Talks between the teachers union and the governor’s office broke down today and no new talks are scheduled.

The breakdown in talks comes after both sides said yesterday’s negotiations appeared to be productive.
Gov. Linda Lingle's senior policy adviser Linda Smith released a statement shortly after noon saying that state negotiators and the Hawaii State Teachers Association were unable to reach agreement in negotiation talks earlier this morning.
Smith said the HSTA was adamant about teachers retaining their planning time. Lingle had proposed taking $50 million from the state's rainy day fund and has asked teachers to swap planning days for furlough days to eliminate 27 of 34 furlough days in the teachers' two-year contract with the state.
“HSTA has falsely claimed that the Administration is removing teacher planning days. This is not true. The joint DOE/BOE Administration bargaining team has made it clear that teachers can retain all of their planning days, if they so desire. We are simply asking them to come back into the classroom for 27 days and allow students to learn,” Smith said in a statement.
HSTA officials were not immediately available to comment on today's negotiations. They plan to make a statement to media at 2:30 p.m. at their Moanalua offices.
State Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi, in a news release, said negotiators from the BOE and Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto held a meeting with HSTA “to continue to look at every possibility to reduce the number of furloughs.”
“Governor Lingle’s decision to restrict $270 million from public schools resulted in 34 school furloughs. When furloughs were ratified, the Governor praised the Board of Education, the Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers Association for reaching a settlement to help the state meet its budget deficit,” Toguchi said.
Smith also said the union wanted to renegotiate other portions of their contract, including provisions that require teachers to provide campus and playground supervision.
“It is particularly unfortunate and very discouraging that in the most recent round of discussions, the HSTA has side-stepped the primary issue by proposing to reopen portions of the original contract unrelated to the furlough issue and is seeking changes that would compromise the safety of the children and limit their after-school programs. The HSTA is now saying they do not want teachers to participate in campus and playground supervision responsibilities during lunch hours. And they no longer want teachers to voluntarily participate in school-related activities after the regular school day – such as glee club, debate team, robotics, or prom night,” she wrote.
“At this point, the ability to resolve the furlough situation rests squarely on the shoulders of the HSTA leadership. We urge them to accept the adjustments that will remove the 27 furlough days so that children can return to their regular classroom schedule beginning in January 2010. If they will say ‘yes’ the DOE/BOE/Administration will immediately work to obtain Legislative enactment of the money for the teacher salary increases from the Rainy Day Fund,” Smith said.