Six Years Later, Principals Still Don’t Have Performance Contracts
Three former Hawaii governors are proposing educational reforms that would, among other things, “give principals the power and resources to be true leaders of each school, and then hold them accountable.”
But attempts since 2004 to institute an accountability system for principals have failed, raising the question of how this time would be any different. The — also known as Act 51 — stipulated that the department of education and its bargaining agents “shall propose salary schedules and other terms and conditions of employment of principals and vice principals based upon a twelve-month term of services.” The goal was to build contracts containing incentives that would reward principals for good performance and strip poor performers of the virtually-unconditional job security they currently enjoy.
The department was to submit its findings to the Legislature before its regular 2005 session began. The superintendent was then supposed to put together a work group that would design performance contracts for principals that would have gone into effect in the 2006-2007 school year. But to this day, the department has not implemented a systemwide performance contract for public school principals.
Why? A spokeswoman for the department of education blamed budget cuts.
“The reinventing education act began the conversation,” said Sandra Goya, communications director for the department. “They didn’t exist before then, and there are no contracts in place right now, but we are still working on making this happen. A lot of the principals who have been around are certainly very much in the conversation.”
But some legislators grew impatient and sponsored two bills in the 2009-2010 legislative session — in the state House of Representatives and in the state Senate — that proposed a shortened salary schedule for principals and vice principals until the performance contracts were implemented.
There are 258 public school principals in Hawaii, 100 of whom earn between $121,000 and $149,000 annually, according to Hawaii State Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi. Contract incentives would have included salary bonuses for principals who increased student proficiency in reading and math and improved professional development for teachers, among other things.
It’s not the principals’ fault that the work group’s recommendations have never been put into effect, Principal John Sosa of Kaiser High School before the House Education Committee on Jan. 27 this year. Many school leaders volunteered their time to implement the act’s work group mandate and help design accountability contracts.
The group submitted its suggestions for principal standards and responsibilities to the department of education, as the act required, which the department , per the mandate.
“Thereafter, school principals repeatedly questioned the DOE (sic) and asked, when and how would the principals performance contract be implemented?” Darrel Galera, principal of Moanalua High School and a work group participant, told the House Education Committee in January. “In 2007, the issue again was raised. In response, the DOE decided to do a ‘pilot’ of the performance contract with the principals of the Mililani Complex.”
He and other group members were baffled that the department disregarded their suggestions in favor of implementing a “totally unrelated to the recommendations approved by the Workgroup (sic).”
The department did in fact compile for the contracts in 2006, said Goya. But “due to budget cuts and lack of funding, principal performance contracts were delayed and a pilot was conducted in the interim,” she wrote in an e-mail responding to questions about the lack of implementation. The department has continued to work on the performance contracts, she added, pointing out that they are an important part of Hawaii’s application for federal Race to the Top funds.
Repeated phone calls to the Hawaii Government Employees Association, which represents principals, were not returned.
The bills to punish principals — with shortened salary contracts until the contracts were implemented — died in committee. But Sosa said he thinks the department is now under pressure to produce results.
“I don’t think it’s a question of whether there will be contracts, but what form they will take,” Sosa said. He said he hopes any contracts will also involve granting more power to principals so they have the means to support their individual schools’ performance needs.
