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After an extraordinarily long and sometimes contentious state Board of Education meeting Thursday, former Waipahu High School Principal Keith Hayashi, who has been serving as state interim superintendent of Hawaii public schools since August, was selected from among three finalists to continue as the permanent state superintendent.
During an open state Board of Education special meeting spanning almost 12 hours — including nearly two hours of occasionally vitriolic public testimony punctuated by three recesses to restore order — Hayashi was appointed amid deeply divided debate among the board’s nine voting members.
The board, during its deliberations Thursday night, took three initial nonbinding, anonymous straw votes that suggested some shifting sentiments. But Hayashi prevailed narrowly over California educational consultant Caprice Young in the final two straw votes, with five first-place votes to Young’s four. Longtime Hawaii educator Darrel Galera was a distant third in the first straw poll and was eliminated by the final poll.
Hayashi’s appointment is set to go into effect July 1. His salary and other contract details will be negotiated later, state Board of Education Chair Catherine Payne said, but the state Legislature has set a maximum salary of $250,000 a year for the job. Hayashi’s predecessor, Christina Kishimoto, worked for $240,000 per year on a three-year contract that was extended for one year.
Hayashi, 57, a 33-year veteran of the state Department of Education, will now officially oversee Hawaii’s public school system, the nation’s only statewide school district, which is widely considered the 10th largest in the nation. The Hawaii DOE has 171,000 students and 42,600 employees in 257 regular public schools and 37 charter schools, and an annual operating budget of more than $2 billion.
>> PHOTOS: Keith Hayashi chosen as superintendent
After the vote at almost 8:30 p.m., Hayashi was brought into the boardroom and thanked the members, adding: “I look forward to working together with the board in creating a robust strategic plan to move the schools forward. I pledge a commitment to open communication and dialogue in support of our students.
“This means a great deal. I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead our public schools in Hawaii. I know all of us will make a difference for each and every one of our students.”
Bruce Voss, one of the more outspoken board members supporting Hayashi, said during the board’s deliberations that he felt it was important to choose a superintendent who could hit the ground running with strong relationships and cooperation within the department and the Legislature. Given the learning loss and emotional trauma that students are struggling with because of the pandemic, Voss said there is no time to waste.
“I do not think we can underestimate the kind of relationship, the kind of trust, the stick-to-itiveness that Keith Hayashi has inspired in the field,” Voss said.
He and others noted that Hayashi has the backing of some key community leaders, plus the state Department of Education’s 15 complex-area superintendents, who submitted a letter expressing unanimous support. Voss said he believes Hayashi is a major reason the Legislature restored the DOE’s budget in the past session after deep cuts the previous year.
Board member Shanty Asher echoed the sentiments of those who testified in Hayashi’s favor because of strides he made as principal of Waipahu High School, which is considered a leader in career-preparation academies and early-college courses.
“As a Pacific Islander living in Hawaii, I am supporting him … because of what I hear from Pacific Islanders, for how much respect he has and for how he values them at Waipahu High School,” she added.
Board members who spoke out strongly in favor of Young included Kaimana Barcarse, Vice Chair Kenneth Uemura and Kili Namau‘u.
“I want to see change in our schools. I don’t want same old same old,” Namau‘u said as she tried to make a case for Young during board deliberations. “Why are we afraid of having people from the outside showing us opportunities? Be brave!” However, Namau‘u was among several board members who later voted for Hayashi in a gesture of solidarity for the new superintendent.
The board, which chose its superintendent in open interviews and deliberations in public view for the first time, heard each finalist make a 15-minute presentation on how they would help guide and implement a strategic plan for the public schools, and interviewed each in a preset list of questions spanning topics from leadership style to education innovation. Among the materials made public in advance: the finalists’ full resumes, cover letters, written responses to questions and presentation materials; evaluation feedback from an advisory group of stakeholders, and interview questions.
The board received reams of written testimony and also heard more than 50 speakers from the public. The public-testimony portion erupted in chaos at times, as some testifiers tried to use the time to express dissatisfaction with the board, department and Hayashi over the handling of the schools amid the pandemic. Payne called recess to the proceedings three times, including one recess of nearly 45 minutes. Payne twice had board members leave the room, and sheriffs were called in to control some people shouting in the gallery.
Hayashi, during his presentation to the board, said the public schools are at a crucial turning point, just starting to emerge after more than two years in the pandemic.
“I am confident that my career experiences have prepared me to lead our public school system during one of the most challenging times for education in our state and nationally,” he wrote in his cover letter to the board. “Having served as interim superintendent for the last eight months has been an honor, and I am committed to continue to serve and lead so that each child will have a quality education that prepares them for success in life.”
Hayashi’s past roles include Waipahu High School principal since 2009, a position for which he was named Hawaii High School Principal of the Year and received the collegiate Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction. He is credited with pioneering the Early College program in local public schools and earned the distinction for Waipahu High as the state’s first nationally recognized wall-to-wall academy model school, the DOE website said.
The next permanent superintendent will have to lead Hawaii’s schools through a gantlet of issues, including pandemic learning loss and social-emotional trauma, effective use of nearly $1 billion in pandemic aid, finding solutions to the ongoing teacher shortage, monitoring school water safety in the wake of the Navy’s fuel contamination crisis, and evolving the schools so that graduates are ready for college and/or work, and the future needs of the state, nation and world.
Hayashi also will have to try to heal a rift with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, after multiple disagreements over Hayashi’s handling of pandemic measures. The teachers union’s president, Osa Tui Jr., issued only a short statement late Thursday night: “The HSTA looks forward to working with Keith Hayashi as we continue to emerge from the pandemic to improve our public school system together.”
KEITH HAYASHI
>> Age: 57
>> Education: Master of Education, educational administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Master of Education, curriculum and instruction, UH Manoa; Bachelor of Education, elementary education, UH Manoa
>> DOE leadership positions: Interim deputy state superintendent, Pearl City/Waipahu complex superintendent and Waipahu High School principal
>> Awards: Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society; Hawaii High School Principal of the Year, National Association of Secondary School Principals; Masayuki Tokioka Excellence in School Leadership Award, Public Schools of Hawai‘i Foundation
>> Hometown: Kaimuki
>> Currently lives: Central Oahu
>> Children: Two daughters
>> Classroom teaching experience: 8 years — Lehua Elementary School teacher, Leeward District resource teacher
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