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Board of Education to start search to replace Schools Superintendent Matayoshi

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

The state Board of Education announced it will begin a search for a new schools superintendent to succeed Kathryn Matayoshi when her contract ends on June30.

The state Board of Education announced it will begin a search for a new schools superintendent to succeed Kathryn Matayoshi when her contract ends on June 30.

Board officials said late today that they will discuss beginning the search process at their next meeting Tuesday.

“This is an ideal time to transition to new leadership that will help the DOE continue its efforts to reduce the achievement gap and prioritize achievement for all students,” said BOE Chairman Lance Mizumoto.

The board plans to form a search committee.

Last month, the board gave Matayoshi a positive annual performance evaluation, saying she exceeds expectations in “overall rating” and in ” overall management abilities,” and fully meets expectations in “performance objectives and program accomplishments.”

The superintendent oversees the 10th-largest school district in the nation, with 180,000 students enrolled at 256 schools. The Department of Education is the state’s largest department, with a nearly $1 billion payroll and 22,000 salaried employees.

Matayoshi took over as acting superintendent in January 2010 and was officially appointed to the position nine months later; however, she did not receive a three-year contract until June 2011. In June 2014, the board extended her contract for another three years.

38 responses to “Board of Education to start search to replace Schools Superintendent Matayoshi”

  1. peanutgallery says:

    She’s already dipped her beak long and hard. Largest pay-raise in in History after her first year. Very surprising that she’s giving it up, but that’s not what they say. As a amateur of fact, Lance doesn’t say much. Lance Mizumoto’s explanation reaks of nonsense.

    • Manoa_Fisherman says:

      The Hawaii public school system has been lead by Matayoshi who thought the system was so bad that she sent all her children to private schools. What does that tell you?

    • thos says:

      As long as we have the only one of its kind in the nation statewide school “district”, it doesn’t matter who is on the BOE, whether it is elected or appointed or who is chosen as Supe.

      The system itself is unworkable or as the legendary Joan Husted once put it, afflicted with “boiling dysfunction.” It is an enormous money sucking glob of bureaucratic, non teaching desk drivers that consumes billions of dollars very few of which trickle down to the plankton level of the DOE food chain, the classroom classroom.

      The kind of money allocated each year to the DOE, every student should be chauffer driven to school in a Rolls Royce. Instead students are asked to bring in supplies of paper towel, Kleenex, 3 ring notebooks &c. at the beginning of each school year besides which schools have to have annual fund raisers to support campus activities and many teachers have to go out of pocket to furnish their classrooms. It is a very expensive game of bureaucratic crack the whip in which students and their teachers are assigned the role of tail end Charlie.

      In this dysfunctional chaos is it an wonder the bright capable kids whose intellectual birthright is being stolen consistently rank at or near the bottom in scholastic achievement? Believe me it is not our KIDS who are worst in the nation.

      The only way to free the kids from this gold plated statewide tax supported baby sitting system in which they are now being warehoused is to abolish the BOE, literally dis-integrate the massive DOE and send a few of the remnants to LOCAL (county and sub county) school districts whose officials can be held ACCOUNTABLE for PERFORMANCE. Right now there is ZERO accountability within DOE for ANYTHING.

      It is no coincidence that DOE has not been subjected to an outside audit since 1974. No telling what might crawl out from under this rock if it were to be overturned. You can well believe the under rock denizens don’t want to be exposed to the glare of TRUTH.

      Until we can get a long overdue separation of School and State, the best we can hope for is Home Rule For Schools.

    • allie says:

      Kathy continues to be a disappointment although she is the darling of the corporate set for her penchant for testing. I teach young students and she has never supported the efforts of my colleagues in any way. She needs to be replaced. I agree with Ige that we need a much better person and educator in this position. Time is running out for Hawaii’s educational platform.

  2. noheawilli says:

    Can we find someone who will help free teachers from the hsta, the nea and common core?

    • dontbelieveinmyths says:

      The HSTA (NEA) and BOE are two different things. Please be informed when posting. Otherwise it is just gibberish.

      • noheawilli says:

        UH, dbim aka le gibberish. I know that, but every one in education can work to improve student learning and I listed 3, really 2 issues that would go a long way to helping our children.

      • MalcolmK says:

        “The HSTA (NEA) and BOE are two different things.”
        Whether the HSTA is a company union or the DOE is a union-owned company is purely a matter of your choice of words. When voters elected the Board, HSTA-endorsed candidates dominated the Board. Now a union-endorsed, status quo Governor appoints the Board.
        In 1993, then-Lt. Governor Cayetano said “We cannot afford to waste another generation of school kids”. That was 24 years (TWO generations) ago.
        The system cannot be fixed. If you love your kids, homeschool.

  3. sewing4u says:

    Allie would love this job but people like her will never run anything meaningful in this state. And she knows it…which is why she’s so bitter.

