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As we are planning our move to the Big Island I was hoping to see what types of positions are available in different schools on the Big Island. Really just to get an idea at this point. The DOE's website doesn't allow you to view teaching and counselor positions unless you create an account to apply. I created an account and submitted the application but still am not able to view positions. Has anyone else experienced this? Any pointers?
They're not posted. You have to complete an intake interview, and then you are place in a pool of candidates. Principals view that pool & choose who to contact about their vacancies. Private schools do have their vacancies listed.
Contact the principals of the schools you are interested in directly. If they want you, they'll work the gears to get you in that position. The whole DOE is convoluted since it's state run and not city/county/district run like many places on the mainland. There's ways for the different principals to get the teachers they want in the different positions so having the principal wanting you is the best way to get the school you want.
Contact the principals of the schools you are interested in directly. If they want you, they'll work the gears to get you in that position. The whole DOE is convoluted since it's state run and not city/county/district run like many places on the mainland. There's ways for the different principals to get the teachers they want in the different positions so having the principal wanting you is the best way to get the school you want.
What do you mean by work the gears? If they already have enough high school math teachers (for example) what can they do without firing people first? I assume they can suggest other neighboring schools but if they don't have the space for faculty, I can't imagine how they'd hire you. Genuinely curious & would love info!
Thank you for the response and information. This really helps me to understand how the system works. I won't be able to accept a position until 2018 so it looks like I will just sit on a list for now.
I would just like to add that I love this forum! Everyone's input has been so helpful and honest!
Thank you for the response and information. This really helps me to understand how the system works. I won't be able to accept a position until 2018 so it looks like I will just sit on a list for now.
I would just like to add that I love this forum! Everyone's input has been so helpful and honest!
You're not the only one. I posted about this on a different thread. Having the experience I do working for hard-to-staff districts, I was pretty critical of this way of doing things. It is a very poor choice if your whole goal is to widely advertise to the mainland so you can get emergency openings filled with highly qualified mainland (or even local) candidates. It's like they're going out of their way to keep those spots empty and potential teachers in the dark. This is one of several reasons that the federal Dept. of Ed. went on record as criticizing HI for its poor outreach with respect to teacher hiring in a crisis. There are a lot of people who WANT to help, but we can't do so if we have no reasonable idea of what is available, where we should plan to have to move, what type of job will need to be filled with what curriculum/planning/age group, or whether we have a reasonable shot of getting the job given the requirements.
It makes no sense to have people call random towns in a state they don't know asking if there are job openings at the school. So many positions are emergency hires, and have been emergency hires for the last 10 years, but somehow that information is still being kept secret like they want it to be a surprise to people applying. Do you want it filled or not, HI DOE? I want to shake some of the people running this system... It is partially their fault that it is in the mess that it is. I'm not going to put hours into applying for a blind position, thinking let's say in my head that I'm going to work in some swanky Maui town next to a beach because I'm a tourist teacher who knows very little practical information about Hawaii, only to find out when somebody finally gets around to contacting me that all the positions for my field are in rural Molokai. Worse, if they talk me into it and I still don't understand and think all of HI is like TV or my last vacation, when I do move there it's no wonder I'll only last for a year or two tops statistically speaking.
They want good teachers, and yet they punish anybody who does research or plans ahead. I should be able to do the preliminary work to say, ok, this particular high school has had an emergency opening in Math for the past 12 years in a row, and so has the town next to it. So there's a good chance if I'm a high school Math teacher, I will be able to find work when I'm ready to move my whole life somewhere near that town. Do I like that town? Can I live in that area? What is the rent and general cost of living like? Is it in Hilo and overcast much of the time? Is it in Lava Zone 1? Is there vog, and can I live with that? Is there affordable housing near to the school in that town, and if not, how much will a car cost?
Reasonable, educated people will ask these questions. And it does not make sense for them to apply for a job FIRST, then get accepted somewhere and have to scramble to figure this out and move before the school year is over. What if it turns out that where the openings are, they would never be comfortable to live? Then many hours of everybody's time were wasted. A good teacher has their choice of jobs - they don't have to waste time applying for a job in another state that may not even have an opening, only to find out that the one opening available is in a town they would never consider moving to. I know a lot of great teachers and principals, but I don't know a single one who would appreciate having their time and professionalism disrespected like that. Applying for a job is not like buying a lottery ticket - there should be no surprise about what the job is you're applying for, and where it is located. And if someone is ok with that, they are not likely to be someone who thinks carefully ahead of making a serious commitment to a community in need. They will be just as likely to pick up and move to the next lottery that awaits them somewhere else in the world, because they moved there not being well-suited to the specific location and local culture - they're simply an adventure seeker. I'm not going to buy a house site unseen, and I'm not going to apply to pick up and move thousands of miles for a job I don't know the description or location of.
