Gov. Linda Lingle is examining the details of a tentative agreement on reducing teacher furloughs — even after she summarily rejected the plan four days ago.

Lingle aides met yesterday morning with education officials to discuss the plan, which would restore seven of the 10 remaining furlough days this school year.

Though no decisions were made during the meeting, Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto and Board of Education Chairman Garrett Toguchi said they were optimistic after delivering details about the agreement to the administration.

And the governor's aides offered no outright rejection of the plan, contrary to the governor's original response to it on Monday.

Education officials met with Linda Smith, the governor's senior policy adviser; Marie Laderta, the director of the state Department of Human Resources Development; and Georgina Kawamura, the director of the state Department of Budget and Finance.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association, the union representing most teachers, has agreed to the plan but was not represented at yesterday's meeting.

Under the agreement, $35 million from the state's rainy-day fund will restore five furlough days; teachers will teach on two planning days (Jan. 4 and May 21); and the school year will end three days early.

Monday evening, the governor said she could not support the agreement, calling it "not a credible plan" and "not sustainable."

Smith said yesterday the administration was still disappointed that the agreement did not eliminate all remaining 27 furlough Fridays, 10 this school year and 17 next. But she said they now better understand the context of the negotiations and discussions with the HSTA that led to the agreement.

After the meeting, Smith called the discussions "helpful," and said the details would be relayed to Lingle. Smith would not specify when the governor would make any decisions about the agreement.

"This, again, was an informational meeting for us to understand better the details of what the proposal was. We continue to be disappointed in terms of not having the furlough situation corrected. We very much appreciate the fact that the superintendent and the chair spent a lot of time going over the particulars of the plan," Smith said.

RAINY-DAY DECISION

While the governor does not need to sign off on the new plan, she would need to approve the Legislature's use of the $35 million from the state's rainy-day fund. Legislative leadership said their ability to push the plan through in the upcoming session would depend on the governor's support.

Lingle objected to the proposal because it used more than two-thirds of the $50 million she offered but only restored seven furlough days. Her plan used the $50 million to end all 27 furlough days.

Education officials and Lingle's aides met for more than an hour and a half yesterday morning. They emerged from the governor's office as one group, smiling, and telling reporters that their conversation had been productive.

Smith said Kawamura was present and went back to her office after the meeting to examine the budgetary details of the plan.

Toguchi said he hoped explaining the plan to the governor's staff could help in persuading her to support it.

"We had a long and productive meeting," the BOE chairman said. "There was no outright rejection of the proposal, even at the end, I asked, 'So you're not rejecting this?' And the answer was no. As far as (the governor's staff) is concerned, their job was not to push either way, but to brief the governor and let her make the final decision."

SENSE OF URGENCY

Hamamoto said the plan salvages what remains of the school year by effectively eliminating the final 10 furlough Fridays.

"School starts next week, so we need to move quickly. In that sense, today's meeting was positive. They're going to work on getting some numbers and seeing what is possible," she said.

Lingle had offered on Nov. 15 to use $50 million from the rainy-day fund to restore 12 furlough days if teachers would agree to teach on 15 planning or other noninstructional days. Her plan would have wiped out all remaining furlough days this school year and next.

Lingle's representatives walked away from talks with the HSTA, DOE and BOE on Dec. 17 when the teachers union said $50 million was not enough to restore all furlough days.

Union and Department of Education officials said they were worried that Lingle's plan, by their tally, left them $19.3 million short.

Officials feared they would need to lay off 2,500 full-time employees, increase class size and cut programs to make up for the $19.3 million shortage. The teachers union also had expressed concern about giving up the roughly 10 yearly planning days.