Seven months after angry public testimony helped to compel the state Department of Education to scale back a proposal to raise salaries of officials at the top levels of Hawaii’s public school system, the state Board of Education has approved salary increases of 4.6% to 6% for the 2023-2024 fiscal year for 21 out of 25 of its “subordinate superintendents.”

The DOE on Thursday declined to confirm the dollar amounts, but calculations using past pay ranges approved by the board indicate maximum salaries for some positions would increase to nearly $206,000.

State Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a memo to the board requesting the pay raises that “fair and competitive salaries are essential to attract and retain skilled executive leaders to carry out the board’s Strategic Plan as well as the mission and vision of the department.”

There are 25 subordinate superintendent positions in the DOE: the three deputy superintendents surrounding Hayashi — Heidi Armstrong, Curt Otaguro and Tammi Chun — plus seven assistant superintendents and 15 complex-area superintendents. They are at-will employees not covered by any collective bargaining agreement, and BOE approval is required to raise their pay.

The BOE on Oct. 19 approved “compensation adjustments” for 21 of them in a unanimous vote, without saying who got what kind of raise.

While Hayashi’s request did not include dollar figures, his memo included an attachment that listed salary ranges that the BOE had approved in May 2022 “to assist the superintendent with leadership recruitment.” Hayashi also mentioned these prior pay ranges in a memo in March.

For deputy superintendents the pay had been $162,750 to $194,250; for assistant superintendents, $157,500 to $189,000; and for complex-area superintendents, $152,250 to $183,750.

Based on those ranges:

>> With basic 4.6% increases calculated, the maximum salary for 2023-2024 would become $203,185 for deputy superintendents, $197,694 for assistant superintendents and $192,202 for complex-area superintendents.

>> With 6% increases calculated, top pay would become $205,905 for deputy superintendents, $200,340 for assistant superintendents and $194,775 for complex-area superintendents.

The DOE has declined to confirm the latest salary figures because they are linked to performance evaluations, DOE Communications Director Nanea Kalani told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an e-mail. “This personnel matter was handled in executive session because performance evaluations are confidential. Calculating the individual salary increases could reveal the underlying evaluation score,” she said.

Asked why some people did not receive raises, Kalani said, “The four who did not receive increases were either in interim posts or not officially appointed for the full evaluation period.”

The raises will cost the department $232,369, and the department has sufficient funds in its state general funds budget to cover them, Hayashi said in his memo.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents approximately 13,000 public school teachers across the islands, said proper compensation for all categories of school employees is crucial, especially given the chronic worker shortages across Hawaii’s public schools.

“Despite DOE leadership, vice principals, teachers and educational assistants getting recent raises, many more in our school communities deserve pay increases to ensure that our schools can be adequately staffed in all positions, such as office staff, cafeteria workers, custodians and security guards,” HSTA President Osa Tui said in response to a Star-Advertiser request for comment.

The average Hawaii public school teacher salary is $73,319, an HSTA spokesperson said.

Hawaii public school teachers in April ratified a four-year contract with pay raises totalling 14.5% over four years. An agreement also was reached in August for raises for educational assistants and vice principals.

The DOE typically requests compensation adjustments for the deputy superintendents, assistant superintendents and complex-area superintendents annually. But in March a DOE proposal to significantly raise salary ranges for the subordinate superintendents had to be scaled back after it drew livid reactions from scores of school-level employees, the Hawaii Government Employees Association and several school board members, including nearly 200 pages of written public testimony.

At that time Hayashi had proposed larger raises: for the deputy superintendents, a range of $185,000 to $225,000; for assistant superintendents, $170,000 to $210,000; and for complex-area superintendents, $165,000 to $205,000.

The proposed raises for the assistant superintendents and deputy superintendents at the time were deferred, and the board said the DOE needed to produce a detailed proposal for raising complex-area superintendents’ pay based on such criteria as qualifications and experience.

The 2022-2023 median salary for associate superintendents of U.S. school districts with an enrollment of more than 100,000 students was $185,000, according to a study by the American Association of School Administrators.

To criticism leveled perennially at the state DOE about being top heavy, the assistant superintendent of the DOE Office of Fiscal Services, Brian Hallett, said in a separate Oct. 4 meeting of the board’s finance committee that Hawaii’s public school system has “the lowest overhead costs in the nation for state administration.”

Hayashi said in his latest memo that he was requesting salary adjustments retroactive to July 1 this year only for those subordinate superintendents who received an “effective” or better performance evaluation for the past school year, 2022-2023.

The proposed salary adjustments were designed to align with the increases that HGEA bargaining unit 6 members, who are educational officers, will receive in fiscal year 2024, Hayashi said. That bargaining unit’s members’ negotiated increases were 4.6% across the board on July 1 this year, and a step movement equivalent to 1.4% on Jan. 1.

The DOE’s deputy assistants and assistant superintendents are evaluated annually on a 4-point scale, ranging from unsatisfactory, marginal, effective to highly effective. Only those rated effective or highly effective will receive raises, Hayashi said. An effective rating would mean an increase of 4.6%, and a highly effective rating would mean an additional increase of 1.4% percentage points, for a total of 6%.

Complex-area superintendents are evaluated on their performance annually using ratings on a five-point scale, with “does not meet performance objectives” at the bottom level, 1; “meets performance objectives or significant progress on deliverables” at the midlevel, 3; and “exceeds rating 4 and demonstrates system-wide innovation and improvements, builds capacity across the organization,” at the top level, 5.

Complex-area superintendents who meet expectations with a score of 3 will receive an increase of 4.6%, Hayashi said. A score of 4 means an additional increase of 0.7%, for a total of 5.3%. A score of 5 means an additional increase of 0.7%, for a total of 6%.

Hayashi also recommended a retroactive raise effective July 1, 2022, for Hallett. The department had requested that year that his salary be adjusted to $175,000 to reach parity with other assistant superintendents, but the board deferred. Hayashi did not refer to Hallett by name in his latest memo, only by position. “The incumbent has been evaluated and met previous performance expectations since their initial appointment to the position,” Hayashi said.

Hayashi’s Oct. 5 memo also included a link to minutes from a May 2022 meeting of the board’s human resources committee. At that meeting board members and Hayashi had debated whether the subordinate superintendents’ salary figures ought to be public.

The minutes said then-committee Chair Kaimana Barcarse “explained that other state agencies make specific salary information publicly available and doing so for the Department’s high-level leadership positions will provide more transparency.

“Hayashi expressed concern that there would be confidentiality issues if the Department shared the actual salary information for leadership positions,” the minutes continued. “… Committee Member (Kenneth) Uemura stated that salaries are not confidential and that the Board and public should know the salaries of Department leadership.”