This kind of system does a disservice to children who are in need of a good, stable, well-informed teacher who is a good match for their town and for the open position. If I were a HI resident, I would be very angry about this and demand that the DOE change its policy immediately and dramatically improve its outreach to qualified mainland teachers. The kids can't wait around for people to play games with the hiring process.
If there is an emergency opening in Special Ed in Ka'u/Pahala, as an example, who in the world who is not from Hawaii is going to think of that town and call their school, who happens to be a highly qualified Special Ed teacher from let's say Illinois, and just happen to ask them if they need a Special Ed teacher? Probably they're going to call Honolulu, or some school in Wailea on Maui, to a school they can more easily identify that has no emergency openings at all. Every single day that goes by that opening is not filled, and those kids sit with a sub, or with 2 classrooms pushed together so there is at least an adult in the room (for 60 kids), while the Illinois teacher's application sits in the pool waiting to be read by the correct principal. Whereas if they had been able to see the opening themselves, they could've emailed or called that principal with a prepared pitch when they knew for sure that location was a good fit, and fly out to start within 2 weeks. And then, they'd be a lot more likely to stay on the following years, because they had time to think about and CHOOSE that location specifically, not because they were eventually thrown there with only 3 weeks left in the school year and only 3 days to make the decision as to whether they're taking it or not.
HI citizens, get angry and DEMAND that your DOE do better! I have seen a lot of systems with similar problems, but have never seen a situation like this where potential emergency hires are barred from even finding out where the emergency openings are. That's like having a typhoon, and refusing to report where it hit - just expecting emergency workers to call around the state to ask where the emergency is, and just hoping they happen to call the right town. If it's an "emergency" that means you have no time to lose, you need help to find you immediately.
Send up a smoke signal, for goodness sakes, and let us know that you need a teacher in your local school!
Sorry for the rant, but I'm very concerned that people seem so complacent about this. The state's education has been in crisis for a long while (which I, not being from HI, only recently even heard of - and only because I read a comment someone happened to post on this forum about it!), and it's like people just got used to the chaos and forgot it's not normal to deal with a crisis like this. I don't know of any other location that deals with their emergency openings like they're protecting the location of their ATM pin. If you need help, you have to ask for it, not make people BEG to help you. No surprise, if you make it hard for teachers to find and fill your vacancies, they're not going to, and you will be left with a lot of vacancies. As you have been - year, after year, after year.
The DOE website should clearly state: "We have an education crisis in Hawaii. We have many emergency openings, and are in dire need of highly qualified teachers who will fit in well, and ideally commit to the communities in need. Here is a list of schools and positions that need emergency fill: ---. [Note, this list is updated daily to reflect current positions.] Here are the requirements for hire, and the salary schedule: ----. Here is some basic information about what those regions of HI are like (climate, census data, points of interest, etc.), with some general cost of living estimates (local rent, utilities, etc.): ---. If you think you would be a good fit, please contact: ----. Here is what we, the DOE, will do to ensure affordable housing to teachers, so that this problem does not repeat itself: ---." If it's actually a crisis, then a plan of action is necessary. You can't just go about business as usual - not if you want things to ever improve.
Mahalo, and best wishes to you all in this time of community need. I hope things will change soon. But it is the citizens who will have to MAKE it change. Better schools, and better governments, do not just fall into people's laps. They take a great deal of local involvement. If the DOE knew what they were doing, they would have solved this problem already. Clearly they need your guidance.
Last edited by StarfishKey; 04-03-2016 at 10:34 PM..
It is a very poor choice if your whole goal is to widely advertise to the mainland so you can get emergency openings filled with highly qualified mainland (or even local) candidates. It's like they're going out of their way to keep those spots empty and potential teachers in the dark. This is one of several reasons that the federal Dept. of Ed. went on record as criticizing HI for its poor outreach with respect to teacher hiring in a crisis. There are a lot of people who WANT to help, but we can't do so if we have no reasonable idea of what is available, where we should plan to have to move, what type of job will need to be filled with what curriculum/planning/age group, or whether we have a reasonable shot of getting the job given the requirements.
It makes no sense to have people call random towns in a state they don't know asking if there are job openings at the school. So many positions are emergency hires, and have been emergency hires for the last 10 years, but somehow that information is still being kept secret like they want it to be a surprise to people applying.
If there is an emergency opening in Special Ed in Ka'u/Pahala, as an example, who in the world who is not from Hawaii is going to think of that town and call their school, who happens to be a highly qualified Special Ed teacher from let's say Illinois, and just happen to ask them if they need a Special Ed teacher?
