This strike is just sad. Both the SEA union president, Jonathon Knapp, and the SPS superintendent, Larry Nyland, seem like level headed people that deescalate situations. Larry Nyland graduated from Seattle Public Schools and has a track record of staying put in superintendent jobs without causing trouble. Jonathon Knapp is a moderate in the union who was elected over the firebrand Jesse Hagopian.
Why couldn’t they just split the difference in negotiations? It seems like this strike is the result of pent up frustrations resulting from years of bad administration and bad contracts. Now that district finances are doing somewhat better and Seattle is a boom town, there’s a desire to right all the previous wrongs.
The strike might take a while- the last strike lasted 3 weeks in the 1980’s. The two sides are far apart. You can see things from the SEA side here, or from the SPS side here. It’s good that all the cheese sticks and juice boxes we bought have a long shelf life.
So, what are you planning to do with your kids? Seattle Parks has special child care, although not at the Green Lake Community Center. In Wallingford there’s the drop in program at the Wallingford Boys and Girls Club, which says:
In the event of a Seattle Public Schools teachers’ strike, WBGC will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. ($25 before noon; free from noon to 6 p.m.). Please call the Club with questions: 206-436-1930.
Alternately, you can join the teachers on the picket line. Elizabeth Dawson, BF Day 2nd grade teacher writes:
Wallingford/Fremont community, your local educators need your help! With the strike looming on Wednesday, we will be out picketing at our local schools, and we need some support from the community to make a strong showing to the district.
Some things we are hoping to find at B.F. Day: duct tape and a staple gun for assembling our picket signs, a card table for staging/signing in, and folks who are willing to join us! Seeing that the community supports us is what keeps us going during this challenging time, so if you are a parent who is able to come to the schools (mine is B.F. Day), bring your kiddos and join us! If you’re just a citizen who appreciates an educated community and supports teachers, that is so important to us as well! The district will be watching to see if the community is with us, and that will help shape how ongoing negotiations proceed..
This will not be easy for us. Picketing is hard work, and we will be at it all day, every day, until the district provides us with a fair, strong contract that supports both students and staff. Until that happens, we hope you’ll stand with us. Thank you in advance! -Elizabeth, B.F. Day 2nd grade teacher
Other options in the ‘hood?
In Seattle and across the country Catholic schools are open. Here in Wallingford, St. Benedict K-8 is open and students are in class.
Our teachers are paid less than their public school counterparts, their benefits are worse, there is no pension system, and we (St. Bens) do not have a true gym. Yet the kids thrive, test scores are great, and tuition assistance is available to struggling families. Luckily, the one thing our amazing teachers and staff DO have is a faith based dedication to educate our children from the heart, and it shows.
Like with the loaves and fishes, Catholic Schools do more with less. I am not even Catholic, but know a good thing when I see it.
Thank You to our fine Catholic School educators at St. Benedict!
Yes, by all means bless the teachers at St. Benedict’s–they are wonderful, dedicated people who need those blessings since their pay is poor and their benefits equally lacking. There is tuition assistance for struggling families–but how about struggling teachers? I suspect that the St. Ben teachers wouldn’t say no if someone offered them a raise and better benefits. Which is highly unlikely.
Here in Wallingford, where you can’t rent a studio apartment for under $1500 a month, I do think we should support the people who teach our children in the public schools and make it possible to live closer than Federal Way. I support longer recess and lunch for children, less emphasis on teaching to standardized tests AND better pay for teachers. So I guess I support the strike.
Alix, I totally agree. My point is that for some, it’s not all about the $$, otherwise we’d have no teachers at St. Bens at all. And, our teachers ARE fantastic. That is why I love Catholic Schools.
As a taxpayer, I’m sad to see that the SEA sometimes equates more money, with higher quality performance in the classroom. As in the example of Catholic Schools, those two items don’t always equate.
Eric, I substituted in your school. Your class sizes are smaller than generally in SSD. Your kids spoke English fluently and there were no special needs at that time. You may benefit from visiting and working in some SSD schools whose daily conditions and childrens’ needs may help you understand some of the issues better.
One of the ways private schools have better scores despite similar or less resources is that they are #1 selective and #2 they can remove problem students. Their scores therefore reflect the student body. That is far more plausible than faith.
Private school teachers do not need to be certified by the state. Most teachers in SSD have a Bachelor degree plus Masters. That’s a lot of investment made by the teachers which they are not always compensated for fairly.
Teachmom, that is technically true, but all the teachers in legit Private schools ARE certified.
There IS a large difference between private schools, some who require certificates and masters, and others who don’t. Certainly nobody would recommend sending kids to schools whose teachers aren’t certified and have degrees in education.
