Every summer, as thousands of school children disperse gleefully into the sunshine, those in charge of the state's public school system take a deep breath and confront the annual push to fill faculty openings before classrooms reopen in the fall.

And with the increasing number of teachers contemplating retirement in coming years — Baby Boomers coming of age — this challenge undoubtedly will become weightier before things ease up.

Not all the news is cause for worry: State leaders have been anticipating the problem and have taken some steps toward meeting it head-on.

As Advertiser education writer Beverly Creamer reported, relief is coming on multiple fronts. First, the raises approved in the new two-year contract will boost salaries, on average, by more than 11 percent. That increase may be healthy enough to persuade some teachers to postpone retirement and should help lure more young replacements, as well.

Secondly, the passage of HB 24 may help some teachers by giving them an annual bonus of $5,000 each. Gov. Linda Lingle should sign this bill, which would benefit up to 50 teachers who work at schools with high turnover, or that are in restructuring under the No Child Left Behind Act. Others would qualify if they hold hard-to-fill positions.

Thirdly, this year marked the expansion of an initiative launched by a private nonprofit, the Hawai'i Alliance for Future Teachers, armed with a $150,000 state grant. Now in more than a dozen schools, this ongoing course for high school students contemplating a teaching career could inspire a future generation of teachers.

The state Department of Education, in conjunction with the University of Hawai'i College of Education, should find a way to make this cultivation program permanent, either by taking it in as part of its regular budget or helping to secure more sustained private sponsorship.

Finally, it is good to see that Lingle and the Legislature are pushing for a change in the way the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board issues licenses to new teachers in our state. Now the board has been mandated to find ways of recognizing teaching licenses from other states, while having those states recognize ours as well. More immediately, they have to issue a license to a teacher with a valid out-of-state license who has passed similar tests.

This change makes sense at a time when school districts nationwide must compete in hiring from a diminishing pool of teaching candidates.

Beyond the short-term solutions, the teacher training programs in this state must continue making its course work accessible for new candidates, many of whom already are holding down full-time jobs.

Public schools and their needs have drawn so much attention in recent years, and myriad problems have taken their turn in the spotlight. Now it's critical that Hawai'i reserve the No. 1 spot on the priority list for the sustenance of the system's most powerful force: the teachers in the classroom.