MARYSVILLE — Strike-weary students say they will descend on the grounds of Marysville School District headquarters Tuesday for a sit-in designed to pressure adults into quickly ironing out a teachers contract that would open schools.
Dustin Dekle, Marysville-Pilchuck High School senior class president, was organizing the event Friday, even down to lining up food donations and Porta-Potties.
Dekle, one of more than 11,000 Marysville students affected by the strike, distributed fliers at a home football game Friday night, but believes the message will mainly be spread by word of mouth.
The sit-in will coincide with Tuesday’s mediation session between teachers and the school district. Fourteen school days into the strike, the two sides remain millions of dollars apart on their contract proposals. Salaries, benefits and workloads top the list of unresolved issues.
The district announced Friday that classes will be canceled all of next week.
Students are frustrated with the strike and the effect it could have on their school year and summer plans, Dekle said. He said he envisions the headline: "Students arrested for wanting to go to school."
Dekle informed teachers and superintendent Linda Whitehead of the plan. He said it was well received.
The district has no problem if the demonstration is peaceful and remains outside the building, said Judy Parker, a school district spokeswoman.
The district on Friday said it will ask state mediator Vince Helm to call both sides together every day next week, Parker said.
Meeting with the mediator is fine, but the district will need to bring a better offer for progress to be made, said Elaine Hanson, president of the 650-teacher district.
"It doesn’t matter how often or how long we meet if they don’t bring a proposal that works," Hanson said.
The school district’s latest offer guarantees that no teacher would take a pay cut, and some could earn more based on additional college credits and experience. The union said many teachers could see their salaries frozen for three years under the proposal.
The average salary for a teacher in Marysville last year was $54,169, according to state records. The salary range was between $33,278 and $66,544, according to documents.
Dekle, the senior class president, hopes a show of students from elementary through high school will get both sides to compromise quickly.
"We’re not leaving until something happens," he said. "People I have talked to are willing to camp."
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
