Teacher Retention in Hawaiʻi

Write to HI BOE HR Committee Chair, Shanty Asher, anonymously if you have to, and give your insights into why teachers leave -- aside from high cost of living and low pay which has gotten enough press.

We know there are LOTS of other reasons.  Encourage Chair Asher to put "Teacher Retention" on the HR Committee agenda as a continuing, "Old Business" item UNTIL THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED!  

Chair Asher's email:  Shanty.Asher@boe.hawaii.gov 

The following transcript of 4 minutes of public testimony at the Jan. 11, 2024 Board of Education Human Resources Committee asks Chair Asher to put TEACHER RETENTION on the agenda, and study the problem in depth. 

Now that this issue is on the Board’s radar, and the door to discussion has been opened, this is an excellent time for teachers to write to Chair Asher, anonymously if they have to. Teachers who have been around a long time and those who left need to share their perspectives on ALL the reasons why teachers quit working for the DOE.  If you want your letters posted on this page, send them to US.

• For a limited time, a video of the meeting is posted online on the BOE website. [1]
• Refer to the 2024-Jan-11 BOE Human Resource Committee Agenda[2]  Item III.A. – Review of Department’s recruitment strategies and positions filled and the report on teacher recruitment.

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PUBLIC TESTIMONY START TIME – 37:44 (mm:ss)

TESTIFIER 1 of 2: 

Aloha Chair Ashty and Esteemed Members of the Human Resources Committee. My name is Vanessa Ott. I’m a former DOE teacher. I tutored a Special Education student almost full time and served as his advocate for five years. And, I’ve frequently testified before the Board of Education for the past 12 years.

The report[3] that was offered today is, it was great. I’m excited, too. Sounds like some good things. I do have some concerns. However, what I wanted to testify about was, that I think to satisfy the Strategic Plan item, that the board also needs to take, er, the Committee, starting there, and the Board needs to take a look at teacher retention.

There really wasn’t much said. A few little spices of what teacher retention is about. But, I think that Teacher retention is *far* more important than recruitment because experienced teachers are *priceless* assets. But, in my opinion, I do not--, I see the Department of Education treating teachers like disposable commodities.

The Department and the Board’s focus on recruitment, while not paying any attention to the recru--, the retention problems is like constantly going to the well to fill a bucket, but it’s got holes in it. You keep recruiting more water to come into the bucket, but a lot of good water is seeping right out of the holes. Eventually the well water becomes brackish, or depleted, and a lot of good water was dumped into the mud. What the bearer of the water needs to do is to plug some of the holes. So, I’m asking that the Human Resources Committee put some serious effort into finding out what these holes are, and plugging them up.

I hypothesize that the problem, if carefully studied, we’ll find that one of the biggest problems in teacher retention is an atmosphere of retaliation in the Department of Education against anyone who questions a principal, a policy, a way of doing things, principal’s relative, a principal’s pals. The retaliation is bad, and I’ve been seeing more comments from people on social media about this. 

So, I would really like to ask the HR Committee Chair to add “Teacher Retention” to its next agenda, and *future* agendas as in “Old Business,” but we keep revisiting it. Where is the status of studying teacher retention? And, in starting that conversation, I’d like to see data for at least the last 5 years that analyzes complaints filed by teachers. I’d like to see it categorized by the issue, the complex area, and the school so the department can identify common problems that keep reoccurring, find solutions, and find areas where there are a lot of complaints happening.

Now, where do the complaints from teachers come into the Department of Education? 

Civil Rights Compliance Branch. I would love to see how many complaints are coming in. What are they about? How are they being resolved? Do the teachers who don’t get their problem resolved leave?" 

There’s also letters to Complex Area Superintendents. “Hey, I’m having a problem with my principal.” The most common response, I think, that people get from the CAS is, “Work it out with your principal.” Well, that’s not a good situation for any kind of teacher retention.

I’m really glad that they’re finally going to do better exit surveys. I would love to, because this has been a problem for over 10 years, the exit surveys are not giving really good data.

I’d really like to see statistics on Department Directed Leave because that’s one form of retaliation that the DOE uses often.

So, anyway, my time is up, and I thank you.

*Please* put “Teacher Retention” on the agenda on an ongoing basis. 

Mahalo.

END TIME – 42:01 (mm:ss)

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HR COMMITTEE CHAIR SHANTY ASHER’S RESPONSE START TIME – 47:06 (mm:ss)

Mahalo to our testifiers for sharing very important information to the Board and also to the Department as this is a collective effort by all of us. So, your voices are appreciated, and we will definitely be considering them.

END TIME – 47:21 (mm:ss)

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FOOTNOTES

[1] January 11, 2024 BOE Human Resources Committee Video Recording. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eCwxESOQ8m1d-v4jiCGQeCyIpDpADOpy/view

[2] January 11, 2024 BOE Human Resources Committee Agenda. https://boe.hawaii.gov/Meetings/Notices/Pages/January-11,-2024-Human-Resources-Committee.aspx 

[3] Presentation on Strategic Plan, Desired Outcome 2.1.1: All Teacher Positions are Filled with Qualified Hires; Desired Outcome 2.2.1: All School Support Staff Positions are Filled with Qualified Hires; Desired Outcome 2.3.1: All School Administrator Positions are Filled with Qualified. By Curt Otagura, Deputy Superintendent of Operations Hires. https://boe.hawaii.gov/Meetings/Notices/Meeting%20Material%20Library/HR_01112024_Presentation%20on%20Strategic%20Plan%2c%20Desired%20Outcome.pdf