The governor says he wants the teachers union to submit a new contract proposal as soon as possible after the settlement negotiated between the state and union was rejected by members.
Governor Abercrombie says that settlement was reached in good faith with a focus on teacher advancement and student achievement.
He expressed disappointment at the teacher’s voting it down and said it may be that the positives of the contract were not conveyed to teachers.
The governor also says a new labor deal is crucial to securing federal Race to the Top funding for Hawaii.
Most teachers agree the main issue in the contract was performance evaluations, and tying them to possible raises.
Many teachers thought the details of evaluations were too vague.
The vote was a resounding no, thanks to one major stumbling block.
"Not knowing what the evaluation is, that’s the key part about the whole thing, not knowing,” said teacher Marcia Little.
"We had looked at the contract as a framework for ongoing collaboration with our teachers in developing the evaluation instruments, and there was a process, time frames, in the contract for that collaboration effort,” said school superintendent Katherine Matayoshi.
One teacher at Washington Middle School said it was like writing a blank check, and that he could not vote yes to something like that.
Others wanted to know more about possible evaluations.
"Three pilot years where the department would work with the teachers on the various aspects of the evaluation and we would bring the data back and meet. See what was working. Is it reliable? Is it not?" said Matayoshi.
Other teachers wondered how you would measure success in such different classroom settings, from traditional math, to special education, to English second language.
Superintendent Matayoshi said it would take a dynamic evaluation process to cover the diverse things teachers do and to help them improve.
"I think one of the things we really want to shift is looking at evaluation as somehow just a gotcha. We’re trying to use evaluation to get rid of teachers. And we cannot, we cannot fire our way to the top,” said Matayoshi.
What will the Hawaii State Teacher’s Association’s next move be? One teacher has a suggestion.
"I would like to see more transparency and openness. I would like to have more details,” said Little.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
