The state yesterday funded the last round of teacher pay raises under the current contract, even as the issue of random drug testing remained up in the air.

Georgina Kawamura, director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, processed paperwork yesterday that ensures the state Department of Education will receive the money needed to cover the upcoming round of teacher pay raises, said Russell Pang, spokesman for Gov. Linda Lingle.

The teacher's next round of collective-bargaining salary increases — an additional 4 percent on top of raises already implemented — are expected to go into effect in January.

News that Lingle is releasing the rest of the pay raises comes after the governor and others in her administration said that withholding pay raises was an option if random drug testing is not implemented under terms in the teachers' current contract.

Superintendent Pat Hamamoto yesterday said when the DOE received funding in July for employee salaries, the amount did not include money the department was expecting to cover teacher pay raises.

"We were short, so to speak," Hamamoto said. "We went back and forth, requesting that the money be transferred," she said.

On Oct. 10, Hamamoto sent a memo to the governor requesting the release of money to cover the next round of raises. On Oct. 20, the governor responded that the money would be released soon.

Hamamoto said she wasn't sure whether the delay in getting the money for pay raises was prompted by the teacher drug testing issue.

"It may be more coincidental," she said. "There was no formal conversation that this was about the drug testing."

ISSUE UNRESOLVED

Meanwhile, Roger Takabayashi, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said the union is committed to resolving the drug testing issue.

"We're happy that the money is being released," he said.

However, the issue of drug testing has been tied up at the state Labor Relations Board, where hearing dates have yet to be set for complaints filed by both the state and the teachers union, Pang said.

On July 18, the state filed a complaint with the Labor Relations Board against the union, alleging the union failed to negotiate the terms of the testing program in good faith.

The union also filed a petition asking the board to make a declaratory ruling on the legality of a random drug testing program for teachers.

"We're not objecting to the drug testing. We just want to do it right," Takabayashi said. "Until we get a definitive legal opinion, we're just going to have to wait."

A majority of teachers last year ratified a two-year contract that granted a 4 percent across-the-board pay increase in July 2007. A salary-scale step increase of 3 percent in January for some teachers was included in the contract. Both of those pay raises have taken effect.

Another 4 percent increase is due to take effect in January.

The current contract increased starting pay for new teachers from $39,901 to $43,157. For teachers with about 15 years of experience, a master's degree and additional credit hours, annual pay increased from $59,566 to $66,359 by the end of the contract. For the most experienced teachers with more than 33 years of experience, pay increased from $73,197 to $79,170.

As recently as July 1, just two days after the June 30 deadline for random drug testing passed, the governor said withholding teacher pay raises was an option if the program was not implemented.

"We have a variety of options at our disposal, including filing prohibitive practice complaints against the HSTA, not implementing the pay part of the contract going forward. There are a lot of options," she said.

While she said it was an option, she also said, "I don't want to make any threats."

The issue of withholding pay raises was first mentioned in January, when Pang said both the raises and the drug testing program were provisions in the same contract.

"If parts of the contract are not implemented, then the contract cannot take effect," he had said.

ACLU THREATENED SUIT

Marie Laderta, director of the state Department of Human Resources Development, also said in July that withholding the pay raises was something the administration "would be thinking about."

Officials have always acknowledged that the pay raises were granted during contract negotiations in exchange for random drug testing.

In the final weeks of contract talks in May 2007, union negotiators said Lingle inserted a non-negotiable random drug-testing provision into the contract, which angered many teachers.

The American Civil Liberties Union had threatened to launch a lawsuit on behalf of teachers, claiming that teacher pay raises cannot be placed in jeopardy if the drug testing portion of the contract is not implemented.

The ACLU argued that the contract contains a severability clause, which means that one portion of the contract does not hinge on another portion.

Other local legal experts also weighed in on the issue.

Richard S. Miller, former dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, said the administration would have no legal basis for withholding teacher pay raises.