$116M OK’d for teachers’ contracts

Lawmakers on Thursday signed off on $116 million to pay for raises and health benefits built into the first two years of the contract that teachers overwhelmingly approved last week.

The full four-year agreement will cost about $330 million in general funds and could cost upward of $370 million from all funding sources, state Budget Director Kalbert Young has estimated.

The contract’s price tag is likely to climb under a "reopener clause" included in the agreement that will allow the Hawaii State Teachers Association to negotiate in 2014 for increased compensation once a salary study called for in the contract is completed and presented to lawmakers.

The funding measure — House Bill 820 — was passed out of conference committee Thursday but still needs approval from the full Legislature.

Teachers have been working under a "last, best and final" offer the state unilaterally imposed in July 2011 that hit them with pay cuts and higher health care premiums. Those terms expire June 30.

The new agreement, effective July 1, will restore a 5 percent pay cut made in 2009. Teachers will also see annual salary boosts of at least 3 percent through a combination of across-the-board increases and pay grade step-ups in alternating years. Teachers already at the top of the HSTA pay scale will receive a one-time $1,500 bonus.

Teachers also will be paid 21 additional hours for training in each of the first two years of the contract, amounting to about a 1.5 percent salary boost.

Under the deal, starting pay for a licensed teacher will be $43,759 for the 2013-14 school year, while a teacher at the top of the salary schedule will earn $81,775 that year.

Raises for existing teachers will be tied to performance evaluations beginning July 1, 2015. Only teachers rated as "satisfactory," "effective" or "highly effective" will be eligible for pay increases in the year after the evaluation.

Teachers’ health premiums will also decrease under the agreement to a 40 percent share for teachers versus the 50-50 split imposed in the current contract.