Question: Hawaii recruits new public school teachers and then doesn’t pay them? Auwe! When are these teachers going to get their money? School started the first week of August! Mahalo to them for showing up regardless!

Answer: The problem should be resolved by Sept. 20 for about 533 teachers identified as having missed paychecks since they started this school year at regular public schools or public charter schools, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education said.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, the union that represents teachers at both types of schools, has described the situation as a “fiasco” caused by the DOE; it initiated a grievance process last week. The DOE largely blamed communication failures in its on-boarding process and says all teachers known to be affected will be paid in full by the aforementioned date.

Nanea Ching, DOE spokesperson, emailed an overview Thursday, to answer reader questions:

“On Monday, the Department held an informal meeting with the Hawaii State Teachers Association to provide an update on the situation and a list of impacted teachers employed by the Department.” (Charter schools will notify the HSTA of their affected employees, Sheryl Turbeville, spokesperson for the State Public Charter School Commission, said Thursday in a separate email.)

“Last month, the Department of Education identified a potential issue affecting the paychecks of some newly hired teachers. A preliminary report found that 376 HIDOE teachers were affected and did not receive paychecks on Aug. 20.

“In response, the Department immediately developed a plan to issue placeholder checks of $2,000 to ensure these teachers received compensation while the situation was further investigated. This involved close collaboration and support from the state Department of Accounting and General Services.

“After the initial placeholder checks were distributed on Aug. 26, a second review was completed based on those teachers hired that had their paperwork processed as of Aug. 29 and had not received a paycheck. An additional 43 DOE teachers were identified.

“The root cause stems from our standard on- boarding process, which requires completion of pre-boarding tasks such as criminal background checks, submission of valid teaching credentials, and the generation of a Notification of Personnel Action (Form 5). Payroll timing is based on the completion of these tasks, not the employee’s start date. Had these procedures been more clearly communicated and followed, the number of affected teachers would have been limited to just four.

“All identified teachers will be paid in full by Sept. 20, 2024. We appreciate the patience of our educators and are working diligently to ensure such issues are minimized in the future.”

The number of teachers that Ching mentioned include those employed by the DOE, working at regular public schools. The total — 419 — does not include teachers working at public charter schools that contract with the DOE for payroll services. The HSTA says 114 charter school teachers missed paychecks, blaming the DOE for failing “to adequately plan and staff” to provide services for which the charter schools had paid. You can read much more about the HSTA’s assessment of the situation at hsta.org.

Turbeville said all affected charter school teachers have been identified. Ching confirmed that they will be paid in full by Sept. 20 as well.

The DOE’s official school calendar shows the first day of work for teachers was July 30, while students arrived Aug. 5. However, not every public school (regular or charter) follows that schedule.

As for your mahalo, Andrea Eshelman, HSTA’s deputy executive director, confirmed in an email that, yes, “as far as we know, all of our affected educators are still working hard for Hawaii’s keiki despite being worried about their financial situation.”

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.