DOE folks need to find solutions

Hawaii’s Department of Education took pains to emphasize that a new Principals Roundtable — intended to improve communication among school leaders and the central office — was in the works before an unofficial, independent survey blew the lid off discontent simmering among administrators in Hawaii’s public schools.

Rather than emphasize when the invitation went out (nearly two months ago), we’ll focus on what the group should accomplish: more fully engage school-level leaders to develop solutions to the challenges of our schools.

Mayors doing something right

It’s always fun to dump on politicians for accepting pay raises during periods when the rest of us are struggling.

In Hawaii, of course, such salaries often are determined by supposedly neutral salary commissions seeking to attract high-quality talent to the top political jobs.

But in any case, it’s nice to be able to commend at least two of our Hawaii mayors for forgoing portions of the salaries being offered to them: Billy Kenoi and Kirk Caldwell.

Under a Hawaii county salary commission determination, Kenoi is being offered $22,848 a year more than he currently is earning ($132,000), but he wants to donate that instead to charity.

Caldwell, meanwhile, voluntarily reduced his salary by about $12,000 a year this fiscal year (leaving him with $129,607), and is debating what to do about an 8 percent raise due him on July 1.

Maybe Mayors Bern-ard Carvalho Jr. of Kauai and Alan Arakawa of Maui would like to get in on this action, too.