Teachers in Hawaii are looking to bring back safety measures that were afforded to them last year, and last week they stepped up their demands in effort to do so.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) submitted a letter to Hawaii Department of Education Interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi and Board of Education Chairperson Catherine Payne asking to begin discussions with regards to teachers’ concerns and conditions for the upcoming school year.
According to Big Island Now, the letter, which was signed by 2,000 educators, was addressed to Hayashi, the Hawaii Board of Education and Gov. David Ige (D), which states that due to the ongoing pandemic, teachers are demanding negotiations for safer school practices.
HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr., said at issue was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would have allowed schools for alternative methods to teach students.
Instead, the schools are switching back entirely to in-person learning, which has left educators without guidelines for distance instruction and no guarantees of critical safety and health protocols, he added.
“Parents are being told by Gov. Ige, Interim Superintendent Hayashi, Department of Health Director Dr. Libby Char and school administrators that their children will be kept safe," he said, according to HSTA's website. "But how can teachers follow that directive when many have packed classes and impossibly little opportunity to safely distance students? In many of our classrooms, students are forced to sit side by side at desks that seat two students. Teachers also have little control over what students do when they arrive onto or leave campus, ride the school bus, play at recess with friends and pack hallways when the rains come down. They’re also standing in long lines in crowded cafeterias where all are entitled to free meals this year.”
Last school year, the Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) and the HSTA had a MOU that provided safe practices at school. However, the MOU expired on June 30 and thus far the state has refused to bring back the same guidelines for the upcoming school year.
HSTA Secretary-Treasurer Lisa Morrison is an arts and communication teacher at Maui High, who said she worries about the schools' inability to provide safe protocols should an outbreak occur.
“I’m concerned because since the department did not have a plan from the beginning to do this safely, that it’s more of a disruption to school than we had at times last year,” Morrison said, according to the HSTA website. “I think the biggest problem that I have heard of is that there is a shortage of adults available to supervise the rest of the children who are still in school (during a quarantine). I know that other schools have had to send staff in order to help out, which just means that we have a larger number of people who are moving in and out inevitably, which is problematic.”
The Hawaii State Department of Education is requiring that employees submit to weekly COVID-19 testing or provide proof of vaccination, according to the HSTA website.