The number of teaching vacancies along the Leeward Coast has fallen nearly 50 percent, a bright spot amid the continuing statewide shortage of public school teachers.

"I'm still doing hiring as we speak," said Judy Toguchi, personnel officer for the state Department of Education. "We've had teachers who come for a few days and just can't handle it."

Even as the school year gets underway, the DOE continues to see teachers suddenly resign or go on leave.

"We even had a death after school started," Toguchi said.

Every year, DOE recruiters fan out from California to Maine looking to fill 1,300 to 1,500 teaching positions and typically return still needing to fill a few hundred vacancies at the start of each school year.

Toguchi did not have an exact number of how many jobs remain unfilled for the current school year, but said it could be down to the 60s.

"At this point," she said, "I think we're doing great."

Hawai'i has about 13,500 public school teachers. Teacher vacancies have run from 199 in 2006-07 to as many as 400 the previous school year.

The perennial problem led to a law that took effect July 1 and addresses one reason cited by teachers who leave. According to the legislation, which cites the Hawai'i Educational Policy Center, "dissatisfaction with an overall lack of professional support for new teachers," is a significant factor in teacher departures.

To address that perception, the law provides $100,000 to provide training for public school teachers and teacher candidates to meet the qualification requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and appropriated $200,000 to establish professional development schools for teachers.

According to the legislation, the loss of teachers costs the schools about $4 million a year.

Like other school districts across the country, the statewide DOE perennially sees about 300 teachers retire each year, while others take leaves of absence, die, resign or are fired, Toguchi said.

Nearly 21 percent of Hawai'i's public school teachers were 55 years old or older as of December 2006, according to the DOE. About 23 percent of vice principals and 55 percent of principals were at least 55.

Most of the teaching needs typically are in math, science, English and special ed.

OPENINGS IN LEEWARD

With new schools opening up in the 'Ewa area, the appetite for new teachers has only increased in the vast Leeward District, which stretches from Makaha to 'Ewa Beach to Pearl City.

"Leeward is where the openings are," said Roger Takabayashi, who started out as a Leeward Coast teacher in 1969 and is now the president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

But the number of teaching vacancies in Nanakuli and Wai'anae fell from 160 last year to 82 this year as Leeward District officials, principals, teachers and staff continue to look for new ways to retain the teachers they have and make the new ones feel at home, said Lisa DeLong, Wai'anae complex area superintendent.

The new teachers late last month met Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto, took a bus tour of the Leeward Coast and spent a day on the ocean sailing with a pod of spinner dolphins and looking at their students' home from the sea.

The Wai'anae Complex Schools are also taking steps such as producing a publication called "Mentor News" that includes tips on time and stress management, cultural essays on such topics as "Kanawai Mamalahoe: The Law of the Splintered Paddle," recipes for dishes such as Portuguese bean soup and even lessons in pidgin.

"Eh, you get one puka in your shirt," reads one feature in the newsletter. "Translation: 'Excuse me, you have a hole in your shirt.' "

For Randall Miura, principal of Leihoku Elementary, the outreach to new teachers is personal. He's been involved in Wai'anae education for 17 years and is "real proud to be in the community."

"We have so many teachers coming in from the Mainland," Miura said, "and we're trying to instill in them that they should be proud of the community, too."

Kathryn Dykas, 22, moved to O'ahu last month from Wethersfield, Conn., to teach third-grade special education at Leihoku Elementary School in Wai'anae.

Already, Dykas said, "I feel so at home here. It's unbelievable."

"People (at Leihoku) have offered to help look for a car and furniture for the house," she said. "They've offered pots and pans and school supplies."

Dykas shares a home in Makakilo with four other new teachers from the East Coast, including Lauren McCormick, 22, of Stoughton, Mass., who just began teaching first-grade special education at Mililani Ike Elementary School.

She's been getting a ride to school each day from one of her new co-workers.

"Everyone's been amazing," McCormick said. "The first thing they want to know is, 'Do you have a place to stay? Do you have a ride?' They understand that I may have concerns other than just work."

A WARM WELCOME

After just one year teaching on O'ahu, Tim Boyer has no plans to move back to Michigan.

Boyer, 25, just started his second school year at Leihoku teaching third-grade specialized language arts. He now hopes to move closer to school from his current home in Kailua.

Boyer came here to live with his brother, a civilian contractor for the Marine Corps at Camp Smith, and has since learned how to surf, received a couple of Thanksgiving invitations from students' families and is helping the Wai'anae High School varsity basketball team as an assistant coach.

"I've already created a new home," he said. "My brother's envious. He says I've done way more in a year than he's done here in a couple of years."

When he arrived last year, Boyer said he benefitted from lectures on local and Hawaiian culture that Leeward District officials and teachers organized.

"The most important thing that came through was the idea that family takes precedence over all other things," he said. "They talked about the mentality of someone who grows up in poverty. They talked about the need to be open and to communicate.

"You just have to get involved with the community. ... Am I thinking of leaving? I have no exit plan, that's for sure."

Meghan Partlow, 25, just began her fourth school year at Leihoku and now is mentoring malihini teachers.

She's been invited to keiki lu'au and other family gatherings.

"If you just come here and do your job and show your students and parents that you really care about what you're doing, you'll have a great experience," Partlow said. "I just love it here. I'm very happy at my school and with my job. I love Hawai'i."

But the real test will be whether new teachers like Partlow and Boyer continue through the next few years, DeLong said.

Teachers who stay in one school coincide with higher student achievement and test scores, she said.

Takabayashi of the teachers' union believes the key to keeping young teachers is "greater support and more mentoring."

"We lose 30 to 50 percent of our teachers in the first three to five years," he said. "They could also use a lot more cultural mentoring, learning the local ways."