Updated Tentative Agreement information: 10-month and 12-month teacher salary charts available now, posted 4-23-2017

To: WIS Colleagues
Date: 4-23-2017, 3:48 pm
From: hsta negotiations team
Posted by J. Grabar
Re: Updated Tentative Agreement information: 10-month and 12-month teacher salary charts available now

New information: Salary chart with raises calculated Here's the latest important information on our tentative agreement for you to review before our contract ratification vote Thursday, April 27. Find your current salary on this new chart and see how much the step increases and across-the-board raises will hike your pay over the next four years. Read the 2017-2021 teacher salary schedule for 10-month and 12-month teachers.  Under this contract, starting teacher salaries in Hawaii will rise to above $50,000 for the first time. While the average teacher's health premiums are rising by seven percent, the state is paying an average of nine percent more toward health plans. Click here to see updated EUTF employer contribution information.  Read this summary of our tentative agreement. Read the detailed tentative agreement contract language. See the informational meeting schedule, ratification vote times and locations and voting procedures. Have any questions? Email negotiations@hsta.org. Mahalo!

Copyright © 2017 Hawaii State Teachers Association, All rights reserved. Mahalo for your engagement. Our mailing address is: Hawaii State Teachers Association 1200 Ala Kapuna Street Honolulu, HI 96819

Tentative agreement reached! Letter from president, posted 4-23-2017

To: WIS Colleagues
Posted by Joy Grabar, SLL
Date: 4-23-2017
Re:Tentative agreement reached!

Dear Waiakea Intermediate School Colleagues,

Copied below is the email received from R. Yamanaka.
For updates on contract and ratification voting: teachers, please check this site regularly.

Critical dates are Monday, 4/24, for informational meeting, and Thursday, 4/27, for RATIFICATION VOTING. Both meetings will be at Waiakea High School's cafeteria. Highlighted text and Notes by J. Grabar

----------------------------------------------------
From: R. Yamanaka
Email Date: 4-23-2017, 8:42 pm
Re: FW: [MARKETING] Tentative agreement reached!

THIS MESSAGE IS GOING OUT BCC TO ALL SLLS.  PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR TEACHERS VIA YOUR PHONE TREE, EMAILS, ETC.

1.     We have a tentative agreement which will be discussed during our informational meetings on:

Monday April 24^th @ Waiakea High café from 3:30-5:00pm

Tuesday April 25^th @ Keaau High library from 3:30-5pm

Wednesday April 26^th @ Ka’u High band room from 3:30-5pm

Teachers may attend any informational meeting.  Your chapter president Dawn Raymond, Board member Val DeCorte, Negotiations chapter chairs Evette Tampos and Aaron Kubo and I will be leading the review and answering questions.

2.     Teachers should be checking their personal emails for more HSTA emails regarding the contract later tonight and tomorrow. Details of the TA will be released at that time.

3.     Head Reps. should be checking with their office on Monday, April 24^th as I will be dropping off a summary of the TA for each teacher.  Be sure to place copies in every teacher’s box and tell them to bring it to the informational meeting.  (NOTE:  If I do not have time to drop the Hilo/Waiakea packets on Monday, they will be at Waiakea High that afternoon for distribution.

Note: If teachers do receive a copy of the TA before the meeting, please bring that document to the meeting for your reference. Per RA meeting: there will be no extra copies available; One copy per teacher.)

4.    Ratification voting will be on Thursday April 27^th at the following sites:  NOTE:  ALL teachers vote on the tentative agreement (DOE and charter teachers, HSTA members or not)

Waiakea High café from 3:00-6pm

Keaau High library from 3:00-6pm

Ka’u High band room from 3:00-6pm

Ballots will be counted immediately after the voting time period ends.  Results will be phoned into the HSTA office that evening.  If the Tentative Agreement is ratified by the teachers, the legislature will be notified so that the appropriate funding is added to the budget bill which must be finalized by end of day on Friday April 28^th.

