The union representing Hawaii’s public school teachers has filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board in an effort to force state officials to engage in bargaining over COVID-19 safety protocols.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association has criticized the Hawaii Department of Education since the start of the school year for not being adequately prepared to ensure the safety of teachers and students as they returned to classrooms in August, which came at a time when the highly contagious delta variant was causing COVID-19 cases in Hawaii to soar to their highest levels since the start of the pandemic.

The union has said that social distancing among students has not been possible in some schools, teachers have been required to attend staff meetings in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms, and teacher and student quarantine procedures are opaque.

“What HSTA is saying is we want to be able to sit down and hammer out some of these protocols and make sure that we can hold the department to account when they are not following through on certain items,” said HSTA President Osa Tui during a news conference on Wednesday outside the headquarters of the Hawaii State Department of Education in downtown Honolulu.

Several dozen teachers later picketed in front of the building, toting signs that read, “Safety Our Students Deserve.”

Department of Education interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi declined to comment on the complaint filed with Hawaii Labor Relations Board, saying through a spokesperson that the department had not yet received a copy of it. But he said his department has met regularly with the HSTA since May 2020 on COVID-19-­related issues, and remains committed to doing so.

“This has been an especially challenging year for everyone. We acknowledge all the hard work and effort that has gone into ensuring a safe learning environment for our students and staff,” said Hayashi in a statement. “Schools continue to do a tremendous job doing everything within their control to diligently implement the core essential strategies set by the Department of Health.”

Hayashi said that the current safety strategies have been successful in reducing the risk of exposure to the virus on school campuses.

COVID-19 cases among children peaked toward the end of August, just as the school year was getting underway. Those numbers have dropped sharply, according to state data, as they have for the overall population. There were 52 reported COVID-19 cases between Oct. 10 and Oct. 19 associated with the department’s 257 schools and administrative offices, according to the Department of Education’s COVID dashboard.

Tui said that now is the best time, while case counts are low, to sit down with state officials to hammer out better safety protocols in the event that a new, more virulent variant hits.

“We weren’t ready. We weren’t prepared for the delta variant,” said Tui. “The Department of Education was not prepared.”

Tui also said that the Department of Education has not been transparent with the union about the effect of quarantine procedures. He said HSTA doesn’t know how many students and faculty have had to be quarantined or how many classrooms were shut down. “We wish we had more information,” said Tui.

Lisa Morrison, HSTA secretary-treasurer and Maui High School arts and communication teacher, said that the poor planning on the part of the Department of Education has taxed both teachers and students. She said that some students at her school are forgoing school lunches because of the COVID-19 safety protocols.

“Even though students receive free meals, students are giving up because they can’t get in on time in order to eat, and that’s because we have to follow protocols,” she told reporters.

Tui said that state officials have cited Gov. David Ige’s emergency proclamation, which partially suspends a state statute relating to collective bargaining in the public sector, as the justification for not bargaining with the union. HSTA’s complaint asks the Labor Relations Board to find that the state is in violation of that statute and that officials need to engage in bargaining over the union’s grievances.

The governor’s office did not respond to a request to comment on HSTA’s comments relating to the executive order, or why portions of the statute remain suspended due to COVID-19.

The Hawaii Labor Relations Board has 20 days to act on the complaint.