The executive board of the teachers union will meet this weekend to determine its next steps after teachers approved a contract proposal that they previously rejected and which the state says is no longer valid.
The governor has urged the union to return to negotiations.
Al Nagasako, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said the union’s leadership "will be strategizing" once the board decides how to proceed in the wake of the vote.
Some 66 percent of teachers who voted supported the agreement, HSTA announced last week. The results were a reversal of the vote in January, when 67 percent of teachers rejected the deal.
HSTA will not disclose how many teachers participated in the recent round of voting. That’s a concern for some teachers, given low turnouts in previous votes, including a recent HSTA leadership election.
On HSTA’s Facebook page over the weekend, several teachers were urging the union to release the vote’s turnout figures.
Nagasako said the board of directors will make the call on whether to release details on how many of the union’s 12,500 members voted. Voting on the previously rejected deal was done online and over the phone from May 17 to 22.
Nagasako did say the turnout was "pretty close" to what was seen in January, when about 9,000 teachers voted, and he added that it is standard procedure to give the union’s board a chance to review the raw vote tallies before they are released to members.
Results have typically been shared shortly after the close of voting, however. In January, turnout figures were released the same day.
Shannon Kaaa, an HSTA board member, said she hadn’t yet gotten the full results from last week’s vote, either. It’s unclear whether other members of the board also haven’t seen the turnout figures.
Kaaa said she is hopeful the state will honor the previously rejected agreement, "and then we wouldn’t have to take it out to vote again." She said while it would be unprecedented, there is nothing that precludes the state from accepting the deal.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie, however, has asked HSTA to resume negotiations. He said in a statement last week that the voting results will be "seriously considered" if the union returns to talks.
Wil Okabe, HSTA president, has said the teachers union doesn’t plan to submit a new offer to the state. HSTA maintains the state has the authority to accept the new vote as a ratification.
Under the deal, Hawaii teachers would continue to take 5 percent wage reductions through June 30, 2013, before moving to a new salary schedule that recognizes their years of service.
The Department of Education would also move to a revised teacher evaluation system linked to student performance. Teachers rated "effective" or higher would be eligible for annual raises.
HSTA has said it asked teachers to reconsider the January agreement in hopes of preserving the state’s $75 million Race to the Top grant, which is in danger of being lost.
The Obama administration has placed the grant, aimed at making sweeping education improvements, on "high-risk" status because of disappointing progress, including in the area of revamped teacher evaluations linked to student growth.
In internal messages, HSTA also told teachers the second vote was called because talks with the state were proving unproductive.
Going into the vote, teachers were instructed that if the agreement were rejected, the board would have authority to strike. Strike authorization doesn’t necessarily mean a strike is imminent.
Teachers have been working under a "last, best and final" contract offer the state imposed in July, when talks fell apart. The offer included wage reductions and higher health care premiums.
Joan Husted, former HSTA executive director, said if the governor accepts the January deal as a formal tentative agreement, it would not have to go out for another vote. Any big changes to the deal, however, would require a ratification vote from teachers.
"It’s uncharted territory," Husted said.
