The state Department of Education says it’s seeking 4.5 percent raises for more than 20 senior executives to help with recruitment and retention, and to keep up with raises awarded to school principals.
The increases collectively will cost about $143,250 and cover the department’s deputy superintendent, six assistant superintendents and 15 complex-area superintendents, according to a proposal the Board of Education is scheduled to consider at a meeting Tuesday.
“The recommended compensation adjustments will assist in recruiting and retaining high quality individuals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to succeed in the department’s leadership positions and drive advancement in the strategic initiatives,” schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi wrote in a memorandum to Brian De Lima, chairman of the board’s Human Resources Committee.
The Board of Education is authorized under state law to set the salaries for these positions, without exceeding that of the superintendent, who earns $200,000.
The deputy superintendent, Stephen Schatz, acts as chief academic officer for the department; the assistant superintendents run central offices that oversee human resources, fiscal services, information technology, school facilities and support services, curriculum and instruction, and strategy and innovation. Complex-area superintendents, meanwhile, oversee the 15 districts statewide, which are made up of two to four school complexes, each consisting of a high school and the elementary and middle schools that feed into it.
Last summer the BOE set the following salary ranges, effective July, 1, 2015, for the management positions:
>> Deputy superintendent: between $140,000 and $180,000
>> Assistant superintendents: between $120,000 and $160,000
>> Complex-area superintendents: between $125,000 and $145,000
As top-level managerial positions, the posts are excluded from collective bargaining, but most are attached to the bargaining unit representing the department’s principals and vice principals.
“The proposed salary adjustments for leadership employees are consistent with the adjustments for educational officers, over whom they exercise responsibility,” Matayoshi wrote.
“A number of educational officers are compensated at salaries higher than leadership employees and it is equitable to maintain appropriate pay relationships.”
An arbitration panel two years ago awarded annual 4.5 percent pay raises through June 2017 to the DOE’s approximately 850 principals, vice principals and other school- and district-level educational officers covered by the Hawaii Government Employees Association. Current principal salaries range from $102,000 to $185,400, according to the DOE.
“We’re hopeful that the Board will acknowledge the work of the executive and complex-area teams and match the raises that HGEA provides to its members,” DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Meanwhile, under the 2013-17 labor contract for teachers, the Hawaii State Teachers Association secured annual raises of at least 3.2 percent through a combination of raises and pay grade step-ups in alternating years for its 13,500 members. The teachers union last year negotiated additional compensation for the remaining two years of the contract, including a lump-sum bonus and a 1.8 percent raise that will take effect when the contract expires.
The executive DOE raises would follow 4 percent raises the BOE signed off on last summer for senior management. The year before, the board approved retroactive raises of 4 percent for assistant superintendents and complex-area superintendents for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years. The latest raises, if approved, would be retroactive to July 1.
Matayoshi’s proposal says the department has available funds to cover the management increases.
Hawaii is the 10th-largest school district in the nation, with more than 180,400 students, and the DOE is the state’s largest department, with a nearly $1 billion payroll and 22,000 salaried employees.
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Clarification: State Department of Education officials have clarified that the highest-paid public school principal earns $185,400. In an earlier version of this story, DOE officials said principal salaries range from $102,000 to $179,000.