Thanks for your support and activism these past few months, and many thanks to those who submitted negotiations issues and concerns!  It truly made a difference.  Please read Corey’s message below;

rae

Tentative agreement reached: 13.6% pay hike over four years Aloha Colleagues, I am happy to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached between the HSTA and the employer for a four-year contract from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2021. On Saturday, April 22, the Negotiations Committee met and recommended that the Board of Directors accept the agreement and recommended it to the membership. The HSTA Board of Directors then voted unanimously to accept the tentative agreement, authorize a contract ratification vote on Thursday, April 27 and unanimously recommended ratification to HSTA's members. A joint meeting of the Board of Directors and the Negotiations Committee received a briefing on the tentative agreement Saturday. Informational meetings, where teachers can be briefed on the settlement and have their questions answered, will be held after school Monday, April 24 through Wednesday, April 26. See the informational meeting schedule here. Here are the locations and times of the ratification votes on Thursday, April 27.  Thank you for standing up for public education and the schools our keiki deserve. The collective action taken by teachers this school year played a major role in helping us to reach this tentative agreement that serves the best interests of teachers and students. The tentative agreement is a win for teachers and over a four-year period and provides for pay raises through across-the-board salary increases, step movements and bonuses for teachers at Step 14B. The increases will be equivalent to a compounded 13.6 percent raise over that four-year period. Further details on the contract -- including all of the detailed tentative agreements -- will be released in another Member Matters email blast later tonight. In addition, the state has agreed to provide more money toward teachers’ health premiums. The agreement also includes language about one of the major negotiations sticking points — teacher evaluations. For the next two years, the great majority of our tenured members will go through the streamlined evaluation process while the Joint Committee works to change and improve evaluation. Other highlights include improvements to the assignment and transfers process, the establishment of a committee to address our English language learners (ELL) and the continuation of the 21 professional development hours with pay and credits. The agreement allows us to renegotiate health plan contributions and 21 hours in years three and four. There are so many people to thank who made this agreement possible. First off, our amazing Negotiations Team and Negotiations Committee have worked for months to make this happen. I was happy to work with our Negotiations Team members Paul Daugherty and Shannon Kaaa under the amazing leadership of Chair Osa Tui and Vice Chair Diane Mokuau. The team rolled with the punches and continued to come up with innovative ways to get the best deal possible for teachers within the confines of the state’s difficult fiscal situation. Our Chief Negotiator Andrea Eshelman has kept us on track and provided positive, excellent leadership, even when things looked grim. Above: The Negotiations Team signs off on tentative agreements after 1 a.m.Saturday at HSTA headquarters. Words cannot express how grateful we are to Governor David Ige for personally getting deeply involved in our negotiations. We send a heart-felt mahalo to the governor and his chief of staff, Mike McCartney, who spent hours and hours at HSTA during bargaining sessions over the last three days, sometimes coming back twice in the same day and staying past midnight. Above: Gov. Ige enjoyed reading through teachers' petitions as he spent hours with our Negotiations Team. But most important, I’d like to thank every teacher who took the time to speak up and speak out at rallies, on petitions, in testimony, emails, letters and phone calls over the last few months. Your collective voice was heard loud and clear. Your Board and I hope HSTA members will vote to ratify the agreement. After nine months of negotiations, this agreement represents a major step in the right direction that will help to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers and allow Hawaii to move forward to transform public education and produce real results for students. Mahalo, Corey Rosenlee HSTA President Further details on the contract -- including all of the detailed tentative agreements -- will be released in another Member Matters email blast latertonight. Copyright © 2017 Hawaii State Teachers Association, All rights reserved. Mahalo for your engagement. Our mailing address is: Hawaii State Teachers Association 1200 Ala Kapuna Street Honolulu, HI 96819

Excellence in Teaching Honorees and Retirees, SY 2016-2017, posted 4-12-2017

Excellence in Teaching ’16-17
Tickets are still available to attend the Excellence in Teaching Luncheon.
Please see Joy Grabar asap to reserve your ticket!
Currently, 12 guests are attending to honor our Dane Inouye!

School	Honoree	Retiree
Connections
DeSilva
District Office (Hilo/Waiakea)		Denise Scott
Haaheo
HAAS	Lisa Wells
Hilo High
Hilo Inter	Cynthia Fong
Hilo Union	Charlotte Kaimi-Morimoto
Ka’umeke
Ka’u High and Pahala Elem	Sonja Caldwell
Kalanianaole
Kapiolani	Aysha Spencer	Michelle Fragas
Kaumana
Keana La’ahana
Kekula O Nawahiokalani
Keaau Elem	Wendy Sako
Keaau Middle	Donald Lougee
Keaau High
Keaukaha		Steve Santos
Keonepoko Elem
Kua o Ka La
Laupahoehoe	Naomi Smith
Mountain View
Na Wai Ola	Shari Frias
Naalehu Elem	Carol Potter
Pahoa Elem	Carisa Kiyono	Ruth Kala Arnold Busek
Pahoa High	Lois Sanekane	Margaret Keileher Kerry Meyer Ellen Walker Deborah Toyozaki-Maehira
Volcano Arts Science	Rebecca Hatch	Don Lawrence
Waiakea Elementary
Waiakea Inter	Dane Inouye
Waiakea High	Kari Sato
Waiakeawaena Elem	Kim Takahashi

Special Olympics Assistance Needed, posted 4-4-2017

From: Christopher Ho

Aloha everyone -

You are receiving this e-mail in the attempt to ask for assistance with the Special Olympics going on this Saturday at Kea'au High School.  We currently have no one signed up to assist with this amazing program.

