The Seattle Education Association had a membership meeting last night, including not just teachers but specialists, aides and office workers – really everyone who interacts with kids at SPS. The union and the district have been negotiating since May but have decided nothing much at all so far, about 2 weeks before the start of the school year. Kind of a bad position to be in- ideally there’d be a contract to vote on at this point, even if the vote was “no”.
The big date coming up is September 3rd, when there will be a vote on whether or not to strike if there’s still no work contract by then (the current contract runs out at the end of August). Many issues divide the two sides, and a smattering came up at the meeting. Below are some random bits:
- There were complaints from the bargaining team that representatives from the district keep missing bargaining meetings (for instance, nobody from the special education leadership showed up to a planned special education bargaining meeting)
- Elementary schools with wealthier populations like Wedgewood get 45 minutes of recess per day, while other schools like Rainier view are only getting 15 minutes (the union wants to standardize it to 45 minutes everywhere)
- The district wants to extend the school day by 30 minutes without compensating teachers for the extra time
- Caseloads for specialists are uncapped by the district despite promises to work towards caseload limits in the last contract
- After 7 years of no cost of living increases, the district proposes a 7% raise over 3 years while the union wants 21% over 3 years
- There’s a plan by the district to pilot 6 “equity committees” in schools in order to address discipline disproportionality issues, rather than having committees in all schools (which is what the union proposes)
- Olga Addae, past president of the union, was riled up, while Jonathan Knapp, current president, was quiescent
Hopefully the two sides sort things out before the school year, nobody wins if there’s a strike.
Thank you.
I am sorry this happens a week or so before school begins. They have had all year to plan these meetings. As it is, it is contributes to more anxiety and stress for parents and kids. Presents real problems if there is a strike for child care.
We are off to another rocky start to the school year, with stressed out parents, teachers, kids, because of the uncertainty of everything. So. So. Dumb.
Because of the dumb way schools are funded in this state, they are underfunded, the district can not make long term planning for anything. The days of funding schools with timber are long gone. This is such a mess.
Some of the concerns of the teachers are very legitimate, but they also cannot happen in a week or two. For instance, if these negotiations had been held in the spring, for instance, there could have been some realistic PLANNING to increase the recess time. It is very unfair and unhealthy to have 15 minutes recess in an entire day. And downright preferential when other schools in the same school system (or even if it were not the same district) to have 45 minutes of recess.
I feel sorry for the teachers. I feel sorry for the kids.
This is so upsetting. And I don’t have any personal vested interest because I have kids in the school. But I do have a personal interest in the education of every single child in this city and in the country. That is part of being a citizen. Not just the privileged ones who can opt out with a private school. They are our future. They need the tools to make good decisions and get good jobs. Every citizen, regardless of age, should care about having a country of well educated citizens. We have a long way to go.
Look at the data from other countries (Scandanavia, for instance.)
I do feel that the general “think” around here to not pay taxes for the things that are needed. Sad. Our roads are a mess. Our state is burning (the Republican controlled Legislators who generally live where the biggest fire danger is, did not grant the scaled down request for funds for the fire season this year.) Now look at us!
What a mess. Schools, fires, roads. And more.
@iowagirl: “They have had all year to plan these meetings.”
Yep. As Eric wrote in the article, “The union and the district have been negotiating since May.” SEA hasn’t had anything for their members to meet about.
Sorry. Thank you. I was so incensed, that I did not write in that context. I was too focused on the timing at this time. Fact remains, that it seems that this happens every year.
Teacher contracts have typically been negotiated over summers. usually ( and I have been an educator a long time) unions and teachers do not ask for such a substantial pay increase..7% each year for 3 years on top of a state 1.8 % the first 2 years.
The equity issue is a tough one.. however SSD did offer to have pilot programs in 8 schools. I was a contracted teacher 2 years when SSD’s answer to equity and race relations was to make us all part of a courageous Conversations program.I was also a contracted teacher during a 3 year period when all schools and teachers were in cadres to get updated training from National Urban Alliance to help accelerate learning for all kids though the programs had been especially successful in inner city schools with minority students- very valuable learning at the time.
The Superintendent’s letter to parents says that the state mandated the longer school day beginning next year.. so although it was brought up in negotiations where it must be discussed to determine how contracts will be affected it was not a last minute mean district ploy.
Thanks Eric and iowagirl.
Thank you, jeepers. Clearly, I do not have accurate information on all of this. The last minute thing still seems manipulative. Probably a good idea to begin to believe that the longer school day will be effective next year. Good to know that it was not a last minute mean district ploy. I hope there are lots of replies on this topic. I have worked at UWMC for decades, now retired. I never saw a 7% increase for one year. and 1.8% on top of that. That really does sound generous, but I imagine they are playing catch-up to today’s salaries. I have no idea.
Negotiations started months ago. These issues are complex, with serious differences between the two sides and none of the issues are easily resolved. Would a mid-year contract dispute be any easier to accept? I don’t think so. The teachers and support staff have legitimate issues, exacerbated by decades of underfunding by the state. Let’s hope the district eco gnomes this and finds a path to settlement.
