DEADLINE FOR START OF DRUG TESTS IS UP

Lingle Says Education Officials Want To Renege On Terms Of Contract

Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that education officials want to
renege on the terms of their contract by avoiding random drug testing
of public school teachers.

The deadline for implementing the drug testing was yesterday, and no
testing took place.

Teachers approved a contract on June 25, 2007, that included raises
and a stipulation that they submit to random drug testing.

Most of the pay raises that were promised in the new contract - a 4
percent increase in July and a 3 percent increase in January - have
already taken effect.

Donna Ikeda, chairwoman of the state Board of Education, said that
over the weekend education officials tried to get the drug testing
deadline extended by 30 days. Lingle denied that request, Ikeda said.

Yesterday, Lingle said the education officials were seeking to
"renegotiate" the contract's random drug testing clause.

"They came in at the 11th hour after everything had been agreed upon
. and said we want to change the whole scheme here. It was just not
right. What they wanted to do really was just avoid random drug
testing," Lingle said.

"They wanted to go back to the beginning and renegotiate what's
already been negotiated," she said.

"We are prepared to immediately seek all appropriate remedies at our
disposal," said Marie Laderta, director of the state Department of
Human Resources Development and Lingle's chief negotiator with the teachers.

"Despite consistent verbal assurances by Department of Education that
random drug and alcohol testing would move forward as agreed, we now
find out at the end of business on the deadline date of June 30,
2008, implementation has not occurred," Laderta said in a written statement.

Two things need to be in place for drug testing to take effect:
procedures for testing, and money to pay for it.

Last night, the Hawaii State Teachers Association and DOE officials
were meeting to discuss the procedures for drug testing.

Roger Takabayashi, president of the teachers union, said officials
were confident that the policies and procedures would be agreed upon
by late evening.

"As we speak, we continue to work on it. We're going to get it done,"
Takabayashi said.

Even if the teachers and DOE officials reach an agreement on
procedures, they were not addressing the issue of how to pay for the
random tests.

The Board of Education and the governor have both insisted the other
pay for the testing.

In January, Lingle refused to include $523,723 in her budget request
to the Legislature to set up the drug-testing program.

The Board of Education then voted against paying for it with money
from the Department of Education's $2.34 billion budget.

Lingle responded by suggesting that pay raises for the 13,500 public
school teachers may not go into effect unless education officials pay
for the program.