Please send this out to your school members.

This is a reminder that the names and t-shirt sizes for your union members who will be helping to set up or assist with the track and field events for the Special Olympics is due ASAP to Samantha Blyth, 896-2054, email:  s.fuhrmann@yahoo.com).

 

What:  Special Olympics

Where:  Keaau High Stadium

When:  Saturday, April 8, 2017

Time:    6-7:30am for set up of track and field events, tents and awards podium.  Report to the front gate for instructions.

        8-2pm for assisting with the track and field events.  Report to the registration table for instructions.

Who:  union members.  Be sure to wear your union shirts

 

To do:  send in the names of your volunteers, shift times and t-shirt sizes to Samantha ASAP.

 

Come and join your union brothers and sisters in supporting all our special Olympians!

Mahalo!

updates, Petition, posted 3-18-2017

Hi, Friends,
Have a great SPRING BREAK!

1.  Consider supporting this petition regarding use of public school education:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/governor-ige-assert-public.fb50?source=c.fb&r_by=18216487

2. Thanks to the peeps who came out to the Aloha Club Spring Fling at Liko Lehua Pauahi on Friday, March 17! Congrats to Kristen for her winning joke! Thank you to the hosts at Liko Lehua Pauahi for a wonderful night.

3. Look forward to HSTA sign-waving events in April.

4. Sign our BIG PETITION for Gov. Ige with Joy Grabar when you return to WIS.

Governor Ige:

We, the hard working teachers of (insert your school name), demand a fair contract now to attract and retain new colleagues to the profession and give keiki the schools they deserve.

Be safe!
Aloha,
Joy Grabar

hsta updates, 3-17-2017

From: R. Yamanaka

Date: 3-14-207

Posted by J. Grabar, 3-17-2017

THIS MESSAGE IS GOING OUT TO ALL SLLS, CORE ORGANIZERS AND EXBD FOR HILO CHAPTER.  Please pass on the message to your teachers

 

Mahalo to all who participated in the March 7^th sign wavings, picture takings, BOE testimonies and who wore and are wearing red on Tuesdays!  We need this type of support to keep placing the pressure onto our Governor, the BOE, the Employer’s Negotiating team, the DOE and our legislators. 

 

Help yourself and help the profession by getting and staying involved with Association activities.  Here are some things that you can do:

 

1. Wear RED every Tuesday!  Wear our new or regular HSTA red shirts on those days.  Optional sign wavings in the morning and afterschool on Tuesdays
2. Volunteer to help at the following events:

1. March 19, 2017:  Big Island International Marathon, at Honolii Lookout, set up at 5:30 and ending at 10:30.  Let Rae and Edwin know if you can make it and when.  Wear your red HSTA shirt
2. April 8, 2017:  Special Olympics, at Keaau High field, set up at 6am to 7:30am.  We will set up the field events and tents.  Let Rae and Chris Ho know if you can make it.  Wear your red HSTA shirt
3. May 13, 2017:  NALC (National Letter Carriers food drive) at airport post office landing dock from 1-6pm.  Let Rae and Chris Ho know if you can make it and wear your red HSTA shirt.

3. Have conversations with your family, friends and community members about what we are asking for in this contract
4. Submit BOE and legislative testimonies when requested.  HSTA will be sending out requests for testimony to your personal emails.  If you are not receiving those emails, let me know so we can check to see if we have the correct one on file for you.
5. Keep Rae informed of issues and concerns coming from your teachers

 

Contacts:

Rae Yamanaka:  ryamanaka@hsta.org

Chris Ho:  christopherho@gmail.com

Edwin Kagawa:  ekagawahsta@gmail.com

 

Thanks again and #HawaiiTeachersUnited!!!

 

rae

 

Rae A.Yamanaka

HSTA Hilo UniServ Director

Hilo Lagoon Centre

101 Aupuni St., ste.219

Hilo, HI  96720

Phone:  (808)935-9301 office; (808)365-6979 cell

Fax:  (808) 969-7492

Email:  ryamanaka@hsta.org

 

An Injury to One is an Injury to ALL!