PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
To my fellow educators,
As the school year comes to a close, I want to wish you all a great summer. I also would like to share the many ways we have worked effectively as a union for you over the past year.
When school began late last summer, unions across the country faced a great challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Anti-union billionaires bankrolled the case. If they were successful, a victory for anti-union forces would have significantly impacted our ability to advocate for teachers and public education. However, the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the subsequent 4-4 decision by the court upheld the lower court’s decision in CTA’s favor, protecting unions for the time being.
Regardless, the HSTA needs to show we are relevant and benefiting all our members. So here are some of our victories this year and goals for next year:
- The HSTA successfully lobbied and secured $100 million for air conditioning and heat abatement for hot classrooms. This funding will impact more than 1,000 classrooms, hundreds of teachers and tens of thousands of students across the state.
- Nationally, NEA along with other unions, lobbied for passage and approval of the federal Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA), which allows states greater flexibility on testing and evaluations.
- Because of ESSA, HSTA was able to lobby the BOE to change its policy of using test scores on teacher evaluations. Student standardized test results are now no longer required to be used to evaluate teachers.
- We worked with the Legislature to allocate $500,000 for a pilot program in which some teachers will receive a debit card to purchase school supplies.
- HSTA successfully lobbied to expand the use of school impact fees, which developers have to pay when they build new housing developments. For the first time, those fees are no longer restricted to construction of new schools and can be used for improvements and repairs to existing schools.
- We began the Schools Our Keiki Deserve campaign and organized hundreds of teachers across the state to rally and testify for better schools for our keiki. Read the entire Schools Our Keiki Deserve here.
- HSTA also expanded our innovative professional development program, offering 27 course subjects taught by teachers to 950 other teachers across the state. Next school year, we will expand further with new courses about Next Generation Science Standards, assessment literacy, video as a professional tool, Habits of Mind as well as a new math offering.
- We have increased our member recognition and improved our relationships with businesses that want to recognize teachers. These community supporters have donated prizes such as Apple watches and Mokulele Airlines gift certificates during Teacher Appreciation Month.
Still there is work to be done. Our efforts to address the state Ethics Commission concerns about educational travel and lift the restriction on teachers’ ability to travel with students at no cost died during the final days of the Legislature. However, lawmakers approved $400,000 for educational travel that the DOE can use for teacher travel costs.
Our attempt to increase funding for our public schools with an excise tax increase also died in the Legislature this year. We knew this would be a long-term fight and we plan on continuing to pursue avenues to adequately fund public schools.
The negotiations team has been meeting to continue work preparing for bargaining that begins this fall. The team has surveyed members and conducted focus groups to assess contract priorities. Be on the lookout for another final negotiations survey focusing on economic issues at the beginning of next school year.
We have accomplished great things together as a union and working together, let's make further improvements next year.
Have a wonderful summer.
Aloha,
Corey Rosenlee
HSTA President
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