HONOLULU (KHON2) — Nine months after the Maui fires, West Maui teachers are rallying before the Board of Education to call for more support and funding.
This comes as the teacher’s union said the Department of Education has denied some of their requests.
“We’re hard to staff anyways and if we lose teachers and essential staff, we can’t give our students the education they deserve,” said Donelle Thomas, Lahaina Intermediate School teacher.
Each year, “hard to staff” schools receive shortage differentials to attract teachers. Lahaina area teachers were receiving a $5,000 differential per year before the wildfires.
The union said the DOE denied its request for an increase to $8,000 post fire.
West Maui teachers said this increase would make all the difference for impacted educators.