DOE Reveals Furlough Plan For Teachers, Other Employees
The furlough days range between six and 10 days between Jan. 1 and June 30, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto told staff in an internal video message.
Hawaii’s 13,000 teachers and other Department of Education employees will have to take six to 10 days of unpaid leave next year, the superintendent said Thursday after the governor ordered statewide furloughs in a bid to balance the budget.
School superintendent Christina Kishimoto revealed details of the DOE’s furlough plan for its 21,900 full-time, salaried employees in an 聽late Thursday.
Teachers will take six furlough days between Jan. 1 and June 30. All 12-month full-time employees, which include members of DOE鈥檚 central office, will take 10 furlough days in that same six-month time frame, she said in the two minute message.
鈥淭he department鈥檚 plan for next semester is less than the 9.23% 鈥 or the two days a month 鈥斅爐hat the Executive Branch is implementing,鈥 she said in the video message.
Kishimoto, as part of the governor’s cabinet, also will be taking a 9% pay cut to her salary, spokeswoman Nanea Kalani said, confirming an earlier statement by the governor.
On Wednesday, Gov. David Ige announced his plan to impose two day a month furloughs for most unionized state workers starting Jan. 1 to cope with a budget shortfall but said the DOE and the University of Hawaii would develop their own furlough plans.
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The DOE plan unveiled Thursday applies to all full-time salaried employees, except for federal or special-funded positions, substitutes, classroom aides and other part-time employees, Kishimoto said.
Hawaii schools already were suffering since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last year, forcing teachers and students to adjust to online learning and other difficulties.
鈥淥ur planned furlough days take into account that we lost nine instructional days at the beginning of the school year,鈥 her message continued. 鈥淲e wanted to minimize any further loss of instructional days for students.鈥
The DOE鈥檚 furlough plan means all 10-month employees will have to take at least one furlough day a month in that six-month time frame, while all 12-month employees will take 1.6 furlough days a month in that same period.
No timetable has been set for those dates, Kalani told Civil Beat. But she said a decision would be made 鈥渁s soon as possible,鈥 ideally before winter break begins on Dec. 18.
Kalani said she couldn’t elaborate on how the DOE would avoid cutting the number of school days as promised until the timetable is set.
鈥楾he Educators’ Voices Are Ignored,鈥 Union Says
In a statement Thursday evening, the Hawaii State Teachers Association said it had seen the video but had not received any further details about the DOE plan.
“This is the problem when the state imposes unilateral furloughs without negotiating them: the educators鈥 voices are ignored,” HSTA President Corey Rosenlee said. “Imposing furloughs violates the collective bargaining rights of state employees that are guaranteed in our state constitution.”
The union sent out a joint press release with three other powerful unions earlier in the day slamming the governor for imposing furloughs.
The DOE the start of the school year from Aug. 4 to Aug. 17 to allow for more teacher training days as it made a last-minute move to go to all-distance learning in the face of surging COVID-19 cases at the time and the union鈥檚 resistance to bringing students back to the classroom in the fall.
The DOE is required under state law to offer 180 instructional days of learning in an academic year, a policy that was set in the aftermath of the 2009 recession when the DOE imposed “Furlough Fridays.” Although the Board of Education was asked by DOE over the summer to to address the impacts of the pandemic, the board
