The Marysville School District announced Friday that school has been canceled next week because of the teachers’ strike.
Mediation is set for Monday.
On Thursday, the Marysville strike will break the 37-day strike record set in the Fife School District in 1995.
Key stumbling blocks are wages, benefits and workloads.
Teacher salaries come from state and local money. The district has been pushing for teachers to be placed on a state salary schedule for the part of their salary that comes from state tax money. Teachers want to keep the system of local bargaining.
The average teacher salary in Marysville last year earned $54,169, according to state records. The salary range was between $33,278 and $66,544, according to union documents.
Marysville is one of 34 districts not on the state schedule because their teachers were paid at a higher rate when state lawmakers took responsibility for setting salary schedules years ago. The salary schedule for Marysville teachers pays 5.2 percent more than for their counterparts in most other districts. The district would continue to receive state teacher salary money at the higher rate but it would be distributed to teachers differently.
The district is proposing that the local portion of their teachers salaries be paid on a per diem basis for 10 days dedicated to training. However, the district said it would make up through local tax money any income loss individual teachers would face from converting to the state salary schedule through what it describes as a “responsibility stipend.”
Elaine Hanson, president of the 650-member Marysville Education Association, has said many teachers would end up having their salaries frozen for three years under the latest proposal and “that’s not acceptable.”
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