Board Of Ed Hires Matayoshi As New Superintendent
The Hawaii State Board of Education voted unanimously on Monday to hire Kathryn Matayoshi as the new superintendent of the Hawaii Department of Education. The former deputy superintendent has served as the department’s interim leader since shortly after Patricia Hamamoto resigned from the superintendent’s post on New Year’s Eve 2009.
The decision was made just days before the primary election in which voters will select the parties’ top gubernatorial candidates. One of them could end up having a heavy influence over education department leadership if an amendment passes this November to replace the current elected education board with one appointed by the governor. Because the board hires the superintendent, whoever becomes governor could also have indirectly determined who took Hamamoto’s place.
Board Chairman Garrett Toguchi told Civil Beat earlier this summer that one of the current board’s top priorities was to install a new superintendent before the November election. In its apparent rush to do so, the board ended up hiring Matayoshi weeks earlier than the superintendent selection committee had anticipated as recently as its Sept. 3 meeting.
Matayoshi was the top pick from among 24 applicants, said board spokesman Alex Da Silva. She will be paid $150,000 a year and received a four-year contract.
Her experience appeared to match the criteria established based on research provided by consultant Lee Goeke, the results of a public superintendent profile survey and the opinions of an ad hoc superintendent selection committee. (View the timeline the superintendent search timeline .)
The revealed that the top qualities Hawaii citizens would like to see in a superintendent of education include (in order of priority):
- Experience communicating with and engaging parents and the community.
- Experience serving as a leader for reform and change within the department of education.
- Familiarity with preparing and managing large budgets.
- Ability to work in a cultural, ethnically and racially diverse environment.
Matayoshi’s role in securing $75 million for Hawaii in the federal Race to the Top grant competition also played into the board’s decision.
鈥淢s. Matayoshi鈥檚 impressive record of accomplishments since joining the department is a testament to her strong leadership skills, commitment to education, and dedication to Hawaii鈥檚 public school students, employees and families,鈥 said Toguchi in a . 鈥淯nder Ms. Matayoshi, the department overcame unprecedented budget challenges, kept student achievement rising, and won the highly competitive federal Race to the Top program, securing $75 million for our schools. I鈥檓 excited to have her on board and confident she will successfully implement rigorous reforms to prepare students for college and careers.鈥
Board member Maggie Cox said members talked about whether they should wait until after the November election to hire a new superintendent, but decided that especially with the beginning of a new school year, it was their responsibility to establish a permanent leader at the helm of the department.
“My personal feeling was, ‘let’s get our job done.’ If you just want to sit around and wait for things, you’re not going to accomplish a lot. I’m an elected board member, and until something changes that I’m going to do my job and get it done. And I think most of us felt like that. Now it’s settled for us, we’re moving forward, and who knows what’s going to happen in November? I can’t judge that and I can’t wait for that. I need to take care of the problems and situations right now.”
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