By Leslie Moriarty
Herald Writer
SNOHOMISH — After more than four months of negotiations, and with the threat of a teachers’ strike looming in the Snohomish School District, the district and its teachers Wednesday came to a tentative contract agreement.
Details of the agreement will not be made public until teachers vote on the pact on Monday, the same day some thought they would be voting on whether to strike.
A hastily called negotiating session Wednesday afternoon proved to be fruitful, and both sides emerged confident they had reached something that would please teachers and the district’s board members.
"I can’t give any details," superintendent Neal Powell said. "But something changed where we were able to reach an agreement.
"I am definitely pleased that we have reached a tentative agreement," he said. "We value teachers, and we want them to have the best contract the district’s resources will allow."
The 480 or so teachers represented by the association must ratify the contract before board members can approve it.
Powell said he planned to brief board members on what is included in the tentative agreement during an executive session following the regular board meeting Wednesday night.
Before the agreement, Monica Weber, Snohomish Education Association president, said there were four issues keeping the district and teachers from agreeing to a contract.
Teacher compensation has been the top issue. Teachers are seeking a two- or three-year contract.
"We want to be able to have the best compensation possible in the district so that we can attract and retain the best teachers we can get in Snohomish, to better serve our students," she said.
While Weber couldn’t offer specifics, she said the district and the teachers had been far apart on pay issues. Starting pay for a teacher in the district is $27,467.
They had also disagreed on class size, which Weber said needs to be reduced along with workload to better serve students.
She pointed to state initiatives 732 and 728, which voters passed last year. I-732 backed pay increases for teachers, while I-728 set aside state money to reduce class sizes.
Snohomish, she said, has not developed a plan aimed at cutting class sizes and giving specific target numbers for smaller classes depending on the grade level.
"We asked for some specifics like that," she said before Wednesday’s tentative deal. "Instead, we got a couple of four sentences. It appears that class size is not a priority to the administration in this district the way it is to voters, teachers and parents."
Powell, however, said money secured from I-728 has been spent on lowering class sizes and on staff development.
That had been another sticky point, including reimbursing teachers for taking the required credit hours to keep their certifications.
Insurance benefits also were an issue, Weber said, with the association aiming to decrease out-of-pocket costs to teachers.
For the past three weeks, teachers have accelerated their protests over the lack of a contract. In the first week they wore buttons reading "Working without a contract." Two weeks ago, they did not partake in any activities such as open houses and staff meetings that weren’t related to actual instruction.
This week, teachers have been working only their 7 1/2-hour days and not attending after-school teaching-related activities and not grading papers in the evenings, Weber said.
Sports coaches have separate contracts to address their compensation for coaching and have maintained those hours, she said.
You can call Herald Writer Leslie Moriarty at 425-339-3436
or send e-mail to moriarty@heraldnet.com.
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