From HSTA e-newsletter:

COMMENTS FROM PRESIDENT WIL OKABE:

These comments were shared with reporters today.

Governor Lingle’s Flip Flop

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, in response to the statement released by the Office of the Governor, would like to remind the governor that the contract has already been overwhelmingly ratified by the membership. There will be no reopening of the contract and therefore no second ratification vote. The governor signed the contract with much fanfare. Only when she saw how angry the public was at the furloughs, which have been her preferred solution to dealing with state labor contracts, did she begin singing a different tune.

The governor has had the power all along to restore funding and to end the furloughs. The Rainy Day Fund has been there since the issue of furloughs was raised by the governor in June. HSTA recommended many other funding sources that the governor could have utilized at any time but she dismissed them out of hand. Likewise, HSTA asked that a special session be called months ago. Again, this could have been done at any time, since the Rainy Day Fund was always there, as were other special funds.

The Governor Has Made No Concessions
The governor implies that she has made a significant concession by offering the Rainy Day Fund. In fact, she has not made any concession, in her capacity as governor or personally. She sacrifices nothing by offering the Rainy Day Fund, but she attempts to gain political and public relations benefits by pretending she has made a concession in order to leverage further sacrifices by the teachers. Unlike the governor, who is taking the same pay check home to Washington Place, the teachers are taking home eight percent less every check. This pay cut has created immense hardship on many teachers and their families.

Teachers Have Already Given up Planning and Preparation Time
Teachers have already gone the extra mile to restore instructional days. Our negotiated and ratified contract already provides a mechanism that allows teachers to request that their workdays be changed to instructional days.

Last night, at the Board of Education meeting, the board voted to approve such requests, which were initiated by teachers at 84 schools. These teachers voted to convert planning days or modify bell schedules to restore some of the classroom instructional time lost to furloughs. The state school board has previously approved 100 similar requests from schools. In all, 184 of our state's 256 public schools have already obtained exemptions to change school schedules to restore instructional time. These were done at the sole request of our teachers. It is insulting to say the teachers do not care about their students. It was the governor who called for furloughs and forced the Department of Education to negotiate them by cutting the DOE budget 14 percent through labor savings.

The bottom line is that the governor is attempting to place blame on the teachers for a problem she created and failed to address, despite ample time and opportunity to do so.

Why have discussions on the governor's plan been postponed until mid-December?
The negotiating team includes active teachers who have to work, including Special Education teachers who have to write individual progress reports for their students. Also, I am going to be in Washington, D.C. to meet with federal officials and our congressional delegation on behalf of the HSTA.

Governor Unwilling to Negotiate
The governor and her team have shown no flexibility and have adopted a take-it-or-leave-it approach. The HSTA has made viable offers to get provide an interim solution but they have all been summarily rejected by the governor. We remain ready to offer more viable options.

RESPONSE TO ERIC SEITZ:

We know that Mr. Seitz is concerned about the welfare of Hawaii’s public school children. We, therefore, believe he would not want us to agree to the governor’s proposal, which would take away resources from our classrooms and greatly diminish the quality of instruction our students need. Nor do we believe Mr. Seitz would endorse a proposal that forces schools to operate with a skeleton staff, without a full complement of administrators and staff, including health aides and security personal—as well as educational assistants, occupational therapists and other professional service providers who are required to care for the special needs children whom Mr. Seitz champions.

The governor does not seem concerned with teachers giving up their planning and preparation days. We don’t think Mr. Seitz really agrees with this part of her proposal. Does he expect teachers to show up in the classroom without lesson plans or curriculum? Would Mr. Seitz give up his trial preparation and just show up in the courtroom? Would he feel that by doing so he was representing his clients to the best of his ability? If not, why would he want teachers to lose the time they use to prepare for their classes, as the governor’s plan dictates? We can no more provide quality education without preparation and planning time than Mr. Seitz can be a first rate lawyer without time to research, plan and prepare for the courtroom.