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Seattle teachers lined up to strike if no new contract before Wednesday’s first day of school

More than 2,000 were reported in attendance at Thursday night’s vote (Images: SEA)

Biennial. B-I-E-N… N? I-A-L. Biennial. Every two years. That’s the schedule for end-of-summer parental freakouts in Seattle.

In 2013, the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents the nearly 4,000 teachers at the city’s public schools, negotiated a two-year deal with Seattle Public Schools that won its members two years of 2%+ raises. That deal came on a Tuesday night. School started the next day.

This September, the sluggish contract negotiations have again lead the union’s members to authorize a strike should talks not bear fruit before Wednesday, September 9th’s first day of school. The authorization vote went down Thursday night in Benaroya Hall.

The stakes are higher this time around, according to the Seattle Times:

The Seattle Education Association (SEA) bargaining team proposed a raise of 18 percent over three years, down from the originally proposed 21 percent over the same time period. The increase would be in addition to the state-authorized 3 percent cost-of-living raise to K-12 employees over the next two years, plus an additional temporary 1.8 percent increase that expires in 2017.

Seattle Public Schools has countered with an offer of an 8.2% increase “over the same time period, not including the cost-of-living raise,” the Seattle Times reports.

This spring, teachers in Seattle joined others across the state for a one-day walkout to push for Olympia to increase state funding for the school system and pound out a $1.3 billion education budget.

According to SEA, “the sides remain far apart on”–

  • Professional pay
  • Guaranteed student recess
  • Fair teacher and staff evaluations
  • Workloads for counselors, therapists, school psychologists and other education staff associates
  • Office professional workload relief
  • Reasonable testing
  • Student equity around discipline and the opportunity gap
  • The district’s proposal to make teachers work more for free

Parents probably wouldn’t mind if the two sides could also focus on a longer deal.

UPDATESeattle to run all-day camps at community centers in the event of a teachers’ strike:

Today Mayor Ed Murray announced that Seattle Parks and Recreation, in partnership with the Associated Recreation Council (ARC), will expand currently scheduled before- and after-school care into all-day camps on September 9, 10 and 11 in the event of a strike by Seattle Public Schools teachers.

“While we still hope that an agreement will be reached to allow school to start on time, the City is making arrangements to provide some relief to impacted families juggling childcare arrangements,” said Murray. “That’s why, for families with children already participating in Seattle Parks and Recreation before- and after-school programs, we will be expanding those program hours for them.”

More from the announcement:

The day camps, which will operate from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., will take place at 16 designated community centers around the city with capacity for approximately 850 children. They are for youth aged 5 to 12 who are enrolled in regular Parks and Recreation/ARC 2015-2016 school year before- and after-school programs. These day camps will operate only if school is not in session and will operate at no additional cost to families.

 

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Glenn
Glenn
8 years ago

It would be helpful If these contracts expired earlier, say August 1st, encouraging the parties to reach resolution without impacting the school year. The current set up seems designed to encourage impass, and increases the sense of disarray and disfunction associated with Seattle Public Schools.

WNH
WNH
8 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

Hi, Glenn. Negotiations started back in June, at the latest. The teacher’s union was transparent about its proposals from the beginning. The school district did not engage in meaningful negotiations between June and August. Then, in August, it countered with a wholly inadequate offer. The problem is not the expiration of the contract date, but the failure of the school board to begin good faith negotiations when they should, at the beginning of the process.

Kelly
Kelly
8 years ago

The contracts match the school calendar. Would you have them expire mid-school year?

What would be helpful is if the district would bargain in good faith, by negotiating on proposals instead of just rejecting them outright, by showing up prepared to negotiate in a timely manner rather than 10 minutes before the sessions is scheduled to end, and not wait until mid-August to drop in a by the way we want you to work a longer day for no extra pay proposal, and call it a deal breaker. All the while they already get hundreds of thousands of hours of free work from unpaid overtime.

Also helpful would be the Times getting off the backs of teachers and painting us as incompetent villains at every turn (and for CHS not to just pass through their narrow views). Pay is one of the issues – there are many other on which the district refuses to negotiate that get to issues of equity for children. They seem to see no problem with running south end school straight through regardless of the research on the importance of play for children, while north end children get 45 minutes of recess. This is discriminatory treatment of poor south end children. They refuse to take any decisive steps regarding inequity in discipline – handed out by administrators, not teachers, by the way.

glenn
glenn
8 years ago
Reply to  Kelly

All I suggested was ending the contracts on a date other than four days before the start of school. Is it absolutely necessary they match the school year in the manner they currently do? Why couldn’t they expire on August 1st every two years, a small change which may allow the parties to negotiate beyond contract expiration and reach a resolution before school starts. This seems like a reasonable suggestion to me, although your response would imply otherwise.

I don’t know if you are a teacher, but your tone suggests any resolution is far off and a strike likely. Too bad for everyone, but most of all the students.

Tina
Tina
8 years ago
Reply to  Kelly

Myself and many I know back the teachers on this….in all you’re asking but especially (and selfishly) regarding more recess. Please please keep up the push for more recess!!

harvey
harvey
8 years ago

Keep it up teachers. In the meantime, SAT scores are in the toilet. But it’s okay since there is no such thing as merit pay in your world.

dc
dc
8 years ago

Fully support this. City, give them what they want and tell us what we need to do to make it happen. Our schools need everything we can give them.

Karl
Karl
8 years ago

Whatever you do, do not have the students take tests. Rather than later burying the evidence, it’s best not to create it in the first place.

WNH
WNH
8 years ago
Reply to  Karl

Is that what you really think of teachers? The complaint is not about assessing students. We all understand that we should constantly assess, to determine whether what we have been doing is working and to figure out next steps. The problem is that there are too many standardized tests during the school year, which require a lot of time away from instruction. Preparing students for those tests, including their very different format, takes a lot of time. The tests are complicated in ways outside of assessing academic progress. Here is the site. Check out the practice 4th-Grade ELA test (especially the questions): https://login4.cloud1.tds.airast.org/student/V111/Pages/LoginShell.aspx?c=SBAC_PT

J
J
8 years ago

The SEA bargaining team has been meeting with the District since April. They met about 25 times so far.