After months of negotiations, voting on a new contract -- which won’t raise the salary for public school teachers -- is underway and set to close on Wednesday, June 9.
The contract reflects a two-year agreement between the state officials and the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA), which was decided on May 22. If approved, the contract would start Thursday, July 1, and end June 30, 2023.
“While widespread access to vaccines and improving science about mitigating the spread of COVID-19 reduced the health risks for our members, the reality of the state’s dire financial outlook made this bargain very difficult,” HSTA Negotiations Chair Paul Daugherty wrote to the association's members, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.
Daugherty said the negotiation, which started in December of last year, was one of the most arduous projects he has worked on in his two-decade tenure in the committee. State financial constraints and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the hefty work. If voting results do not turn out to be in favor of the agreement, the committee would have to go back to the negotiating table.
Currently, a teacher’s annual base pay in Hawaii starts at $50,819.
Hawaii legislators are currently waiting for the governor to sign House Bill 613, which appropriates $29,700,000 to "be used for a one-time stabilization payment of $2,200 for each full-time and half-time teacher.”