Education officials and Gov. Linda Lingle’s aides met for more than an hour-and-a-half this morning to discuss a tentative agreement with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which would eliminate seven of the 10 furlough days for the current school year.

Linda Smith, the governor’s senior policy advisor, called the discussions “helpful” and said the particulars of the meeting will be relayed to the governor. Smith said the purpose of the meeting was to learn more details about the HSTA tentative agreement.
Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto and Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi were present at the meeting.
Though no decisions were made during this morning’s meeting, education officials said they were optimistic after delivering details about the agreement to the administration. Toguchi said the governor’s aides offered no outright rejection of the plan.
“We had a long and productive meeting,” Toguchi said. “We look forward to a hopefully a favorable response, soon.”
Smith said the administration was still disappointed that the agreement did not eliminate all remaining 27 furlough Fridays. But she said they now better understand the context of the negotiations and discussions with the HSTA that led to the agreement.
“This, again, was an informational meeting for us to understand better the details of what the proposal was. We continue to be disappointed in terms of not having the furlough situation corrected. We very much appreciate the fact that the superintendent and the chair spent a lot of time going over the particulars of the plan,” Smith said.
Smith said Georgina Kawamura, director of Budget and Finance, was present and went back to her office following the meeting to examine the budgetary details of the HSTA plan.
Smith could not be specific when the governor would make any decisions about the agreement.
Under the agreement, $35 million from the state's rainy day fund will restore five furlough days, teachers will give up two planning days (January 4 and May 21) and ends the school year three days early. Monday evening, the govenor said she could not support the agreement, calling it “not a credible plan,” and “not sustainable.”
Lingle had offered on Nov. 15 to use $50 million from the rainy day fund to restore 12 furlough days if teachers would agree to teach on 15 planning or other noninstructional days. Her plan would have wiped out all remaining furlough days this school year and next.
Lingle's representatives walked away from talks with the HSTA, DOE and BOE on Dec. 17 when the teachers union said $50 million was not enough to restore all furlough days.
Union and Department of Education officials said they were worried that Lingle's plan, by their tally, was $19.3 million short.
Officials feared that restoring furlough days, and the $19.3 million shortage, would result in layoffs of 2,500 full-time employees, an increase in class sizes and loss of programs. The teachers union had also expressed concern about giving up the roughly 10 yearly planning days.