts performance-based.

The report says principals should work under a contract mode known as "performance contracting," which is used in several Mainland school districts such as San Francisco, Houston and Columbus, Ohio.

The report said such contracts have a system of rewards and sanctions that are based on performance. The report did not specify whether monetary rewards would be used and skirted the issue of specific sanctions, suggesting that they would need to be worked out between the DOE and the principals' union, the Hawai'i Government Employees Association.

Principal performance standards need to be specific and include measurable objectives, said the report. Such objectives could include student assessments, attendance and discipline rates, the report said.

At the end of a specified period, the principals' performance would be evaluated based on those areas, the report said.

The report contained the findings of a working group that devised a plan and a timetable for the contracts.

The working group consisted of school officials, administrators and other agency and organization representatives.