MARYSVILLE — The auditorium was nearly empty.
Over three hours, more than 480 Marysville teachers had come to cast their ballots on a new labor contract before fanning out beneath gray clouds to return to their families or correct papers.
About a dozen teachers remained Thursday night when the last votes were counted and the announcement was made that the contract had passed.
Elaine Hanson, president of the Marysville Education Association, read a prepared statement:
"This contract is a victory for Marysville teachers and the Marysville community — including the students we teach," she told the tiny gathering.
There was no deafening roar or sea of red-shirted partisans, as was the case Sept. 1 when teachers voted by a 98 percent margin to go on strike. Nor were there booming chants of "Can the supe!" or "Erase the board!" which followed their Oct. 20 vote to comply with a judge’s order to end the strike and return to work.
Hanson’s speech was for the record, a quiet end to an exhausting and costly fight.
In the end, the teachers reluctantly voted to accept a proposal that union leaders presented but declined to recommend. The contract, which contains a 1.5 percent pay raise next year and no increase this year, was largely about preserving what is already in place. Many teachers leaving the auditorium said it was time to move on.
The Marysville School Board is expected to approve the contract Monday night.
Last fall’s state-record 49-day strike touched thousands of lives, from teachers who memorized the cracks on the sidewalks they patrolled each day to parents who scrambled for day care to students who now must wait until late July to begin their abbreviated summer vacation.
Gone are embattled Superintendent Linda Whitehead, whose contract was bought out for $340,000 in March, and three school board members — Mark Johnson, Cary Peterson and Erik Olson — who remained fiercely loyal to her throughout the strike and its fallout.
Two holdovers from the previous board, Ron Young and Helen Mount, face a recall campaign — if it makes it through the courts.
District taxpayers paid more than $400,000 in strike-related costs, including attorney fees and security officers, but the district was hit harder by declining enrollment. That was attributed to the sluggish economy and strike-weary families enrolling their children elsewhere. The school board is now facing two rounds of budget cuts that will eliminate teaching, administration and classified worker jobs through attrition and layoffs.
"When there is a strike, there are no winners," Young said. "I think that the board was very aware of that going into the strike, and I think the union was very aware of that going into the strike."
Yet, even while the community boiled with each passing week, there was little movement.
Young insists the previous board took a sound financial and philosophical position in negotiations, which he said would have provided more training for teachers to improve student learning by requiring more days for the supplemental pay they receive from local levy dollars.
The board also wanted to invest more in programs to help students meet tough state academic standards instead of pouring it into salaries, he said.
Teachers called the board’s fall proposals regressive and ill-conceived. Many could show on paper that the initial proposal that fueled the strike vote would have cut their pay, while requiring more days of work. They also would not budge on the district’s attempt to get them to convert to a state salary schedule rather than a locally bargained one.
"I truly believe that with the previous board, we really held to our principles and we were a unified board, and I think that is one of the things that really caught the union off guard," Young said.
Terry Bergeson, the state superintendent of public instruction, said she could see the strike coming in August based on the district’s contract proposal. While Marysville teachers had a history of success at the bargaining table and the administration was concerned about tying up more money in salaries that could be used for other needs, Bergeson believes the district tried to get back too much too fast in negotiations.
"I knew it was going to be a war," she said.
Bergeson, who visited the district while working with the administration and the teachers union in delaying Marysville’s implementation of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exams this spring, also believes the district is poised to recover.
"People are dying to work together," she said. "I see a real desire to come together and serve the kids and get back to work as a team."
Rick Scriven, a science teacher at Cedarcrest School, said he learned a lot while walking the sidewalks last fall.
"Strikes are not about money," he said nearly five months after the strike ended. "They are about respect."
Teachers became closer to one another, he said. They also resolved to change the system by working long hours with like-minded Marysville voters to help the school board challengers get elected.
"I am delighted that we have the school board that we have," Scriven said. "I am delighted that Linda Whitehead is gone. If there is only one regret, it is we walked for 50 days and ended up fairly status quo financially, but on all other counts, I am thankful."
Barbara Meyers, a mother with three children in Marysville schools, said the two sides must find a way to work together and avoid a repeat of last fall. Otherwise, more families, including her own, will enroll their children elsewhere and the entire district will lose out.
"I am very happy that a contract has been signed so we parents don’t have to go through it again" next fall, she said. "There was no way I was going to go through this again.
"Our kids are the ones that lose out," she said, pointing to a six-week summer vacation, lost teaching jobs and expected program cuts.
Vicki Gates, the school board president, didn’t see the contract as a victory or loss for any one group, but as a step toward mending the district. Teachers understand the district’s financial predicament, she said.
"So long as people know where you stand, there is trust," she said. "We are all reasonable human beings."
John Fotheringham, a district consultant, believes the new two-year contract will help in the district in its search for a new superintendent.
"It makes it a better job to have a two-year contract with the MEA in place," he said. "That’s one thing that the new superintendent won’t have to worry about. It’s very important to get the right leader for that district to get the healing process going."
Young, the school board member, said the strike and the change in school board leadership has helped the district in at least one way: public scrutiny.
"People have been attending the board meetings," he said. "They have been paying attention. … It holds the board members more accountable for everything they are doing."
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.
