Some East Hawaii educators say they’re “pleasantly surprised” with a new tentative contract agreement that would gradually bump their annual pay by more than $6,000 and boost the state’s contribution to their health care.
Some East Hawaii educators say they’re “pleasantly surprised” with a new tentative contract agreement that would gradually bump their annual pay by more than $6,000 and boost the state’s contribution to their health care.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association announced the four-year contract proposal on Saturday. If ratified, the collective bargaining agreement would hike teacher salaries by a compounded 13.6 percent over four years in the form of step increases and 3.5 percent raises during alternating years.
It would also increase the state’s share to health insurance premiums by about 9 percent to counter rising health care costs.
A first-year teacher who’s paid $46,601 annually now would earn $53,177 in four years, HSTA says, and a teacher with more than 30 years of experience would see their pay jump from $85,488 to $91,950 annually after four years of the new contract.
Hawaii teachers currently make about $57,000 per year on average.
“I’m very, very happy,” said Val DeCorte on Monday, an English Language Learner coordinator at Hilo High School who is also an HSTA board member. “(The contract) is not perfect — nothing ever is — but we’re working toward that. It’s not solving the problem but it’s helping. … It’s not as much as we’d all like but to me, it’s heading in the right direction.”
“I was just amazed when I first saw (the contract),” added Matthew Yarberry, a Hilo High School teacher and HSTA representative who previously said he was having trouble affording health insurance for his wife because of rising premiums. “From what I see on the surface, I like it very much. I think everyone is just glad it worked out.”
Yarberry was among dozens of Hilo area teachers who participated in a statewide HSTA-sponsored rally last month while the union was in negotiations with the state. There are about 2,050 public school teachers on Hawaii Island including 1,210 in the Hilo area, a larger concentration than anywhere else on the island.
HSTA has long claimed higher wages would help ease Hawaii’s longstanding teacher shortage. One study ranked Hawaii dead last for starting teacher salaries, adjusted for cost of living.
Corey Rosenlee, union president, said previously Hawaii teachers would need raises of $4,000 to $25,000, depending on their experience, in order to match salaries of teachers who work in similar high-cost-of-living areas.
The current agreement still doesn’t give teachers “the salaries they deserve,” Rosenlee said Monday, which he attributed to a tight fiscal budget. It also doesn’t address issues in special education or offer a cap to class sizes which can swell to more than 40 students per room in some schools, he said.
HSTA had pushed for a bill this year that it said would have generated up to $500 million for public schools by setting a statewide surcharge on visitor accommodations and investment properties. The bill died last week. Rosenlee said he’s hoping to see it reintroduced next year.
“We are making a dent in that, but the current problem is we did the best we could with the budget (lawmakers) had,” he said. “Long term, with all these issues … we need to find a way to increase the budget for education.”
The proposal also calls for streamlined evaluations for the most tenured teachers over the next two years while an improved evaluation process is worked out.
Teachers will vote on the agreement Thursday. It requires a simple-majority to pass. HSTA’s current contract expires June 30.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.