LIHUE — The halls of Kekaha Elementary School were missing a key fixture Tuesday — teachers. An anonymous tip alerted The Garden Island to a possible teacher’s strike at the school Tuesday morning and subsequent calls from several parents rolled
LIHUE — The halls of Kekaha Elementary School were missing a key fixture Tuesday — teachers.
An anonymous tip alerted The Garden Island to a possible teacher’s strike at the school Tuesday morning and subsequent calls from several parents rolled in throughout the day.
The parents, who all refused to give their names, said about 10 teachers didn’t show up to work on Tuesday and they’re planning on staying home again today.
The strike is rumored to have been sparked by a comment made by Principal Dominic Beralas in Monday’s edition of The Garden Island, when he attributed low student achievement “not to students’ demographics, but to our ineffectiveness in teaching.”
“He said it was the teachers’ fault that the school isn’t up to par with test scores and they didn’t appreciate that at all,” said one parent.
Kekaha parents said none of them received notification of the teacher exodus and some didn’t hear anything about it until after school was over.
Kids who didn’t have teachers were kept in the school’s cafeteria until about 10:30 a.m., according to one anonymous parent, and were finally taken to class by educational assistants to continue with the day.
Some parents took their kids out of school on Tuesday because their regular teachers weren’t there. A few said they won’t allow their kids to return until teachers are back.
Principal Dominic Beralas wouldn’t confirm a strike, but he said many teachers were absent from their classrooms.
“All I can say is that there were a number of teachers that called in sick, and there’s a professional development training happening in Lihue,” Beralas said. “I can’t make any conclusions (as to why teachers are absent), if they say they’re sick, then they’re sick.”
Beralas also wouldn’t confirm how many teachers had vacated their domains, but it was enough to send the school scrambling for substitutes.
“Sometimes the combination (of workshops and illness) occurs on one day and wow, we’ll have a lot of teachers out,” Beralas said. “So we just have to manage, move around personnel, and make sure the kids are adequately covered.”
On days, like Tuesday, when there are workshops for the entire island’s teaching staff, Kauai’s pool of substitutes dwindles and sometimes there aren’t enough to go around.
“All of the teachers that are going to the training require substitutes, so sometimes certain schools get hit with lack of substitutes,” Beralas said.
That was the case for Kekaha Elementary on Tuesday and they were using their entire staff to cover for the missing teachers.
“All the teachers who go to workshops, or are sick, have to leave lesson plans,” Beralas said. “So the personnel that’s covering the classes will do their best, even though they may not be certified in that area.”
Beralas said the goal for Tuesday was to keep the kids occupied with engaging educational activities.
“Our substitutes will just follow through with the lesson plans and we have everything accommodated for and covered,” Beralas said.
