Members of the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association approved a new four-year contract that promises higher salaries, paid professional development, and other benefits for public school educators across the state.
Nearly 7,000 of the HSTA's 13,500 members cast ballots in person at 31 polling sites across the state on Wednesday.
The HSTA said 92% of the ballots cast approved the agreement that was reached between the state and the HSTA last week. The contract is set to take effect July 1 and run through June 30, 2027.
Laverne Moore, a special education teacher at McKinley High School, said it was the best contract she has ever seen.
"Our young teachers have the ability to get to Step 14B in 22 years, where I've been teaching 53 years and it took me forever to get to 14B. They gonna get there faster," Moore said.
The contract will give new teachers a starting salary of $50,000 a year — a significant increase for some who receive roughly $38,000. It also provides annual pay raises of 3.4%.
"Plus they got 21 hours of professional development embedded in their contract. We are trained after school and we are paid for that training," Moore told HPR. "Also what stood out with this is the hard-to-staff so that special ed teachers get $10,000 extra, our hard-to-staff schools would get like $8,000."
It also assures health and safety improvements at schools, as well as time for teachers to adjust whenever there is an emergency closure.
Gov. Josh Green estimated the new agreement will cost $577 million, which he said the state can afford.
HSTA President Osa Tui Jr. said this is the strongest contract the union has been able to secure since 2013.
He said it "will help to recruit and retain teachers and give further stability for our keiki to have highly qualified teachers in their classrooms."
