Hawaii educators paid to sit out investigations

HONOLULU— Dozens of Hawaii Department of Education employees are on paid leave pending investigations that can drag on for several years.

The department in responding to KHON-TV’s open records request, says that it knows of 57 active cases where employees are on department-directed leave or leave pending investigations, with the oldest dating back to 2011.

Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe says the person filling in for the teacher who is on leave may not be a certified teacher.

Hawaii Government Employees Association Executive Director Randy Perreira says there are concerns that the department doesn’t have the human resources capacity to conduct timely investigations.

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi says the department made a funding request to the state Legislature for positions to handle the investigations.