The Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to form a four-member committee that will determine the search process for a new schools superintendent.
The contract for Kathryn Matayoshi, who has held the title since 2010, is set to end June 30. She said she has expressed to the board her desire to stay on the job.
However, BOE Chairman Lance Mizumoto said the state has an opportunity to move public education in a new direction.
“Having been on the board for a short period of time, I’ve only come to appreciate the amount of work that’s involved in running an operation as large as the Department of Education. … I do recognize and appreciate what Superintendent Matayoshi has done over the years,” he said.
Mizumoto added that the timing is right given work currently underway to update the Department of Education’s strategic plan as well as Gov. David Ige’s efforts to design an educational “blueprint” to revamp the public schools system.
“We believe that given the opportunity to revisit our strategic plan as well as looking at the (Every Student Succeeds Act) blueprint, that it’s an important time for us to reflect on what work is being done going forward,” he said. “And part of that work, it does involve the search for a new superintendent.”
Since taking office in December 2014, Ige has appointed eight of the board’s nine voting members. The board is charged under the state Constitution with formulating statewide educational policy and appointing the superintendent of education as the chief executive officer of the public school system.
Four of the BOE’s newest members were named to the special committee that will determine a search process: Darrel Galera, Bruce Voss, Ken Uemura and Patricia Bergin. The committee was set up as a so-called permitted interaction group under the state’s open-meetings law, meaning its interactions will not be subject to the Sunshine Law.
Before the vote, supporters of Matayoshi asked the board to reconsider moving ahead with a search. Several supporters called the move politically motivated.
“Although it is in your power to decide so, the decision to begin a search for a new superintendent with no transparent reasoning and no publicly acquired feedback justifying this decision, dismantles the frameworks of aloha inherent to Hawaii,” said Kalehua Krug, a teacher educator who sits on the state Public Charter School Commission. “This is obviously politically driven and sends a sharp message that politics trumps results.”
Krug noted that the BOE last month gave Matayoshi high marks on her annual performance evaluation for a third straight year. “To remove her now is like removing a starting quarterback in the third quarter after putting the team up two touchdowns at the half.”
Matayoshi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the meeting that Ige asked to meet with her last month and informed her that he wanted a leadership change. Ige was traveling Tuesday and unavailable for comment.
“I, FOR one, would want to extend Kathy’s contract, to be frank,” said Brian De Lima, the BOE’s vice chairman. “I think the public needs to understand that our superintendent is not being terminated. She has done an extraordinary job over the years. Public education today is much better than it was when she first was appointed.”
Under Matayoshi’s tenure more students are graduating on time and enrolling in college, state test scores are on the rise and more students are earning college credit in high school. She also is credited with establishing the Office of Hawaiian Education and guiding completion of the state’s federal Race to the Top competitive grant.
She has been criticized, meanwhile, for a persistent achievement gap between high-needs students (those with special needs, who are economically disadvantaged and/or English language learners) and their peers, and lacking a background in education.