SEA Board recommends strike
Jeepers- I don’t think they technically did that- what I saw is that they recommended a strike motion, meaning giving the teachers an option to strike. Given that there’s no contract to vote on I don’t know what else the teachers can do tonight other than strike.
and your take on it now is?
Since teachers unanimously backed the motion to strike if there’s no interim agreement by the beginning of the school year, my take is that the union has maximum leverage going into final negotiations with the district. Sound right?
That is one way to think about it. Given that reps from special ed did not show for meetings during contract discussions and that the district initiated the idea of a longer school day just 10 days before contract up.. those feel manipulative and unfair.. my sense is that there is a different sense of power and some not readily open agendas. Remember the Bellevue strike.. how long did that last? My recall is that the teachers got what they mostly wanted which was continued choice over some curriculum but lost on money issues. How about the Marysville teacher strike which lasted weeks? 2002? 2003? Our current superintendent was a Marysville Superintendent in the early 2000’s- was he with them during before or after that strike?
Many hope that an ideal or offer can be written and voted upon by Tuesday. I am curious if this is possible?
The followung is a letter that teachers (and other educators represented by the SEA) are distributing today. I no longer work in the Wallingford area, so please forgive the John Rogers Elementary specific information. No teachers want to strike. We are all hoping that the meetings this weekend will resolve our issues. Being a special education teacher, this js especially important to me, as the district reps for special ed have not met with us this whole summer, even on meeting dates THEY proposed. Please remember that this strike vote is about the children. Hopefully this email fixes any wrong information put out by the district. Tha k you for reading.
Hello 🙂
After a multi-hour meeting, our union, the Seattle Education Association (SEA), unanimously voted to strike. In some instances media and the district have wrongly portrayed this as all about teacher salary. This is a strike about children and what’s best for them as learners and as people.
SEA wants to guarantee 30-45 minutes of recess for each elementary school child. This practice happens at high socio-economic schools already, but schools with more disadvantaged children sometimes have only 15 minutes a day. Is it developmentally appropriate for you to have only one 15-minute break in your workday and about 10 minutes to scarf down your lunch? If not, then it certainly isn’t for six year-olds. Kids without this break will find ways to express their social and emotional needs throughout the day regardless of if recess is scheduled in the day.
Seattle Schools requires more testing than is required by the state or districts. For example, second graders spent over 20 hours taking standardized tests last year (this is more in tested grades and that doesn’t even include for prepping). In the spring, they took three math tests that allegedly covered the same material within a month. All the testing is stressful for everyone, takes away from learning time, provides very little useful information for teachers (especially with not enough collaboration time to disseminate the results that sometime do not come back to schools for 6 months), and ties up the computer lab in buildings for months throughout the year. The district rejected our proposal to stop over testing kids.
Seattle is also the only district in the state to tie teacher evaluations to test scores. In schools with 90% poverty teachers can be placed on disciplinary plans because their students didn’t have the same growth as the richer kids with extremely different privileges. This creates a culture of teaching to the test and a high turnover for capable staff that can get positions at other lest impacted schools. Because science and social studies are not tested, one administrator at a high-needs school told the staff not to teach those subjects. This culture is part of the reason that one Seattle school has such high teacher turn over (14 staff members one year, 24 the next year, and there were 7 different administrators in an 8 years span!). The SEA wants to end tying teacher evaluations to test scores, the district said no.
SEA wants an equity committee in each school to help with our district’s problem in disciplining African American kids more harshly than everyone else. The district said we could have those committees in six of the 100 schools in our district.
This is also a strike about respect:
A week before our general membership meeting when we were supposed to approve our contract, the district threw a proposal on the table to extend the school day for half an hour for teachers only. This is supposed to be for more collaboration time for teachers (It is not clear what the kids are supposed to be doing while teachers are collaborating), for more time for PE and art (the district refuses to hire more art and PE teachers), and recess. Office professionals would still work the same day, so if a child is not picked up after school and the office is closed, he or she would have nowhere to go. Also, instructional assistants would work the same day. One example of how this would impact a Seattle schools class this year is a 1st grade class that has a child with Cerebral Palsy who requires a one on one assistant. Without an instructional assistant for half an hour, the teacher would have to choose between teaching the 24 other kids or helping the little girl go to the bathroom. While lengthening the school day is a valid proposal, doing it without discussing these important issues is not.
SEA wants the district to have ratios for learning specialists (speech language pathologists, physical therapists, counselors, etc.), to children and the district said no. SEA wants to relieve work from school secretaries by hiring more of them and the district said no (this doesn’t even go into the issue of having a nurse only 1.5 days a week for a school of over 400 students). These important professionals are chronically overworked and often do not have time in the day to serve all the children they are expected to.
The district has not shown up for bargaining meetings, has come late to bargaining meetings, and treats our bargaining team as if they don’t matter.
