850 isle educators to receive pay increases

An arbitration panel has awarded annual 4.5 percent pay raises to approximately 850 Department of Education principals, vice principals and other school and district-level educational officers, the Hawaii Government Employees Association announced Monday.

The four consecutive raises — set to be awarded retroactively to the start of the fiscal year in July and continue through June 2017 — are estimated to cost the state a total of about $14 million, said Kalbert Young, the state’s budget director.

The HGEA’s school principals and educational officers unit has been working without a contract since their last pact expired June 30.

"This arbitration decision provided an opportunity for both parties to pre­sent the facts of the situation in an objective way," HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira said in a news release Monday. "Our educational officers, who have expanded duties, have a tremendous responsibility and often dedicate additional time and hours because of their deep commitment to our schools and children’s education."

Arbitrators did not resolve disputes between the union and the state over high-stakes evaluations for principals.

Despite performance evaluations being a hot topic going into the arbitration proc­ess, Perreira said in a phone interview Monday there are no permanent or long-standing terms included in the arbitration agreement that link performance to pay increases — meaning the union and the state are still negotiating terms of a permanent performance evaluation system for school leadership that factors in student achievement nearly 10 years after lawmakers first mandated performance contracts for principals.

Perreira said an expert witness who testified during the arbitration hearing suggested the state come up with a performance system that is not punitive in nature, but instead offers incentives for positive performance, but "basically the arbitrator left it to us to negotiate."

He added that the agreement "was just issued, so we haven’t engaged the department in any further dialogue over this, but I trust over time we will."

The state pledged to implement performance evaluations for school leadership in its application for the $75 million U.S. Department of Education Race to the Top grant, along with performance-based teacher evaluations that have already been rolled out statewide.

The parties had agreed to implement new evaluations — with half of a principal’s rating based on academic achievement data and the other half on leadership attributes — last school year under a memorandum of agreement announced in January 2013 with the union.

At the time, union officials said key aspects remained unresolved, including what the consequences would be for principals deemed unsatisfactory, and what the incentives would be for those rated highly.

A pilot evaluation system for school administrators was piloted in some schools last year but not rolled out statewide.

Perreira said a system is in place this year for complex-area superintendents to evaluate principals, and results are expected to come in at the end of the school year.

The state and the union also agreed on health insurance premiums, which cannot legally be determined by an arbitration panel. Similar to other HGEA bargaining unit agreements penned within the past year, there will be a 60-40 employer-employee split retroactive to Jan. 1 — compared with the previous 50-50 split — according to the union.

The arbitration hearing took place March 1720, Feb. 3-4 and Oct. 2124. Union representative Irene Pu‘u­ohau, employer representative Annette Anderson and arbitrator Richard N. Block served on the three-person panel.

"I would like to commend our educational officers for their leadership and dedication every day in our public schools and for being an integral part in helping to move our education system forward for the future of Hawaii’s students, families and communities," Perreira said in the release.

HGEA Bargaining Unit 6 was the last remaining unit with unsettled contract negotiations.

Star-Advertiser reporter Nanea Kalani contributed to this report.