The agreement for a six-year contract ends a dispute jeopardizing a $75 million grant

Seeking to end a monthslong labor dispute that has placed at risk a $75 million federal grant, the state and teachers union reached a tentative agreement Friday night on a six-year contract that includes pay increases at the back end.

A ratification vote is expected to be held in about two weeks.

Details on the agreement were not immediately released, although Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe said the first two years of the contract are similar, with a few small changes, to the “last, best, final” contract offer the state unilaterally implemented July 1. That offer included wage reductions and higher health insurance premiums.

But Okabe said the overall agreement is a far superior package from the teachers’ perspective, especially beginning with the 2013-14 school year. “It’s like night and day,” he said.

“This particular contract opens the door by guaranteeing that teachers will do better as Hawaii’s economy gets better,” Okabe said, adding that the salary schedule in the agreement is “brand new.”

“The contract definitely shows that the state puts children first,” Okabe said.

The agreement is expected to bring to an end a dispute that has angered teachers, frustrated state officials and stalled work on a host of Race to the Top education reforms that prompted the Obama administration last month to warn that if more progress wasn’t made, federal grant money to Hawaii would be lost.

The state’s decision to unilaterally implement its last, best offer for 12,500 public school teachers, after declaring an impasse in negotiations, was unprecedented in Hawaii public employee union talks.

The offer included furlough days and pay cuts equivalent to a 5 percent wage reduction, and required teachers to pay 50 percent of their health insurance premiums, up from 40 percent.

In a prohibited-practice case before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, HSTA has argued that the state violated members’ rights in imposing a contract. But the state said the action was needed to preserve hundreds of teachers’ jobs.

Okabe said the new agreement was reached through “informal discussions” with Gov. Neil Abercrombie, schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, Board of Education Chairman Don Horner and other highlevel officials that began two weeks ago.

In a joint statement Friday night, Abercrombie, Matayoshi and Horner said, “Our focus remains on working together to ensure Hawaii will secure its Race to the Top grant, which lays the foundation for transforming student learning.”

The executive board of the union unanimously approved the agreement at about 6:30 p.m. Friday, sending the tentative pact to teachers for ratification.

“Everyone sees the need to move this forward, and people are in agreement that the obligation is to the children,” said Donalyn Dela Cruz, Abercrombie’s spokeswoman. “We’ve reached an agreement in principle. We’re looking forward to ratification.”

If approved by members, the new contract will run from the current school year, 2011-12, through school year 201617.

Joan Husted, who retired as HSTA executive director and chief negotiator in 2007, said the deal is “good news” for Hawaii’s teachers.

But, she added, “I think the association has some work ahead of it to sell it to the membership. What’s happened to them (with the imposed contract) makes them skeptical.”

Husted pointed out that the union has never had a contract that’s been recommended by the executive board, as this agreement has, turned down by its membership.

“HSTA’S got a selling job ahead of it, but I have every confidence they can do it,” she said.

The dispute with teachers has grabbed national headlines because of its effect on Hawaii’s promised Race to the Top reforms, including revamped teacher evaluations. Delays in reaching key collective bargaining agreements on reform issues have been blamed in part for the U.S. Department of Education’s decision last month to place Hawaii’s grant on “high-risk” status.

Hawaii is the only grant winner in such jeopardy.

U.S. DOE reviewers are tentatively scheduled to visit the islands the week of Jan. 23, during which time they will look for “clear and compelling evidence that demonstrates that it (the state) has made substantial progress across its Race to the Top plan,” according to a letter to the governor from the department.

Meanwhile, the question remains whether HSTA will continue to pursue its case before the labor board, whose main determination is whether the governor was in the wrong when he imposed a contract offer on public employee union members.

Proceedings in the case have dragged on since August, prompting the state recently to ask the board to move more quickly on the case.

So far, HSTA attorney Herbert Takahashi has questioned just six of the dozens of witnesses the union has subpoenaed to testify. Often, witnesses have testified for two days or more.

State Supervising Deputy Attorney General James Halvorson said in the state’s motion to the labor board that through witness testimony, Takahashi has “produced no evidence to support any of his complaints or allegations.”