Updated at 4:56 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007
O'ahu polls close for voting on teacher contract
Advertiser Staff
O'ahu polls closed at 4:45 p.m. but some Big Island voting places were expected to stay open until 5 p.m. as teachers across the state voted on a proposed contract that includes raises as well as a plan for mandatory random drug testing and drug tests for cause.The results of the balloting from 25 sites on all islands are expected to be announced at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
Sharon Kunihisa, a third-grade teacher at Wilson Elementary, voted for the contract at Kaimuki High School this afternoon.
She said she would have liked to have higher raises in the contract. "The other option is to have a strike," she said.
The issue of drug testing didn't factor into her vote, because she said she understands "it gives parents peace of mind."
Another teacher, Rita Kalaukoa, Kalani High social studies teacher, voted against the contract specifically because of the drug testing requirement.
"We're only being used as political pawns in this game. That's what's angering so many teachers."
The two-year contract proposal includes 8 percent raises and a 3 percent salary step increase.
But the issue of teacher drug testing has divided the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, which decided not to endorse the latest offer.
Roger Takabayashi, president of the HSTA, said he believes this is the first time the union's board of directors has sent a tentative contract to its members without a recommendation either for or against the proposal.
He said the union chose that approach after delegates to the HSTA's annual convention in mid-April split over the Lingle administration's drug-testing proposal. He said the administration tied drug testing to pay raises and refused to split the two issues.
If ratified, the agreement will require the HSTA to work with the state to design drug testing procedures by June 30, 2008. Takabayashi said the union would press for safeguards in the program because "every effort has to be made to protect the individual rights of teachers."
The pay increases offered in the proposed contract would boost starting pay for new teachers from $39,901 to $43,157. For mid-range teachers with about 15 years of experience, a master's degree and some additional credit hours, annual pay would increase from $59,566 today to $66,359 at the end of the contract.
For the most experienced teachers with more than 33 years on the job, the proposed contract would boost pay from $73,197 to $79,170, Takabayashi said.
The union representatives said they have been trying to quash a rumor that the proposed contract would require retirees to pay for their own medical coverage. They said that is false and is not part of the tentative agreement up for a vote.
