SEATTLE – All the state’s public schools started classes on time this fall, and most of the districts with open contracts reached agreements with their teachers unions.
More than 170 of the state’s 296 districts negotiated with teachers this fall, and all but a few have agreed on new contracts, according to the Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers union.
Seattle
In Seattle, both sides were reaching for superlatives to describe their high hopes for the five-year contract approved for the district’s 4,000 teachers and other education workers over Labor Day weekend. The deal makes them partners with the community in decisions about how best to use money, staff and equipment to help struggling students – to close the “achievement gap” between white students and others.
“It’s very exciting. It’s an opportunity that we need to grab onto and get people energized about,” said Seattle Education Association President Wendy Kimball. Asked if such an arrangement was new to the state, she said, “I think it might be new to the country.”
Kimball and district officials attributed the mutual respect and cooperation reflected by the pact to their need to work together after the district discovered a $35 million budget deficit two years ago – red ink many blamed on poor bookkeeping.
“It’s remarkable,” said district spokeswoman Patti Spencer, noting that while negotiations also produced raises for the teachers – 9 percent over four years and enough to rank the district fifth among 12 area districts in the fifth year – the focus for all parties was how to best help the district’s 45,000 students.
“This is like marching down the street together singing ‘Kumbayah,’” she said.
Not all districts have achieved that state of harmonious accord.
Vancouver
In Vancouver, where only certain portions of the contract were open to negotiation this fall, the teachers union has filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the district with the state Public Employee Relations Commission.
The issue is a side letter, negotiated annually since 1997, that allocates full-time media specialists and counselors and part-time nurses and intramural coordinators to middle schools.
The union is concerned that if the issue is not on the bargaining table, “we no longer have any say,” Roy Maier, executive director of the Vancouver Education Association, said Friday.
“We have chosen to let that letter expire,” said Lee Goeke, the district’s vice superintendent for human relations.
“What the letter does is obligate the district to allocate its resources for certified teachers to specific job categories,” Goeke said. “We feel the district has a right to allocate resources in the way that’s best for students.”
Other issues remain on the table, he said, but the district’s full contract does not expire until next year. Vancouver has about 20,000 students and 1,300 teachers.
Selah
Meanwhile, across the Cascades in Selah, talks have bogged down and the two sides are taking a break while awaiting appointment of a mediator from the employee-relations panel.
Neither side would discuss specifics.
“Both sides agree we better leave that to the mediator. Things are tense enough,” said union president John Sweezy. “We’ve agreed we probably need to cool our jets for a while. We’re a very small district and we know each other very well. Nobody’s wanting to make it personal.”
School started on schedule for the district’s 3,800 students and 215 teachers.
“We have a good, strong, professional staff here,” said Superintendent Larry Parsons. “Once the bell rings these folks are professionals and they do their job. … We’re not seeing this as a failure, just the next step in the process.”
Talks broke off two weeks ago. No date had been set for the start of mediation.
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