Thank you Eric for coming out and acknowledging it. My first comment about it came from my deep knowledge of the issues because Ive worked for SSD over 15 years. Standardized testing ( more than government required) which is terribly hard on some children can not be split down the middle. Nor can tying test scores to teacher evaluations. I suggested a few solutions to our bargaining team as have many.
Right, impliedobserver. I recall going home and saying that not a single primary child even misbehaved a tiny bit while in many public school primary grades with 23-27 kids a few kids misbehave a little and some sometimes a lot. I know one of their( St. B.) teachers. 2 years ago I spoke about the standardized tests which we are required to give. She said simply,” we don’t give those”.
Impliedobserver you are correct in that there IS a zero tolerance for misbehaving at St. Benedict as there should be at all schools.
However, we are NOT selective in the students we enroll. There are no enrollment criteria for new students to meet, unlike at some other private schools. They don’t even have to be Catholic or Christian. If they can’t behave though, then it’s a different conversation.
Jeepers, our standardized testing begins at grade 3.
You might think you’re selling how great St. Ben’s is – but you’re not.
You probably want to revisit vocab class and learn what selective means. If you’re not a parish member it’s $2k more for a student and priority during enrollment is given to catholics.
St. Ben’s tuition per child costs pretty much what state spending per child is (~$7k/year)
So really you’re just paying your teachers less, pretending to be all-inclusive, indoctrinating children with the evils of catholicism, and not even getting the kid’s a gym.
Holy St. Cathy!
Let’s all overlook your intolerant and bigoted statement about Catholics (I’m not Catholic so I’m not personally offended but still……) and keep it civil and respectful on our neighborhood forum. Yes, Parish members are given first enrollment (only if the class is near capacity) and a tuition break, which makes sense as they are supporting the Parish, who supports the school. I guess you can could call that selective, yet I don’t think you are suggesting Catholic’s are better students, and thus are contributing to higher test scores. I’m just pointing out that St. Bens is a great place for all students (surprisingly diverse, check it out before throwing stones), and that they do more with less, and that they are in session 🙂
The per student cost in K-12 is actually $10,652/student for 2015. St. Ben’s looks to be a great value!
http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/WM/Documents/K-12%20Booklet_2015%202-10-15.pdf
And Peace be with you Cathy…………….
To clarify, St. Bens tuition is $7K/student, the cost to educate per student in Washington K-12 is $10,652/Student per their 2015 report linked above.
Our kids take mutliple standardized tests. I think you *could* split that. The teachers are requesting that we limit the standardized tests to those that are federally mandated, which would be a reduction, not an elimination.
The numbers they are negotiating are very far apart. District coming in at $62millions and SEA at $172millions. That’s a $110 million difference. Looking at district budget even if they eviscerate their HQ, it’s not going to send $110 millions into the classrooms. The district is already short in classroom space. This funding issue parallels McCleary. Local levies have helped our teachers and schools, but that unequal system led to McCleary. I think at this point, all the players need to look at income tax for everybody and get rid of the need for local levies, high sales and property taxes, and independent taxing bodies like the Parks one.
Both sides should open up their account books for transparency sake. The hyperbole on both sides are firing up tempers. Jeeper’s right. Right now our neighborhood schools are pretty good with very supportive PTAs which can buy a lot of add ons. Personally, I’m all for paying staff who work in tougher, poorer schools more to reduce the high staff turnover and make finding substitute teachers easier.
I am sure Jeff means well but I think we need to acknowledge that 10K tuition is not affordable for a lot of people. And some people are not comfortable with their child having religious instruction. Public schools are required to serve everyone. Private schools are not. Which means they don’t have to go to St Ben’s, which is fine. It’s not about the money for any teachers. I am glad Jeff is happy with the school his children attend and that that works well for his family. Whatever you might think about the strike and about the district (ahem), I think we can all agree that many teachers in Seattle Public Schools work their tails off. They would all much rather be in their classrooms than on the picket line.
Amen JW, well said.
$7K is a huge sacrifice for ours and for many families, which is why tuition assistance is fortunately available.
Also fortunate is that our local public schools are exceptionally high quality, giving parents a ton of great options, except for the (hopefully) temporary strike.
To clarify, St. Bens tuition is $7K/student, the cost to educate per student in Washington K-12 is $10,652/Student per their 2015 report linked above.
