THE battle to put nationally certified athletic trainers in all 40 Hawaii public high schools this fall rages on without a satisfactory conclusion. Trainers’ hiring bogged
down in bureaucracyThe good news is that several Oahu principals are fed up with waiting and are resorting this week to emergency hires so that they will have people on hand to take care of those kids who hit the turf in a heap.
The bad news is this was not supposed to be necessary. The trainers were approved before the end of the recent Legislative session.
The positions for 25 new trainers were advertised on July 13, and there were already more than enough qualified recent college graduates, both locally and mainland-based, showing enthusiastic interest.
(The state had 15 trainer positions funded before this year.)
But, procedure and the processing of civil service paperwork took so much time that many applicant lists for the new jobs did not reach Oahu schools until a week before the opening of school.
Kaiser athletic director Bill von Arnswaldt had to ask for his list last week and he's not the only one who's had to ask.
ADs throughout the state have told me they've had a devil of a time finding out anything from the Department of Education about the trainers' situation.
And they wonder why all the schools are not receiving their lists at the same time.
I'VE learned that any AD who has a suitable candidate for the trainer's position may do an emergency hire, instead of waiting for the civil service paperwork to go through.
I've been told this by a key legislator who deals with education matters. I've also heard it from Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Dwight Toyama and I've heard it from a DOE personnel official.
But half the ADs I've spoken with still don't know it and their kids are left uncovered.
Seems that the DOE isn't volunteering information.
Waipahu AD Keith Morioka, who had a trainer but lost her when she decided to return to school, also had to ask for a list of applicants.
Morioka didn't get his list until Thursday, and Kaimuki AD Ray Fujino, who lost his trainer when her husband received a mainland job offer, did not get a list until Friday.
Great timing.
What is particularly galling to Morioka and Fujino is that their trainers conscientiously resigned early in the summer to allow their ADs ample time to get a replacement hired before the start of school.
The Kaimuki trainer forfeited sick leave to accommodate her boss.
All for nothing. Go figure.
SEN. Rod Tam is doing his own figuring and he claims the problem lies with the Department of Human Resources, which has jurisdiction over civil service jobs like the trainers.
"The money was released in July, but it's up to the people at the Department of Human Resources to process the paperwork," said Tam. "The fact is, they're not efficient, and that's bad because the state will be liable if there's an injury without a trainer on the job."
Tam, who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said that if the trainers are not in place soon, he will recommend cancellation of games.
In even worse shape are the neighbor island schools. With the recent exception of Kapaa, they still have no lists from which to even select an emergency hire.
Kapaa received its list a day after AD Dwight Fujii complained in print that he was being forced to tell his kids to continue "putting spit on their wounds."