Back on the board work together’ BY MATT SMYLIE TGI Staff Writer Amidst next Tuesday’s swearing-in of the newest faces to the Hawai’i Board of Education will be one person who’s been there and done that. During his tenure as
Back on the board
work together’
BY MATT SMYLIE
TGI Staff Writer
Amidst next
Tuesday’s swearing-in of the newest faces to the Hawai’i Board of Education
will be one person who’s been there and done that.
During his tenure as a
member of the board from 1980 to 1988, Sherwood Hara served on various
committees, including libraries, student affairs and the planning committee for
the original Chapter 19 anti-harassment policy.
And now, 12 years after
leaving the board to spend more time with his son, Hara has regained his seat
from his successor, Mitsugi Nakashima, and says he is excited to return to the
fold.
With a laundry list full of issues he hopes to address, Hara said he
plans on remaining subdued at first, which will allow him time to learn about
his 12 fellow board members.
“I’m just going to be cautiously optimistic
about the whole thing,” he said. “We’ve got 13 members coming in with their own
ideas, and we won’t be able to get anything accomplished unless we all work
together.”
But once he gets used to his surroundings, Hara said, he plans
to address the issue of student-teacher ratios in the classroom. During his
previous stint on the board, Hara co-wrote the policy for the state that
recommended reducing class sizes to 20 students for each teacher.
By the
time he left, he said, the change had begun to be made in kindergarten through
second grade, with changes to third though sixth-grade classes scheduled for
the near future. But now, Hara says teachers have told him the older students
were never given the benefits of smaller class sizes. And the younger grades
have been growing in size, as well.
“Instead of moving forward, we’re
regressing,” he said. “If we truly want to improve our state educational
system, we should be progressing.”
Smaller class sizes, Hara said, are one
of many issues the board should confront that can aid teachers in providing
the best education possible to Hawai’i’s keiki.
Other changes he hopes to
see addressed include ensuring student and school staff’s security, providing
continuing education and training for teachers, and providing Department of
Education employees with reasonable salaries.
“Salaries are important, but
if you can take care of all the other things as well, the children become the
benefactors of our education system,” he said.
By encouraging teachers
through fair pay, a sense of security and modern and sufficient supplies, Hara
said they will once again take pride in their jobs and improve the morale level
across the state.
“Teachers should be held in the same esteem as doctors
and attorneys,” he said. “If there’s a line, teachers belong at the
top.”
As a co-writer of the Chapter 19 rules, Hara said safety from
harassment is important not just for children attending school, but for
educators as well. Because the rules — created in the 1980s — were written to
protect students and teachers “uniformly and in a standardized way,” Hara said
he opposed the amendments to the policy, which were adopted by the board last
month.
Hara said the original rules were never implemented at the school
level, which left parents, teachers and school staff wondering how safe they
really were.
“So they began to wonder, ‘What is Chapter 19?'” he said.
“Naturally, they’re going to feel threatened.”
Rather than approving the
amendments, which revamped the rules to single out specific victims of
harassment such as gays, lesbians and members of various ethnic and religious
groups, Hara said the board should have looked at how to enforce the rules
already on the books.
“Is it enough?” he asked. “Apparently not, because of
the response of the community. But I think it could be.”
But regardless of
the issue, the 63-year-old Hara — who lives in Hanapepe with his wife, Peggy,
and 17-year-old son, Koleo — said he hopes to improve the education for
children across the state and ensure that teachers get the support they need in
as little time as possible.
“I’ve spent my whole life working with kids and
want to give back to them as much as I possibly can,” he said. “If anything,
they give you a gift.”
Staff writer Matt Smylie can be reached at
245-3681 (ext. 226) and msmylie@pulitzer.net