With all due respect, this discussion of Catholic schools is a real derail. But if you insist on it, Jeff, you should look at the studies that show that Catholic schools (and other private religious schools) actually underperform public schools when you control for parental income and other factors like parental education levels. A Google search will show it. Here’s an artcile about a recent book-length approach to the topic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/05/are-private-schools-better-than-public-schools-new-book-says-no/
You just are not comparing apples to apples, I’m afraid. If you’ve done any teacher at the college freshman level, you can often tell who came from a parochial school background through high school–and it isn’t their manners. They are a good year too half-year behind their cohort (on average).
I’m glad you are happy with St. Ben’s–maybe they are the exception to the data. If so, congrats to you and your kids.
But all of that is neither hear nor there. We have a Constittion, we are in violation. The teachers have had no raise for 6 years.
Everett just saw 5% annual increases put in place. Seattle teachers want 6%. And they have more issues than just the pay increase, so please do not diminish what they are fighting for.
Dave on 2nd, that was an interesting read, and would have been really interesting data if not for the fact that the study had to adjust school results for income and other parental factors. Who knows…..
Please note I’ve never suggested “our kids are smarter than yours…..” that was “impliedobserver” strangely suggesting that with their reference to test scores. Rather I’m pointing out that St. Bens does a heck of a job with fewer resources than our Public counterparts, our teachers are fantastic despite lower pay, and they never strike.
Here’s hoping for a quick resolution to the strike so all the neighborhood kids can get back to learning.
Jeff, This news story is not really about how Catholic schools are better than public education. In your need to educate us about your Catholic school, the benefits of of such as well as the soul sacrifice your dedicated Catholic teachers do with low pay, no retirement or pension.you are highjacking the thread from the topic of SSD, the strike and how the Wallingford community of families, teachers and children are being affected. By doing so you show an extraordinary insensitivity towards people embroiled in a painful situation. Your attitude could be considered as representative of St. Benedicts and could sour peoples’ impression of the school.
An article with the main topic being comparison between Catholic education and public education could be of value to a community.
I have a second grader or soon to be second grader at JSIS and I fully support the strike! We should all support these teachers because they are fighting for our kids!!
Evie
Yes please to a quick resolution to the strike. Jeff, the last SPS strike was 30 years ago, so I think it’s safe to assume that this is the first strike for a lot of SPS teachers as well. They could have said until last week that they never go on strike either. 🙂
Cocoloco:
Uh, nobody in this thread except “impliedobserver” is suggesting that Catholic/Private Schools are better in any way, especially me. The point is that Catholic Schools are doing a great job with fewer resources than their Public School brethren and that (luckily) they are open this week. I’m just a non-Catholic parent who happens to love what is going on at St. Bens. I have no specific allegiance to defend.
JW, Touche’! I think i just assume public schools strike often because each fall we hear about striking teachers all the time each fall. Thanks for that clarification about the last strike. Now wouldn’t it be ironic if Catholic School teachers were to go on strike in solidarity!?
Both sides are culpable for this strike. I support more money for education and more money for our teachers, but the kiddos are getting used as pawns. Has anyone considered how this strikes affects low income families or single moms who can’t afford care and rely on school as their primary source of care for their kiddos? There has to be better way then shutting down a system that serves 53,000 children.
Agree with WalliFam.
Such a stressor on the teachers, the kids who pay the price, and any family, but more especially lower income families.
Funding education by levies is just plain wrong. Education is suffering in our state at every level, K-higher ed. Shameful. It is an interesting state. You would think education would be the highest priority. That is what I think, but obviously not enough people want to pay to support education.
We need a reliable tax structure to fund education (state income tax.) But that was voted down. Sales tax is regressive. The timber money is all gone now. I don’t know if the district has extra money someplace, isn’t that easy to find out? My understanding is that the budget is public, could be wrong about that. Does someone know if they have extra funds someplace? Everything will cost. They will need to hire staff to cover the increased recess time, I’d imagine. So much I don’t know.
This whole deal is a tragedy for everyone. But not as tragic as Syrian people running for their lives.
Iowagirl here is the link to the funding sources/budget for K-12 for 2015.
http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/WM/Documents/K-12%20Booklet_2015%202-10-15.pdf
Yeah, many of us have. There are a lot of parents who are passionate about improving education for all students, but especially those who attend schools with high free lunch rates, or other challenges. Soup For Teachers, in addition to trying to support each local teacher group, is looking into ways to support childcare and free lunches for disadvantages kids.
Bottom line this strike is about PAY, and I don’t have a problem with that. What I find outrageously despicable is when I here that teachers are striking for the sake of the kids. HOGWASH! Thats the same reasoning pedifilals use. Yes, education has big issues that need to be delt with, but I guarantee that if the SSD gave the pay raise the teachers are asking for and nothing else the strike would be over in minutes.
And for the parents, schools are not free daycares. Kids have been out of school all summer without schools to babysit.
