By Eric Stevick
For the Enterprise
Students in Everett and Northshore School Districts will return to class as scheduled on Sept. 4 after both teachers’ unions ratified contracts on Aug. 26 and 27.
Their decision affects more than 18,000 students in the Everett School District and about 19,500 students in the Northshore School District.
Everett
More than 800 Everett teachers voted in favor of the one-year contract. There were few, if any, votes against it.
Teacher salaries will increase by at least 6 percent, about 3 percent from state-mandated cost-of-living increases and 3 percent from the school district.
Out-of-pocket insurance costs will also be reduced.
“I like the contract a lot,” said Dick Davis, a Hawthorne Elementary School teacher. “I think it will provide teachers the ability to continue to do good things for kids and that’s the main point.”
The contract represents an investment of about $2.5 million from the school district, said Gay Campbell, a district spokeswoman.
“I think it went well,” said Carol Whitehead, the school district superintendent. “Each side took some issues off the table to get to a settlement.”
The teachers’ union will continue to push for more pay and reduced insurance costs next year, said Kim Mead, president of the 1,100-member Everett Education Association. Mead taught at Heatherwood Middle School before becoming EEA president.
Most of a teacher’s salary is paid by the state. Districts pay for days beyond the traditional school year, and that compensation was a major part of the local negotiations.
As a result, a first-year teacher can earn $31,925 and a teacher with a master’s degree and more than 24 years experience can make $66,509 a year. Teachers in the Everett School District were grandfathered in at a higher state salary base in the 1970s than most other districts.
Northshore
The voice vote was not unanimous, “but overwhelmingly in favor of ratification’’ for a two-year contract, said Maryjo Baker, Northshore Education Association spokeswoman. More than 1,000 of the union’s 1,200 members voted on the contract.
The contract included “significant improvements’” in district support for employee health insurance costs, workload reductions, cost-of-living adjustments for all members and improvements in elementary school planning time, Baker said.
In addition, student performance on statewide tests may not be used in teacher evaluations, she added.
The two sides bargained until 4 a.m. Tuesday Aug. 27 before announcing the settlement, just 12 hours before teachers were scheduled to vote on the contract or consider a strike. It took 29 bargaining sessions since March, including six with a mediator, before they could reach the settlement.
The district agreed to commit $3.03 million, including $682,000 to increase planning time for elementary school teachers, $745,000 for technology training and $353,000 for an extra day of work.
“We are tremendously relieved, as we believe the students, parents and teachers are, that this contract issue is resolved and school will start on time,” said Pamela Steele, a school district spokeswoman.
“I think the difficult conversations are far from over,” Steele said. “We as a state have to face the very real challenges facing education, issues that ultimately impact the health and economy of the entire state.”
Eric Stevick and Diana Hefley write for the Herald in Everett.
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