Contrary to board vote, superintendent says department canât afford extra pay for hard-to-recruit teachers Hawaii Schools File Image (Source: HNN Archive) By HNN Staff | February 18, 2021 at 5:57 PM HST - Updated February 18 at 5:58 PM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state Board of Education took a stand on Thursday in favor of continuing extra pay for special education and other hard-to-recruit teachers.
However, the superintendent says there is no money for the program.
Waianae Intermediate Art teacher Kileigh Sanchezâ said that her salary was raised by $8,000 for working on the Leeward Coast, but she is worried that this money will be taken away.
A DOE Bid To End Teacher Salary Incentives Is Getting Pushback - Honolulu Civil Beat
The salary incentives were implemented last year to retain special education teachers and other hard-to-fill positions. Reading time: 6 minutes.
Hawaii’s school superintendent is facing a rebuke from the head of the Board of Education after she informed complex area leaders and principals last week that salary boosts intended to retain teachers in hard-to-fill positions would end next year because of the tough economic situation.
Catherine Payne, chairwoman of the state Board of Education, challenged Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s authority to “unilaterally discontinue” these pay differentials in a memo posted online ahead of the board meeting scheduled for Thursday.
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The measure (HB 613) would push the state DOE to use federal CARES funds for teaching positions cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But school Superintendent Christina Kishimoto says that would not be the best use of the money. My recommendation to the Board of Education for these one-time funds is to provide solutions to address unmet needs for public school resources to address severe learning gaps, provide for health and safety measures related to reopening schools, and offset critical shortfall areas, which goes beyond the staffing component, Kishimoto said. We agree school leaders, teachers and staff are an important component to an effective education system, and believe these positions need to be secured through permanent positions and permanent funding, not one-time relief funds.
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23% of elementary school students are two or more grade levels behind in math and english language arts.
Middle schoolers were hit even harder. 40% of middle school students were two or more grade levels behind in english and language arts and 35% were behind in math.
However, Hawaii’s students made less learning gains in math in the 2019-2020 school year.
That follows the national trend observed by the Northwest Evaluation Association.
“Gains in math were lower, on average this fall than in prior years. And so more kids as a result of that are falling behind to their relative to their prior standing,” said NWEA researcher Beth Tarasawa.