Steve
Steve, I completely agree with you!!! I don’t know why the teachers don’t admit they are striking for themselves. I am perfectly fine if they are doing this for more money. Because we all work for money. It bugs me most when they say they are doing this for kids. I don’t even understand why the amount of recess or longer school days has to be in teacher’s contract. These are separate issues and they shouldn’t be in the teacher’s contract in the first place.
Wow!! I recommend that you take a moment to educate yourself before making hateful comments!! Disgusting!!
Thanks Jeff on 48th for the link. What an eye opener.
I have a better idea of state, federal, and local dollars at work. I haven’t finished reading the entire document, but one thing already jumped out at me from talking to a hiking buddy about how large her son’s class size was and the portables the school’s using. The Court set a deadline of 2018 and is telling the legislature to bring down K-3 class size to 17 because that’s part of funding basic ed. Good news. But this isn’t about just hiring more teachers to do that. School districts like Seattle, Bellevue, and Issaquah whose enrollments are growing have no space for more classrooms. The cost of building new schools or expanding old ones isn’t part of “basic ed” funding.
Here’s the big read: the Court considers staffing ratio and staff salaries as their quantitative measure to decide if basic education is funded appropriately. The Court does not look at educational outcome. It doesn’t look at cost or timeline to build new schools.
The state budgeted for some capital projects For years 2014 and 2015, $440 mills for the WHOLE state. Seattle school district operating budget for this year was over $650 mills. The Seattle school capital budget was over $200 million for 2015. This mean school building relies mainly on local bonds and levies passing.
Kinda leaves me wondering how on earth does the court expects school districts to find enough money to build new schools that fast by 2018 to meet class size goal. I guess what I’m seeing is this issue is very complicated. It’s not that one side is evil and doesn’t want youngsters to play at recess and big, bad legislature ignoring children’s plight or red vs. blue politics or even private vs. public schools. There’s finite dollar amount right now and the legislature can find new revenue makers to increase the amount in the pot. But it’s still a finite amount. The fight will still be how to distribute it so basic ed will cover the services students need to meet OSPI learning requirement alongside salaries, benefits, materials, utilities, etc. necessary to keep the schools open. Local tax payers will have to cough money to pay for new buildings and anything else we want. Parents want quality education which isn’t part of the Court’s definition, but I think those justices HOPE by funding schools better, it’ll happen.
BTW, lottery money got used exclusively from 2001-2004 for education as voters wished. After that, it got murky, and some was sent for general fund use. The lottery money was initially used for school construction, but after redirection, some of it went to fund stadiums (Qwest and paying off Safeco) and for gambling addiction. Legislature tried to fix some of this by sending some lotto money back to educational account in 2011.
In the meantime, we have roads, bridges, more bike lanes, buses, trolleys, light rails, ferries, public safety, Port of Seattle, lawsuits, tent cities, UW, etc. to pay for too.
I think we can all expect a big tax bill.
Another already overburdened infrastructure – another opportunity for existing residents to pay for infrastructure needed for growth demanded by “urbanists” and developers.
If the recess thing is a complete mystery – why less recess in lower income areas? – seems like KUOW or someone looked at this a ways back: the principals in some of these schools have cut back on recess because of behavior problems they didn’t have the means to deal with otherwise. These problems don’t bubble up so much in a short recess, apparently. Don’t know if they tried more recesses, to make up for the reduced lengths. Anyway, apparently the teachers don’t care for this strategy.
Wealthier schools have PTAs that raise money for recess aids. This helps ensure that recesses can be offered in a safe environment. Part of the problem is that PTAs are required to cover so many of the fundamental services, that only wealthy schools can have those services. If the district and state were living up to their duties the schools wouldn’t be so stressed and would be able to address some of these issues.
The strike is definitely not just about pay. It is about standardized testing ( SSD requires more than WA or feds require) which are oft done using library and computer lab rooms. thus denying school use of either for tests which are hard on kids and not in some teachers’ eyes of any benefit. The strike is also about how teacher evaluations are tied to test scores. The strike is also about how SSD asked to extend the instructional day by 30 minutes with no plans in place to pay teachers or extend the pay or work hours of secretaries, paraprofessionals and other personnel who are necessary in a school day. The strike is about fair case loads for PTs, audiologists, sped teachers and more. The strike is about having equity committees and trainings. It is not just about pay. My guess is the pay is the easiest to negotiate. You can read SSD stating they have offered more pay.. but you do not see, read or hear any offers on the other topics from SSD.