HI citizens, get angry and DEMAND that your DOE do better! I have seen a lot of systems with similar problems, but have never seen a situation like this where potential emergency hires are barred from even finding out where the emergency openings are. That's
What has given you the impression that DOE has a goal to widely advertise to the mainland?
I suspect mainland candidates are very much a last resort hire. They have plenty of data from DOE themselves and the State to suggest mainland teachers rarely stick around very long. They've probably decided it isn't in the best interest of children to have a constant revolving door of teachers from the mainland that no little or anything about Hawaii. I'd be willing to bet at 9 out 10 don't stay longer than 2 years. Moving to Hawaii to teach isn't like a California teacher moving to Illinois. That is a very mainland centric view.
Regarding posting each opening location - I can see the benefit of both sides. The benefit of not posting - they probably don't want applicants to cherry pick the best locations. DOE wants the control.
What should happen - what should happen is the State/DOE needs to do better in teacher compensation and do better in drawing/retaining the local population. There are more than plenty of qualified teachers in Hawaii, they just aren't working in teaching positions. I've lost count of how many people I've worked with that used to be a teacher who are born/raised in Hawaii and won't work for DOE - reason given, the pay sucks, they have better opportunities elsewhere. And if the pay sucks for a local born and raised person, it is going to suck even more for a mainland candidate who is used to mainland cost of living.
Desperately trying to draw mainland candidates who won't stick around would be shortsighted at best.
I suspect mainland candidates are very much a last resort hire. They have plenty of data from DOE themselves and the State to suggest mainland teachers rarely stick around very long. They've probably decided it isn't in the best interest of children to have a constant revolving door of teachers from the mainland that no little or anything about Hawaii. I'd be willing to bet at 9 out 10 don't stay longer than 2 years. Moving to Hawaii to teach isn't like a California teacher moving to Illinois. That is a very mainland centric view.
Regarding posting each opening location - I can see the benefit of both sides. The benefit of not posting - they probably don't want applicants to cherry pick the best locations. DOE wants the control.
What should happen - what should happen is the State/DOE needs to do better in teacher compensation and do better in drawing/retaining the local population. There are more than plenty of qualified teachers in Hawaii, they just aren't working in teaching positions. I've lost count of how many people I've worked with that used to be a teacher who are born/raised in Hawaii and won't work for DOE - reason given, the pay sucks, they have better opportunities elsewhere. And if the pay sucks for a local born and raised person, it is going to suck even more for a mainland candidate who is used to mainland cost of living.
Desperately trying to draw mainland candidates who won't stick around would be shortsighted at best.
What has given you the impression that DOE has a goal to widely advertise to the mainland?
I suspect mainland candidates are very much a last resort hire. They have plenty of data from DOE themselves and the State to suggest mainland teachers rarely stick around very long. They've probably decided it isn't in the best interest of children to have a constant revolving door of teachers from the mainland that no little or anything about Hawaii. I'd be willing to bet at 9 out 10 don't stay longer than 2 years. Moving to Hawaii to teach isn't like a California teacher moving to Illinois. That is a very mainland centric view.
Regarding posting each opening location - I can see the benefit of both sides. The benefit of not posting - they probably don't want applicants to cherry pick the best locations. DOE wants the control.
What should happen - what should happen is the State/DOE needs to do better in teacher compensation and do better in drawing/retaining the local population. There are more than plenty of qualified teachers in Hawaii, they just aren't working in teaching positions. I've lost count of how many people I've worked with that used to be a teacher who are born/raised in Hawaii and won't work for DOE - reason given, the pay sucks, they have better opportunities elsewhere. And if the pay sucks for a local born and raised person, it is going to suck even more for a mainland candidate who is used to mainland cost of living.
Desperately trying to draw mainland candidates who won't stick around would be shortsighted at best.
I would agree that I don't think it's the best long-term solution. Aggressively recruiting mainland people is only going to further water down Hawaiian culture and heritage, and more rapidly change the way of life there. Some mainland people will be a good fit and respectful of local traditions and values, but most won't. Hence why they leave quickly rather than immersing themselves in the community.
As I've said, this crisis is all news to me, and I have just been reading a lot of articles and related websites in the past week. But I have seen it mentioned in nearly every article I have read, plus on various teacher websites, that HI is recruiting mainland teachers. They are ALSO working on getting more local kids to attend the local colleges to join the Education field at home. But that is a longer-term solution. The US Dept. of Ed. publicly criticized HI's DOE over their poor outreach efforts to the mainland in a time of crisis and many emergency openings left unfilled. I don't know if that means that the US Dept. of Ed. is dictating to HI that they SHOULD recruit mainland teachers, or if HI decided that they wanted to recruit mainland teachers and the US Dept. of Ed. is saying if that is their goal, they are doing a terrible job of it.
