Hawaii Raises Salary Caps For Education Staff
The maximum salaries just went up for assistant superintendents and complex area superintendents in the Hawaii Department of Education.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed into law on Monday, which raises the salary cap from “not to exceed 80 percent of the superintendent’s salary” to “not to exceed the superintendent’s salary.” The new law is aimed at recruiting highly qualified people to serve in those positions, according to the Governor’s office.
In theory, a complex area superintendent could now make as much as Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi. An attempt last year to increase her salary cap got the veto from Gov. Linda Lingle.
Given that the Department of Education has repeatedly cited budget woes this year during legislative briefings and testimony, it will be interesting to see if any of the salaries actually go up.
Abercrombie signed two other education-related bills Monday:
- makes changes to term lengths on the Hawaii Teachers State Board, but equally important: It states that a teacher’s failure to pay or renew a license in a timely manner will result in automatic forfeiture of the license, and “A person with a forfeited license shall not teach at a public school until that person’s license is restored.”
- provides schools the option, but does not mandate, that every school administer a test that compares each Hawaii student nationally.