This is also a strike about pay. A lot of the media reports about salaries have dispersed incorrect information.
Teachers have not gotten a cost of living adjustment from the state in six years.
Any percentage of a raise we get is not on our entire salary. It is either for our base pay (most of salary from the state), or our supplemental pay (a much smaller percentage from the district).
Any district proposal around salary includes their proposal to lengthen the school day.
We would like 18% over three years on our supplemental pay, and we got 4.9% from the state on our base pay. (Really that works out to 2% a year including the 6 years we had not cost of living adjustment.)
The district wants to pay us about 8% over three years.
No one wants a strike. We are all excited to see the kids and get started. This strike is a huge sacrifice to parents struggling to find childcare. For staff members, it’s demoralizing. We will have to work harder to build rapport with families, and it means we might have to work until July. My hope is that the strike will be worth it when staff and students get a fair contract.
Here is how you can help:
Email school board members and tell them that you support the SEA ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]).
Stay informed. The SEA website addresses our side of the story very well. http://www.seattlewea.org/index.php/bargaining
Come picket with us! I’ll be out in front of John Rogers all day on Wednesday, and will continue to picket either there or at Nathan Hale HS throughout the strike.
If you live or work near a Seattle school, let picketers use your bathroom and ask if there are other ways that you can help.
Be extra nice to Seattle Schools students, families, and staff. This is a stressful time for everyone.
Yikes, that is a really poorly-written letter. I couldn’t even get through it. It begs the question, “who’s teaching the teachers?”
A little proofreading goes a long way…
Might be worth your time to look into what “begs the question” means.
It’s easy to make a snide remarks about someone’s writing. I could find some fault with punctuation and some style points – periods before close paren, and not so many parentheses anyway, for example – but couldn’t finish it? tl;dr?
Think the district tests for English composition?
It wasn’t a snide remark. And it’s not just punctuation here and there. It was actually difficult to work out what the author was trying to say. Any English teacher worth his/her salt could have whipped this into shape in no time.
This letter does nothing to advance the cause it is trying to advance. Is that not concerning? It is being distributed by teachers. It should be better than just a shitty first draft. As for tl;dr, this piece would be loads more effective and persuasive if it were more concise.
Basic communication skills are important. How can our kids learn if their teachers can’t even manage it?
Now? We do not know definitively yet. Teachers are meeting with picket signs. The school board is voting on an injunction. The union is still meeting with the district last I heard. The news gave a ‘take’ that it will go strike.
However it turns out the bad will generated will not evaporate like fog on a sunny day. Teachers who have followed this and picketed instead of reading curriculum or putting up bulletin boards get their emotional energy depleted.
Thoughts. Random thoughts. And they ARE random. I am not writing to publish.
Simply jumping in with a few thoughts as I have my first cup of coffee.
-Yes, it is poorly written, poorly constructed letter.
-Now we know the teachers are on strike.
-This is exceedingly difficult for all parents, the less income they have, the more challenging it is. But also terrible for parents who are not poor. Not to mention the kids.
-I would like more objective information on salaries and funding. My initial thought is, that many, probably most of us have not had their salaries hiked up to make up for the past six years because of the recession. I think the salary increase proposal for them is pretty darn fair as it is. I can assure you that RN’s at all hospitals, have never received equivalent pay raises.
These kids have WAY too many standardized test. It takes away from valuable teaching time, and is stressful and grueling for teachers and kids. What can we do about that?I am a member of a generation which had a 25 word spelling test on Friday, and we took the Iowa Every Pupil test a couple of times during K-12 education. I wonder how we could go a little backward in time in this area.
I do have concerns about education in the US. We are SO BEHIND other countries, especially in areas that are vital to our future. There are many examples, but take a look at US scores compared with Scandinavia ( as one of many examples.). But then, they do pay more taxes, schools are adequately funded. I don’t know about their teaching methods, but maybe we can take a look at their math or science curriculum.
Here’s some more reading material. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/american-schools-vs-the-world-expensive-unequal-bad-at-math/281983/
AND**there is not adequate funding for K-12 education in this state. Also for higher ed. Voters vote down most everything if they have to pay any more. Same reason our infrastructure is crumbling. Washington schools were historically funded by timber. When most of it was cut down, that caused a problem for school funding.
Speaking of funding. I am 100% FOR a state income tax. It is not regressive, like the sales tax. It is relatively predictable, so long term planning can occur. This saves a lot of money.
-it is my understanding that the extra half hour a day is legally mandated to begin in 2017. I don’t think it was a last minute decision by the school board.
Funding-Apparently the good citizens of Washington state will continue to vote down any proposal that is a state income tax. It is not a regressive tax like the sales tax. We would not have to rely on levies and bond issues to try to kind of support our schools. So we will bungle along in all areas, with our legislature modeling after Congress, continuing with gridlock.
Interesting article, one of many
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/state-income-taxes3.htm
So, it seems that even this part of the state, though perceived as liberal, is reluctant to pay for what they want to have. No to mention the rest of the state.
–
no school Thursday.