Hawaiʻi school superintendent Keith Hayashi received top marks from the state education board and a 7% raise during his annual evaluation on Thursday, bringing his pay to more than $315,000.
The salary bump makes Hayashi one of Hawaiʻi’s 50 highest-paid state officials, according to Civil Beat’s salary database. He now earns nearly $100,000 more than Gov. Josh Green. Under his current contract, he qualifies for a 5% to 8% raise every year.
Board members have previously argued that compensation for the superintendent and other top school leaders haven’t kept pace with their mainland counterparts, possibly making it harder to attract and retain talent. On average, pay for top leaders in the education department is 20% below the national market midpoint, according to a board memo last year.
Going into Thursday’s meeting, Hayashi’s salary was $294,674 after the board approved his four-year contract and a $45,000 raise last fall.
The market midpoint salary for superintendents leading school districts similar in size to Hawaiʻi is over $368,000.
“Market equity is not only about this superintendent,” board member Wes Lo said during Thursday’s meeting, asking what message it would send if the board chose not to set competitive salaries.
The average teacher salary this year is $77,812, according to the teachers union. All educators received a 3.5% raise this fall.
With relatively little deliberation, the board decided that Hayashi met or exceeded expectations on all but one of his goals. He received a rating of partially meeting expectations when it came to student attendance and test scores – the one goal in his evaluation related to improving student learning.
High Marks
The education board based Hayashi’s evaluation on his leadership and management skills as well as 11 goals ranging from reducing teacher vacancies to completing campus construction projects efficiently.
Hayashi received his lowest rating when it came to student achievement. While schools’ math and reading scores remained mostly stagnant from the previous years, the number of students demonstrating typical or better growth in core subjects fell slightly. Roughly 58% of students showed continued growth in math and reading last year, down from 61% the year before.
Attendance rates also saw little change, with roughly 77% of students showing up to class regularly last year.
Alice Luck, director of the advocacy group Hui for Excellence in Education, said she would like to see a greater emphasis on student learning in the superintendent’s evaluation moving forward. The department has struggled to move the needle on student test scores in recent years, she said.
“While student achievement is an indicator that is difficult for any superintendent, especially in a large public school district, to impact significantly, we believe it might help to draw a clearer line between this goal and incentives such as pay increases,” Luck said during Thursday’s meeting.
The education department faced a mix of recurring and new challenges over the past year. An assault on a Moanalua High School athletic director last December reignited debates about educator safety and protections for school workers, while Hayashi faced accusations from state lawmakers that Hawaiʻi schools weren’t adequately serving their students.
“Talk to the people that are on the ground,” Sen. Samantha DeCorte told Hayashi and other education leaders in a heated legislative briefing in January. “According to my community, you guys are failing.”
Leading up to Thursday’s meeting, dozens of state leaders sent letters in support of Hayashi to the board, highlighting his collaboration with outside agencies and community groups.
“From fostering innovative educational initiatives to maintaining transparent communication and collaboration with stakeholders, the Superintendent has demonstrated exemplary leadership,” Honolulu Community College Chancellor Karen Lee said in written testimony.
The education board said Hayashi exceeded expectations in five of his goals, including one tasking him with advancing the department’s goal of spending 30% of its food budget on locally-sourced ingredients by the end of the decade.
Yet, a scathing report from the state auditor in the spring highlighted the department’s lack of progress toward its 2030 goal. Local food made up roughly 8% of school food budgets last year, compared to nearly 7% the previous year. The department has since said it’s making more improvements with additional partnerships with local farmers and revamping its menus.
Hayashi also met the board’s expectations for the three goals relating to the maintenance of school campuses and the management of major construction projects – a significant concern for state leaders after the department proposed lapsing nearly half a billion in funds three years ago.
But the satisfactory ratings frustrated community member Racquel Achiu, who said Waialua High and Intermediate School still needs major repairs after the Kona Low storms this spring. Construction in the school’s student hub is still ongoing, even though the space was damaged more than six months ago, said Achiu, who also serves as chair of Waialua’s school community council.
“Nobody addressed any flaws. Nobody addressed things that were in question,” Achiu said, adding that she shared her concerns about Waialua’s campus during the board’s October meeting. “I don’t think it was a thorough evaluation.”
