HILO — The state Board of Education on Thursday approved a proposal to address Hawaii’s continuing teacher shortage by increasing pay for classroom teachers in areas that have faced the most severe staff shortages.
The plan — proposed Tuesday during a news conference with Gov. David Ige, state Superintendent Dr. Christina Kishimoto, Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee and others — calls for special-education teachers to receive a pay differential of $10,000 annually, Hawaiian-language-immersion teachers to receive an additional $8,000, and those teaching in geographically-hard-to-staff schools to receive $3,000 to $8,000.
According to the HSTA, hard-to-staff differentials of $3,000 were negotiated in 2007 for qualified and licensed teachers in those locations.
Under the new plan, teachers in the Kea‘au and Pahoa complexes on Hawaii Island would continue to earn a $3,000 differential, those in the Kealakehe, Kohala and Konawaena complexes would earn an additional $5,000, and teachers in the Honoka‘a and Ka‘u complexes would earn $7,500, the HSTA said.
Approval came during a meeting Thursday morning after testimony largely in support of the measure.
The board took action on two separate motions, the first to approve the pay differential for Hawaiian-language-immersion teachers, and the second to approve the pay differential for the remaining two categories of teachers.
Source: The Garden Island
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