It’s a good time to be a public school teacher in Hawaii — perhaps better than ever before — based on a tentative new labor contract with the state.

The $577 million deal includes annual pay increases between 3% and 5% for a total of 14.5% over four years, but some extraordinary terms are also part of the contract agreement, including at least a 32% increase for new entry-level hires, higher pay for nontraditional teachers and a new top pay class for veteran educators.

“This is the strongest contract I believe we’ve ever had,” Osa Tui Jr., president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association representing roughly 13,700 public school teachers, said Monday during an event in the office of Gov. Josh Green at the state Capitol.

The agreement, which is subject to ratification by more than half of teachers in a vote scheduled for April 26, was reached late Friday among the union, state negotiators and the Board of Education, followed by a unanimous HSTA board endorsement Saturday.

On Monday, Green hosted a media briefing and ceremony to discuss the agreement, described as a strong mechanism to strengthen recruitment and retention of teachers, and to thank everyone who was involved in making the deal happen after a lot of negotiating that began last fall.

“Teaching is the way we elevate our society,” he said. “Wages have to increase, quality of life has to be addressed and I think that’s what’s done in this contract.”

Terms of the deal running from July 1 to June 30, 2027, include salary gains of 5% in the first year, 3% in the second year, 3% in the third year and 3.5% in the fourth year through a combination of raises and pay level advancements. Over four years the average teacher salary would rise a little over $10,000.

Entry-level teachers would see starting pay jump to $50,000 or more from about $38,000.

Green said that at the current starting pay for Hawaii public school teachers, a one-income couple with a young child would be living below the poverty level.

“It’s really just unconscionable that a teacher would have to live near poverty,” he said.

The state regularly has to fill around 1,000 teacher positions each year.

Corey Obungen, a health teacher at Castle High School who began teaching eight years ago in Seattle and joined the state Department of Education three years ago after moving back to Oahu, where he was born, said the pay increases will help Hawaii be more competitive with other school districts.

“I took almost a $15,000 pay cut moving back home to Hawaii,” he said.

For the most veteran classroom teachers who work 10 months annually and can earn up to $93,225, a new top pay level in the agreement could boost their income by 4% if they have certain professional development credentials. About 4,000 teachers are in this top pay class.

Logan Okita, a reading teacher at Nimitz Elementary School who has been with the DOE for 17 years, said ratification of the new contract will allow her to potentially move from the top pay class, where she has been for a decade, into a new top class along with many others.

“It’s exciting to know that we’re going to have stability for the next four years,” she said.

The tentative deal also would reward nontraditional teachers who have professional career and technical education subject matter experience but lack a teaching credential. Such teachers stand to have their starting annual pay rise by nearly $13,000 under the agreement.

Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the agreement elevates the teaching profession across the spectrum.

“This agreement helps set a solid foundation for the next four years with predictable (pay) increases that recognizes the incredible work of our educators — our teachers, our counselors, our registrars, our librarians — who directly support student learning,” he said.

Other provisions in the deal include new requirements regarding extended emergency school closures, bigger employer health premium contributions, a 50% stipend boost for teachers who traditionally work after hours supporting extracurricular programs, and a one-time $3,000 payment to about 4,000 teachers who are still “compressed” in parts of the salary ladder despite a legislative fix made in 2022 for about 8,700 teachers.

Green got directly involved in the negotiations Friday to help facilitate agreement on final sticking points, including emergency closures and the new top pay level.

Tui said he was grateful for Green’s help and all the work put in by others to achieve a tentative new contract containing more substantive changes than have been in the three prior HSTA contracts going back to 2013.

Most other Hawaii public worker unions agreed in 2022 to two-year contract extensions with pay raises after agreeing to wage freezes three years ago amid the coronavirus-triggered economic downturn. But Tui said there was a big need for HSTA to also address more complex issues that resulted in the new agreement.

“I hope that our members vote yes,” he said. “Ultimately, this is going to help with recruitment and retention.”