TULALIP — With the Marysville teachers strike just days from becoming the longest in state history, parents met on Sunday to map a strategy they said could get kids back to classes.
Meanwhile, a second parents group, Tired Of The Strike, announced Sunday that it has hired Everett attorney Brian Phillips to handle potential legal action it might take against the school district and the Marysville Education Association.
Elizabeth Henry, who leads the group, said Sunday night that any decision on the timing of filing court papers is up to Phillips.
The first group, led by Steve Soule, described itself has having no name and taking no sides in the conflict.
"We’re just concerned parents who want the students to get back to school and we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to do it," he said. About 125 people turned out for the meeting, held at the Tulalip Boys &Girls Club.
"There’s a basic breakdown in communications on both sides," Soule added.
The group said the strike could end if: teachers go back to classes for a maximum of 60 days while talks continue; both sides meet in Olympia with a mediator, as Lake Stevens teachers did last month; and talks continue nonstop until an agreement is reached.
They also asked that a gag order be lifted on negotiations so parents could get a better idea of what was being discussed in the talks.
Steve Swanson, a retired laborer, said that the only way to end the strike was through binding arbitration.
"They should be locked down like a jury," suggested his wife, Judith Swanson. "This is baloney."
Soule sometimes struggled to keep the meeting focused on solutions, rather than complaints and worries from parents about their children being out of school.
He tried to recap the positions of each side in the strike, but summed up by saying: "Neither side thinks they have anything to work with."
Parents sometimes shook their heads in disagreement or squirmed in their chairs in obvious frustration as he outlined the positions of one side or the other in the strike.
Russ Pitner questioned why the sides waited five days between negotiating sessions.
At the end of the meeting, Edi Dirkes said she thought the ideas outlined by the parents group were good. "It’s great to have ideas," she said. "But how are you going to get it done?"
Elaine Hanson, president of the 650-member Marysville Education Association, said that going back to school for 60 days without a contract "is essentially accepting the district’s proposal."
Asked about the parents’ suggestion of moving the talks to Olympia, she said that the talks already have moved once, from Marysville to Everett.
"I don’t think the place has anything to do with it," she said. The solution to the strike has "got to happen at the (negotiating) table."
School district spokeswoman Judy Parker said that the date, time and place of negotiating sessions are set by the state mediator.
"It’s always been an option," she said of the parent group suggestion that teachers return to the classroom while talks continue.
Parker said she was unsure if binding arbitration could be used in the strike, but if it could, the arbitrator "doesn’t have to take into consideration your financial position.
"For our board, that would be a problem," she added.
In other developments, Henry, of Tired Of The Strike, said she wants to dispel rumors that the group is receiving contributions from the Tulalip Tribes or the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think-tank that has been involved in legal cases against the Washington Education Association.
"We have accepted nothing from political action groups," she said.
The group continues to raise contributions from individuals concerned about the strike and any extra money after legal fees will be given to a youth-oriented cause, she said.
Any court action Tired Of The Strike might take would be separate from the district, which has also raised the possibility of asking a judge to order striking teachers back to work.
What’s new: Both sides will meet today at 1 p.m. at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel in Everett.
The Marysville School District addresses past problems with record keeping. Page B1
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