Seattle Schools Community Forum

  To any parents interested, a reporter from KIRO7 News is looking to talk with some parents:: "My name is Brandon with KIRO7 News. Given that educators say support for special education is the top of their priority list in this contract negotiation, we'd like to hear from families of those students on what their experience is and what they are hoping for from this contract. We can meet you over zoom or in person before 3p today. Feel free to call or text my cell at 206-718-9687"

  And it's a doozy. I'm off to a protest this morning but I'll do some analysis later.  Whenever Seattle’s teachers threaten to strike, they always claim their advocacy is for the kids. But it’s hard to take that seriously. Because, in fact, they don’t need to strike at all. As Superintendent Ben Shuldiner said in a  blistering email to parents  on Sunday night — three days before the start of the new school year — the Seattle Education Association, which represents about 6,000 of the district’s educators, could work under their current contract even after it expires Monday night, while continuing to negotiate with Seattle Public Schools. Teachers would continue to be paid, and they’d get their raises retroactively, as soon as a new agreement is signed. “We are not the NFL owners who lock out our players trying to exact concessions or givebacks,” the superintendent wrote. “There is absolutely no reason to strike other than to flex power.” In the maelstrom of innuendo...

  I'm going to post what the West Seattle Blog is reporting. ( The district was recording it and as soon as I see it posted, I'll put it up as well.) Shuldiner says he’s glad that educators are in schools today, getting ready for the start of school, which he says “is the only thing I care about.” He says the talks are difficult because “We’re broke.” He says he’d love to “give money …to everyone,” if he had one. He says both sides are meeting right now, with the mediator present.   If a strike is called, though, “we are prepared,” and there will be meals available for kids, nonprofits that operate in schools will be able to operate, and they might have some “programming” for kids. But he say his “hope” is that school will still start on Wednesday.   On specific issues, he starts with special education, and says that it’s become a “place, not a service,” and he says that has to change. He said it’s “OK” that “folks didn’t like” the district’s first version of special edu...

Just to note the obvious - the contract needs to be approved before the first day of school on Wednesday, September 2nd. The district says the teachers and other staff can work under their old contract without a strike.  The West Seattle Blog reports that as of this hour (3 pm), they are waiting at SPS headquarters for a briefing from the Superintendent. WSB will be blogging live so I'll try to keep up there. They do report that negotiations ARE continuing.  Parents don't seem to get that changing Special Education to return most of those students to their home schools means putting them in General Ed classes. My recollection is that while SPS has high-minded reasons to do so, they are not putting any money towards teacher support. I never have had confidence in the plan and without clear information, it's hard to know what will happen.  Here is one Reddit parent's explanation of current and offered services for Special Education. I liked another parent's comment to...

  I did a search and the AI answer covered a lot of ground so that's what I'm putting up here. I will say that I suspect that SPS as well as SEA both do NOT want to do this. But it can be done and HAS been done in Washington State.  Yes, there are many examples of school districts across the United States that engage in open negotiations (also known as "transparent bargaining," "public bargaining," or "sunshine bargaining").  While traditional teacher contract talks happen behind closed doors, open negotiations allow community members, parents, and journalists to physically attend or digitally stream the sessions.  Specific real-world examples include: 1. Pullman School District (Washington) In 2017, the Pullman School District became one of the first in Washington state to pass a resolution requiring collective bargaining to take place in public.  How it works: All bargaining sessions with the teachers' union are hosted in the high school co...

Update 1: Superintendent Ben Shuldiner's latest message. I'll just say I think people are reading with positions already formed. Highlights (bold mine): -  When we received this, we asked for clarification around all of these new to their Monday comprehensive proposal. They admitted that it was new to the comprehensive proposal and that in fact they knew it cost millions of dollars more. At that time, we said thank you very much, we understand and respect the union's position, but we believe that this is the definition of "regressive bargaining" and we informed the union we would call PERC, the Public Employment Relations Commission, to bring in a mediator. I left the room immediately to call PERC to try to get a mediator as soon as possible. Because we believed the union’s offer was regressive, we couldn’t continue to negotiate around their new document. Because if we did, that would be accepting this new document as the starting point of negotiations. Please kn...