Featuring interviews with members of the Academy faculty as well as President Michael Latham, this article reveals how recent benefit changes have impacts unknown to most.
Editor’s Note: Some Academy faculty who were interviewed for this article have asked to remain anonymous. Ka Punahou as a rule tries to avoid using anonymous sources; however, due to the sensitive nature of this topic, we chose to operate “on background” in order to allow faculty to speak honestly and openly.
The Changes: On Jan 22, 2021, The Punahou President’s Office sent out an email announcing the end of full tuition remission for one child as a benefit for any new faculty or staff hire from that date forward. The email detailed that all incoming hires would instead receive 5,000 dollars of tuition remission for one child beginning in school year 2022–2023. In the following year, that policy was changed, raising tuition remission to 10,000 dollars for one child for the current (2023–2024) school year. During the course of this year (2023-2024), the most recent changes were announced, leading to 50% tuition remission for one child of faculty hired after January 2021, effective starting in the 2024-2025 school year. With each change, faculty and staff hired after the Jan 22, 2021 cut-off were also eligible to apply for financial aid to recoup any unmet need.
The Consequences:
The most obvious effect of these changes is, of course, the financial burden for faculty and staff hired after the January 2021 cutoff. Two Academy faculty members affected by the change spoke about how it has impacted them personally. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, they requested that their names be withheld.
“It was rough to process,” said Academy Faculty Member #1. “We thought that if I got this job, we would be able to afford certain things. This drastically changed that.”
Another Academy teacher, Faculty Member #2, was working as a part time employee before the January 2021 cut off. At the time of the announcement in January 2021, they had been hoping to receive a full time offer and thus take advantage of the full tuition remission benefit.
“It was really hard because [tuition remission] was something that I was excited to utilize. It was hard to sit with, especially when you feel so passionately about this place and everything it provides.”
Beyond the challenge of added financial difficulty, these two teachers point to several issues when arguing against the removal of full tuition remission for new faculty, the first being the risk of Punahou becoming a less competitive landing spot for top teachers, thus lowering the quality of the Punahou education for all.
“There could be a trickle-down effect of, ‘now it’s harder to hire teachers.’” Faculty Member #1 said. “There might be higher turnover among the teachers who don’t have higher benefits, and it’s not just teachers. It’s in the facilities department; we have friends who [worked at Punahou because] the benefit made it worth it. But if that benefit wasn’t there, why not work somewhere that can offer a union? Why not get paid better somewhere else?”
Faculty Member #2 echoed, “Punahou has done a great job at being recognized as a top college preparatory school at a national level, and I think it would definitely draw prospective teachers to be able to have their child attend an amazing institution. Especially considering the high cost of living, I think it’s something that was an easy sell, but now, I think it’s something that might deter people from wanting to work here.”
Additionally, faculty worry about the effect of these changes on the sense of community on campus and morale among faculty and staff. Ms. Tiffany Coke, Academy science teacher, was hired before the January 2021 cutoff. Even so, she expressed her concern about the policy change.
“Teachers had a really rough go during COVID. We had to immediately change everything we did…To have that shift in benefits at a time when we were working harder than we’ve worked…I think it was the timing that might have made the biggest difference, because it was a time when we really needed to feel appreciated by our administration. And having a valuable benefit being taken away from us at that time felt like a gut punch…I think it was really, logistically, a bad call.”
Faculty Member #1 spoke to the community effects as well.
“Some morale issues came from, ‘are we the same thing as ‘let’s not get new desks this year?’ Ideally, a teacher or any of the faculty and staff are maybe more important.”
Faculty Member #2 referenced the school’s interest in “building communities,” a mantra echoed in everything from the school’s mission statement to instructions from administrators on how classrooms should be run.
“A lot of the spaces that we’re a part of ask us to cultivate community in both our professional work and the classroom communities that we create. I can see how hard that is to do when these types of things are happening, and I think that there’s a fine line that was drawn when they initially retracted tuition remission.”
