Charter schools set their own hiring rules
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 05, 2010
Charter schools are often started by passionate leaders, and having a relative or two on staff is not uncommon in Hawaii.
"If the best person is hired for the position, then the school's children are well served," said Ruth Tschumy, chairwoman of the state Charter School Review Panel, which approves and revokes charters. "If the person is hired not on his or her merits or qualifications, but rather on kinship or affiliation with the hirer, then the school's children are not well served."
Unlike a family business, charter schools are publicly funded. But they enjoy greater freedom from state regulations than the typical public school. Each charter school reports to its own local school board, not to the state Board of Education. The charter school's board typically hires the principal, and the principal chooses the staff.
"Each local school board is in charge of the charter school's policies and their hiring practices," said Maunalei Love, executive director of the Charter School Administrative Office. "We do not have a policy on nepotism because we're not trying to tell them what to do."
After being contacted by the Star-Advertiser about the number of family members on the payroll at