News

On September 27, 2013, HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira sent a letter to the editor of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser regarding the September 25 editorial "Settle principals' evaluations now." The letter was run in the Sept. 29 edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The text of the letter appears below.

School principals support evaluations

It came as no surprise that you once again based your editorial on your own assumptions and biases ("Settle principals' evaluations now," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Sept. 25).

It's unfair to be so critical without completely understanding the complex issue of principal evaluations and the circumstances surrounding it.

Contrary to what you may think, our public school principals are fully committed to the performance evaluation system and there has been no delay in its implementation.

You were quick to assume there's a "dispute" between HGEA and Department of Education and wrongly concluded that our principals are reluctant to be evaluated. In fact, because DOE for many years didn't have the capacity to develop the evaluation, the principals themselves took the lead to work with DOE and develop a comprehensive, fair evaluation system to continuously improve educational outcomes.

Blaming the lack of progress on unionized employment shows your ignorance. In 1971, educational officers approached HGEA to create its own bargaining unit — to this day, we are proud to represent the interests of our dedicated education leaders and advocate on their behalf.

Randy Perreira
Executive director, HGEA/AFSCME Local 152