The Reasoning & Logistical Realities:
President Michael Latham offered some insight into the logistical realities behind these decisions and how, on the administrative side, policies regarding tuition remission have effects unknown to most as well. Latham also noted that many decisions of this nature are made by the Board of Trustees, who manage the long-term financial viability of the school.
“I fully respect and understand the concerns, and I encourage any faculty and staff member to talk with me about them. Of course, I sincerely wish we could offer a full tuition remission for all employees, but there are tradeoffs that we have to consider. This really is a matter of competing goods and difficult financial choices,” President Latham said.
First, Latham laid out the “fixed costs” that come with running Punahou, stating that “nearly 70% of our school’s operational budget is already allocated to salaries and benefits. The remainder covers instructional costs, facilities, financial aid, insurance, utilities, and other elements necessary to run the school.”
Latham also revealed how certain fixed costs have increased significantly in recent years.
“Just prior to the pandemic, we allocated about $8 million to cover financial aid costs. At the height of the pandemic, that figure jumped up to nearly $11 million. Today, it has not come all the way down and remains at over $10 million. We are committed to trying to meet the full demonstrated need of all the families we enroll… It’s important for purposes of access and contribution to our community that we continue that practice,” Latham said.
President Latham also brought up the deeper consideration of equity.
“Unlike financial aid, tuition remission is not based on any kind of need assessment. It’s also worth considering that not all Punahou employees have children, and not all of our employees’ children attend Punahou. It’s reasonable to ask about the tradeoff between a benefit that only some employees can use, and other options that we can use that support all faculty and staff.”
Additionally, President Latham talked about recent large-scale teacher raises that were put into place, a change that he hopes will help alleviate some of the aforementioned difficulties while remaining equitable. “We have also just implemented a wide-ranging series of teacher salary raises that I think are a major step forward. The model for these raises was developed in collaboration with a faculty task force, and they are particularly beneficial for and important to teachers in the early and middle parts of their careers here at Punahou.”
The raises were made using market-benchmarks, where Punahou compares salaries to other large independent schools on the island (over 600 students), and then aims to be at the 80th percentile or higher of the market benchmark salaries with respect to their competitors across the board.
To answer uneasiness toward the possibility of a decrease in the quality of educators, Latham affirmed that Punahou has continued to hire effectively since the change. The fact that teachers from many other schools have continued to come to Punahou, he notes, reflects the degree to which the school remains a very attractive and satisfying place to work.
“I think concerns about recruiting have to be taken seriously, but I believe the teachers we have hired recently have been excellent. And, to be honest, we have continued to hire outstanding teachers from across the state,” Latham noted.
In addition to her work as an Academy science teacher, Ms. Tiffany Coke also heads up the Faculty Advocacy and Wellness Group (FAWG). FAWG was formed at the beginning of school year 22-23 with the goal of functioning as a forum for teachers to share their concerns and work to address issues with administrators. Changes to tuition remission have been one of the most frequently discussed issues at FAWG meetings since its conception.
Through these meetings, Ms. Coke has come to believe that tuition remission is a central issue in reestablishing a strong sense of community among faculty and staff at Punahou.
“Part of being a community would be encouraging people to have their lives here, to cherish Punahou internally in such a way that you would bring the thing that you care most about in the world to be a part of the community…Teachers having their children [attend school] here is an investment to the community on their part. Now you have teachers who are already excellent at teaching looking to make the community better in all sorts of other ways. They walk by the Lily Pond and they think, ‘how can I help here? How can I make this better? Maybe we should have a task force to fix the Lily Pond.’ Little things like that that they’re willing to put their effort into because it represents their family. A lot of the teachers here have a lot to offer in ways that are beyond just the classroom. They are really deeply talented, and so if you can pull in some of those additional talents that aren’t apparent in their job, it would be an exponential explosion of what could happen.”