For instance, here is what an Aug 2013 The Maui News article said:
"Hawaii - the only state with a single, statewide district - has long had to turn to the Mainland because local teacher education programs can't produce enough graduates to fill classrooms across the islands, especially in remote schools.
...
"I recruited hundreds of teachers," said Al Nagasako, who was a principal at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School before Sager taught there. "You begin to select the good ones, and you know they're not going to stay."
The U.S. Department of Education criticized Hawaii for not doing a good job of publicizing the bonus for teachers to work in "hard-to-staff" schools, so Harris said the bonus has become a more prominent part of the pitch.
A new recruitment perk targets Mainland teachers who can fill badly needed special education vacancies by offering them relocation bonuses, Harris said. The highest amount is $6,000 to work in Waianae or the Big Island's Kau, Keaau and Pahoa areas.
Those areas make up the low-performing, high-poverty schools that "Race to the Top" reforms are focusing on.
...
After his arrival, Sager, of Warren, Ohio, took a bus tour along with other new teachers and saw the poverty on the Waianae Coast.
Settling in required developing an ear for the pidgin English his students spoke and learning to pronounce vowel-laden names he never heard before. Even as he earned their acceptance, Sager said, he grew frustrated with feeling like he and his students were lab rats for experimental programs.
"We start and it's not perfect, so we scrap it and start over," he said.
State education officials are also offering a mentoring program, which began last school year, meant to help teachers feel supported, Harris said.
Nanakuli teacher Dennis Tynan bonded with a group of other teachers who were also adjusting to Hawaii when he arrived 10 years ago.
...
"Here is a community of a marginalized ethnic group and because of the way everything gets structured in a bureaucratic schools system, they just get screwed over and over again," he said.
..."
So it's not ME saying that mainland teachers are the answer. It's just that every article I read acts like it is a foregone conclusion that that is what HI needs, and in fact that has been the direction the state has turned to solve this problem for many years.
I was not surprised to see that, because in other hard-to-staff districts I have worked, the situation is the same - not enough local community members who are highly qualified teachers and are willing to stay in town rather than run for better prospects elsewhere, and so a bunch of people who are from outside states and opposite cultures are shipped in. Same problem there, they often don't fit in well, and don't stay past 5 years.
You may be touching on the point though - that this direction is the wrong one for Hawaii, and that mainland recruitment has not worked, and perhaps can never work fully.
However, I think my point is still a fair one - the state does not seem to be doing much to actually solve the PROBLEM. If the problem is housing, why don't they fix the housing issue for teachers? And if it's true that there really are plenty of highly qualified teachers in Hawaii (although I doubt that, because "highly qualified" means that they have an active license in the state, are up to date on all of their qualifications, and have taught within the past few years), then why isn't the state resolving the issues that prevent those teachers from working in the schools?
I'm not saying this is an easy problem to solve at all. But it doesn't sound like the HI DOE has much of a plan, other than to keep doing the same things over again that haven't worked in the past decade. A small one-time bonus is not going to solve the fact that there is no affordable housing for teachers. Housing vouchers, or housing complexes for teachers, are two ideas of many possibilities that MIGHT address the problem. But recruiting new (often very young) people from the mainland and paying to give them cultural classes does NOT address the problem, and in many cases only makes it worse - the cultural classes are a great idea thing, but you're spending money on people who are not probably a good fit, and won't stay. If you're going to invest, you need to invest wisely in the thing that is most likely to pay off. And 22 year olds from Wyoming with no actual classroom experience are probably not a great bet for remote areas that need skilled people, who are going to stick around.
My point is not to be critical, but just to express concern that this problem has been an issue across the state for a long time, and it does not seem to be getting a lot better. And then preventing people like me who actually would want to work in the difficult areas and have experience getting results in such tough situations from even seeing where the jobs are and having a chance to plan if we would be a good fit for the community, is definitely not helping. If you want to hire all local people, great, than give them what they need to be able to stay in the job. If you want to keep unlivable wages and recruit from the mainland, then let the mainland people see the jobs that need filling so we can at least make sure it is a place where we will want to live and can do a good job with our current skill set. Teachers are professionals, you have to trust them to know what they are qualified to do, and where they would expect to fail miserably. Sticking a teacher in an isolated community just because you like their resume does not make it likely that that specific personality will be a good fit for the actual age group or climate or culture they will be affected by every day. If they CHOOSE your town, they are much likely to be a better fit, and to stay longer and invest in the kids like they are their own. It's better for the kids if their teacher moved to town on PURPOSE because they WANT to live there, than trying to trick or strong-arm them into a position just because it's open and the teacher happens to have a degree.
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