  4. Bdpapa says:

    I wasn’t sure about her at first, but she has done quite well under the pressures of the position. I’d like to see a more independent person in the position. Pretty much we need an a hole who won’t take crap from the Unions and the political insiders. If Ige has the guts, he can make this happen, buy he won’t. He’s gonna bend and pick someone like Schatz!

    • inverse says:

      Thinking the exact same thing of choosing the other shatz

      • Nesmith says:

        Don’t do it, the other is weak. Too passive no balls. Cows down to CAS(s). Please don’t go there. Well regret it.

        • beachbum11 says:

          Two brothers same same. hame

        • beachbum11 says:

          I mean shame

        • MalcolmK says:

          How is it possible for a lone gunman with a 9-shot pistol and a 30-shot rifle to hold 100 people hostage? Plug the 5 year-old girl across the room in the head, to demonstrate that (a) you have no scruples and (b) you don’t miss. Yes, if everyone charges, they’ll get him, but no one will be first to leave his seat. Even Republicans (McDermott, Ontai) kiss union posterior in Hawaii. Neither Schatz has challenged the public sector unions. Neither will. The system abides because it serves the people who determine it’s fate. Meaningful reform (vouchers, tuition tax credits, Education Savings Accounts, etc.) is all but impossible. The parasites will bleed Hawaii taxpayers white.
          Homeschool.

    • rytsuru says:

      Exactly bdpapa…it isn’t about what is best for the students, but what is in the best interests of the politicians and who they can dole jobs out to.

  5. Nesmith says:

    Whoever is best for our children? Should be the bottom line when selecting our next Superntendent. Hopefully one with classroom experience.

  6. toobn says:

    So why isn’t she having her contract renewed? Is it her decision or thr BOE’s?

  7. whs1966 says:

    Amen–sayonara–good riddance. Matayoshi has at best been a care-taker. Has student achievement improved markedly? No. Has the gap between students who receive special support, including those who receive free & reduced lunches, and the non-special needs students closed? No. Has she done anything meaningful to address the chronic teacher shortage? No. Has she secured funds for the sorely needed high school in the Ewa area? No. Has she been a strong advocate to build a public school system we can be proud of? No. Did she lead the effort to have air-conditioning installed in the sweltering classrooms? No…that effort was lead by HSTA’s recently elected president.

  8. roxie says:

    We need someone who has an education background and has had their children who are products of public education. This also should apply for the BOE and all administrators current and future within the DOE. This will make these people that make decisions for education having the best at heart for education as a whole.

  9. wrightj says:

    Fair winds and following seas.

  10. localguy says:

    Circumlocution pure and simple.

  11. localguy says:

    Just for once it would be nice to see our dysfunctional BOE actually select someone who is fully qualified, intelligent, has high moral and ethical values, would actually be a leader who can make the tough decisions. As in firing incompetent teachers who are a leech on everyone.

    Yeah. Sure. Like that will happen in our life time.

  12. Pacificsports says:

    If one had seen the inner workings of the BOE under her, which is protect and hide and not improve, one would say the change is long overdue.

    • Cellodad says:

      The Board of Education (BOE) is not “under” the Superintendent of the HIDOE.

      • thos says:

        The BOE is irrelevant. DOE does what it jolly well pleases.

        For an accurate understanding of the relation between the feeble, minuscule BOE and the gargantuan DOE, picture a 5 hp Evinrude outboard motor duct taped to the Queen Mary.

  13. g35eorgio says:

    Time for a change & find someone that is better qualified & can relate better improving the school system.

  14. fiveo says:

    Governor Ige should have moved to boot Matayoshi when he was first elected. Better late than never I suppose. She should have never been given the job in the first place.
    A lot of time and money has been wasted in the meanwhile and the DOE continues to be one of the most dysfunctional and ineffectual state agencies around.
    A bloated bureaucracy which is always trying the latest soup de jour or fad promising to fix the failure of our schools to educate and spending millions but with no improvement
    in teaching the basics of reading and writing and getting bigger and more bloated and increasing the administrative burdens on teachers all the while.
    The fact that a large number of public school teachers and administrators send their own children to private schools, tells you a lot about how bad the DOE is.

    • saywhatyouthink says:

      It won’t matter who they select. The DOE suffers from the same disease affecting every city and state department – unaccountable unionized public workers.Like a cancer, the problem has only grown and gotten worse over time.
      As long as the unions control the politicians, (Ige is owned and operated by HSTA) nothing will improve, the status quo will remain. Why? Because the Unions like things they way they are. Nothing will change until it must.
      Keep voting for those corrupt career (D) politicians Hawaii, you’re getting exactly what you deserve. Scrooded Royal!

    • ysm says:

      Guess where Gov Ige sent his kids?? Is he really ALL IN?

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