Hawaii teachers to vote on tentative agreement

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii's public school teachers will be voting on a tentative agreement reached with the state.

Hawaii State Teachers Association members will be voting on the contract Wednesday.

The union and the state sought help from a federal mediator and reached an agreement on March 24. The deal restores a previous 5 percent pay cut and gives teachers a 3 percent raise on top of that in July. Teachers will get raises of 3 percent and 3.2 percent in following years. They'll also have a say in statewide decisions about evaluations.

The last contract expired in June 2011. Teachers voted down a contract offer last year, then tried to pressure the state to accept it later by voting on it again and approving it.

HSTA represents more than 13,000 teachers statewide.

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