To Donn- each school could set their own recess schedule. There is great need to get high test scores and kids from lower income families often enter school ‘behind’ others in terms of basic skills needed to begin and continue well in their grade level. Thus often come decisions to provide more time on task for learning mean cutting recess.
All of these issues are complex with competing inputs, needs, opinions and Catholic schools supporters entering the mix. Very gratifying to see our mayor join a picket line. Very heart-warming to know the supt didn’t get an injunction against the union yet. This is a difficult time for people on strike or who can not work due to the strike. No one can know everything about every issue. We want to be in school doing what we love to and are very good at doing- teaching with skill, heart and much planning.
Anyone who talks about hyperbole or compromise or sides coming together has bought into the lie that the radical anti-social conservatives in Olympia have sold you. You’re scrambling after diminishing scraps rather than demanding clear fundamental justice for your children.
This strike is fundamentally about the massive structural deficit in WA state and Seattle public education. And that debt is coming due. We can decide if we want to be third-world nation where parents scrape by enough money to send their kids to a religious school (but can’t afford shoes), or if we want to educate and secure our future.
What needs to happen here is for Nyland and the School Board to join the picket lines and call for a general strike until the damn f*cking legislature stops their criminal action and raises taxes on millionaires to fund basic education. Once Olympia funds education, then everyone goes back to work.
Washington and Seattle are turning into a sad swamp of a dysfunctional society. Alternately, we can demand excellence in our government and expect them to act like professionals rather than sand in the gears of our state and city.
hear hear!
and everyone who complains that teachers make more than [social workers, caregivers, non-profit employees, adjunct professors, temp workers, fill-in-the-blank]: those people need to join in the general strike as well, not oppose it.
“teachers don’t deserve a raise because i also need a raise” is an absurd, self-sabotaging position. it should be, “yes! teachers deserve a raise, and so do i!”
as for the tax, we need a high-income tax that is self-adjusting, linked to median income. So any household making more than, say, 400% of the median income pays income tax; anyone making more than, say, 800% pays a greater percentage, and so on.
runyararo- you’ll get no argument from me or from much of Seattle, but the state voted this down 2 to 1. See here:
http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Income_Tax,_Initiative_1098_(2010)
We need to figure out a local solution to our funding issues.
Paul C, when Olympia the past decade has been full of a democratic majority even they did nothing.
The real problem is that ALL of us will have to cough up more money to fund education, not just millionaires. We can’t ask someone else to pay (the magical someone else) if we ourselves (every single one of us) is not willing to sacrifice to make that happen.
Sadly it seems democrats and “anti-social conservatives” alike both do not want to step up to the plate when it’s their money being asked for.
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/09/22834553/blame-the-billionaires-not-the-teachers
This is so much more than just the money and it isn’t helpful that the first comment in the thread drags the conversation into an argument about Catholic vs Public school teachers. Teachers do not want to be on strike, many of us are parents too and we are also paying for someone else to take care of our kids while we are on the picket line. The state legislature needs to fund education properly so that SPD does not have to rely on levies to prop up the system. New Jersey schools were shut down some while ago because of this issue and the result was the introduction of income tax.
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/10/22835544/how-can-washington-properly-fund-its-schools-do-what-new-jersey-did
Donna,
Your article link referencing the Stranger is laughable, just as laughable as if you’d referenced an article by Fox News.
I think even most progressives can agree that The Stranger is incredibly biased and not to be taken seriously.
Thanks Donna, I liked the stranger article. They’re biased of course, but they have good content now and then.
Anyone who’s interested can find out more, you don’t have to take The Stranger’s word for it. One thing you might find is that NJ has been one of the four states that have a “fair” school funding system, and anywhere you look ranks above Washington in quality education. On the other hand, they have notoriously high property tax, and recently have a conservative governor who has recently been obliged by NJ supreme court to restore funding cuts. So it isn’t a simple picture.
We musn’t forget the very real, serious damage Tim Eyman has done to our state funding mechanisms. He has tied the hands of the legislature to implement revenue increases (even with Democrat majority). Anyone who has ever voted in favor of an Eyman initiative is equally culpable.
I was a contracted teacher a year long ago when we went on a one day strike in front of a baseball stadium which the state voters had voted twice against the state funding and building it.. but the state did fund and build it instead of fund education at the time.
Sports, athletics, stadiums, lotteries are all sources of money which can be tapped besides reaching directly in everyones’ pockets. Microsoft, Amazon major real estate development firms all have funds for high paid executives who may be able to figure out how to reach out to schools.
No school Monday either. Both sides bargained Saturday and even today. The WEA rep who came to the school where i picketed talked to us about how discouraging this week could get. On a bright note Pasco settle theirs so far- they vote on the contract offer tomorrow.