A proposed two-year contract for public school teachers that could be ratified today would make Hawai'i one of few school districts nationwide to call for random teacher drug testing, state union officials said.

"Not very many school districts have random drug testing," said Joan Husted, executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. "Most states didn't know of any collective bargaining agreements (for teachers) that had random drug testing, but there may be local laws."

Some Mainland teacher contracts call for testing when there is a reasonable suspicion, according to the National Education Association, which represents 2 million teachers nationwide. Pennsylvania has the most school districts — 14 — where teacher contracts include drug testing based on reasonable suspicion.

NEA research also shows that state law in North Carolina allows any employer — including school districts — to drug-test prospective or current employees as a condition of hiring or continued employment.

A decision is expected as early as 6:30 p.m. today on whether the state's approximately 13,000 public school teachers approved their proposed contract, which includes clauses that would allow drug testing both randomly and based on reasonable suspicion.

It also provides for a 4 percent raise in each of the two years, plus a step increase for all but new hires this year and the highest paid teachers who are already at top scale.

Union officials last week said about 1,900 absentee ballots were still outstanding after nearly nearly 8,000 people cast ballots on the contract at 25 polling places statewide on Thursday. The deadline is 5 p.m. today for people to turn in absentee ballots.

Last week's voting was too close to call, with the decision hinging on a final tally today of the absentee ballots.

HSTA President Roger Takabayashi said yesterday that the random drug-testing provision is probably the "main" sticking point for teachers who have voted against the contract.

"That's the single issue that is probably forcing the no vote," Takabayashi said.

The proposed contract would raise starting pay for new teachers from $39,901 to $43,157. For teachers with about 15 years of experience, a master's degree and some additional credit hours, annual pay would increase from $59,566 to $66,359 by the end of the contract. For the most experienced teachers with more than 33 years experience, pay would rise from $73,197 to $79,170.

Takabayashi said the HSTA expects a 60 percent turnout for the contract ratification vote, including absentee ballots.

The drug-testing provisions in the proposed contract include testing that is random and under "reasonable suspicion."

All testing would be done at an independent, certified lab.

For testing under reasonable suspicion, "What (the contract) says is that if the principal suspects that someone is under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance, he calls for a witness to also observe the behavior and then he can ask the teacher to be tested," Husted said.

"The teachers are probably more supportive of the reasonable-suspicion clause. All of our guidelines have lots of safeguards. How can you single someone out? As well you have to have a witness who is willing to sign off that they saw the same behavior."

If the contract is ratified, the protocol for how to carry out random drug testing still will have to be worked out between the union and the Department of Education. It would go into effect by June 30, 2008.

"In random drug testing, the parties have to decide how large the random (sample) will be. The next question — is it random across the state, by district? And then, how are you pulling the random sample? There are software programs to pull random samples."

The contract language calls for testing by an outside laboratory, specifically noting that principals will not select teachers for random testing, or administer or read the tests themselves.

Husted said federal law requires workers considered safety personnel such as firefighters, police officers, prison guards and others to undergo random drug testing. Critical personnel such as airline pilots also undergo random drug testing.

According to the NEA, two lower federal court decisions have ruled that teachers are safety personnel under the law and can be drug tested. Those decisions have not yet reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.