First day on the job: New schools chief addresses board

HILO — Christina Kishimoto began her new job Tuesday as superintendent of Hawaii public schools, promising state education leaders she will visit schools throughout the state in the coming months and work to fill vacant positions in her executive staff.

“I need to get out in the schools,” Kishimoto said during the state Board of Education’s regular meeting, her first time giving public remarks in her new role. “ … I want to hear firsthand from teachers and students about implemented curriculum and support structure in place and to have firsthand knowledge from those on the receiving end.”

Kishimoto assumed the job less than a week before Monday’s start of the new school year. She’s employed on a three-year contract and is slated to earn $240,000 annually — $40,000 more per year than outgoing DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, a Hilo native.

Kishimoto was most recently head of Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona, an affluent district in the Phoenix area. Prior to that she worked at Hartford Public Schools, a high-poverty district in Connecticut.

Kishimoto told BOE members Tuesday she’s targeting three “areas of focus” in the new school year, which are:

— To be “purposeful” about school design and “how we structure our schools”;

— To better engage students and use student feedback “about what’s working and not working”;

— To create a system of teacher collaboration so teachers can “share best practices across the district.”

Kishimoto also touched on Hawaii’s longstanding teacher shortage: As of Friday, 880 new teachers statewide were being processed, she told board members, with 105 pending.

“This is an area I’ll look at and report to the board on,” she said.

As superintendent, Kishimoto manages more than 175,000 students in Hawaii and 256 schools.

Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.