Strike Update Pages
Second update: from SEA:
After productive talks w/mediators today, both sides have agreed to resume negotiations Saturday.
Update: SPS had a press conference. According to West Seattle Blog Tweets,
- hoping for school on Monday
- Spokesperson Stacy Howard says they don't know if the union has been speaking with mediators, thought.
- Howard said strike is costing district $100K/day, incl what they calculate as extra days of pay later for nonstriking staffers
SEA updates page
SPS updates page
A great Excel chart (admittedly complicated but the issue is) about teacher pay by reader John Wright. (I will say that other threads have tried to suss this out and it's really confusing and detailed. But, since it is taxpayer dollars, makes you wonder why neither side tries harder to be crystal clear about it.)
From the savvy Meg Diaz on salaries at JSCEE and teacher salaries:
Soup for Teachers map. Absolutely amazing. Seattle Public School parents and community TRULY love and support their teachers and schools.
After productive talks w/mediators today, both sides have agreed to resume negotiations Saturday.
Update: SPS had a press conference. According to West Seattle Blog Tweets,
- hoping for school on Monday
- Spokesperson Stacy Howard says they don't know if the union has been speaking with mediators, thought.
- Howard said strike is costing district $100K/day, incl what they calculate as extra days of pay later for nonstriking staffers
SEA updates page
SPS updates page
A great Excel chart (admittedly complicated but the issue is) about teacher pay by reader John Wright. (I will say that other threads have tried to suss this out and it's really confusing and detailed. But, since it is taxpayer dollars, makes you wonder why neither side tries harder to be crystal clear about it.)
From the savvy Meg Diaz on salaries at JSCEE and teacher salaries:
Turns out that between 2012-13 and 2014-15, total compensation for the top 100 compensated employees in SPS increased by about $1.4M (~12%). It'd be fair to assume that some individuals would earn raises (although Ron English's pay jumped by over $50K?!?!?!), the top 100 positions in a large district would have fairly stable pay. Not so much.
Since I was on a data boondoggle, I had a look at the top 100 teacher's salaries, thinking... maybe EVERYBODY increased.
NOPE. The pay for the top 100 compensated teachers contracted slightly, by about 1.3%.
Since I was on a data boondoggle, I had a look at the top 100 teacher's salaries, thinking... maybe EVERYBODY increased.
NOPE. The pay for the top 100 compensated teachers contracted slightly, by about 1.3%.
Soup for Teachers map. Absolutely amazing. Seattle Public School parents and community TRULY love and support their teachers and schools.
Comments
In other districts, the bargaining team and superintendent dig in and wait for the weather to change and for the public to turn against the teachers. At that point, after twenty or thirty or more days, the union finds itself largely abandoned by the parents. No more coffee and muffins in the morning. No more sandwiches and juice at lunch. People drive by and yell things like, “Go back to work!” Finally, union solidarity fractures, and the union’s bargaining team attempts to salvage what they can get.
That is a risky strategy for a school district in Seattle. This is not Issaquah. The parents, on the whole, may not abandon us. They may get more organized and figure out how to apply pressure in unanticipated ways. Union solidarity may hold much longer than the district guessed. The strike may get personalized. Dr. Nyland, for example, may become the focus of public anger. He may begin to think about whether he wants to leave his last job with dignity or in disgrace. The people who work for him may begin to think about what will happen when a new Board takes office—a Board which sees its number one job as restoring some semblance of cooperation between central administration and teachers in the buildings. Some of those central administrators may begin to wonder whether they’ll have a job much longer, especially after the new Board comes in with their new mission to restore civility and cordiality.
Now, of course, I’m just speculating. Any number of scenarios could play out. I’m simply suggesting that this may not turn out the way district strategizers think it will. What they are doing now is risky. They could easily compromise by moving toward the SEA’s very reasonable last offer. They could save face by doing so, we could go back to educating young people, and parents could breathe a sigh of relief.
Yet, unless something changes next week, I don’t think that will happen. The district will keep to its strategy, and I, for one, will not waiver in my determination. And you know why? It’s because I don’t like the taste of subservience. I want my good work to be held up with dignity, not held in contempt. And for that, I will persevere.
David Edelman
I think there are some cranky parents (justified) and there may be more the longer this goes on.
But the district pays their senior management (indeed the top 100) very well AND has a huge reserve of money. And more McCleary money will be coming.
The way to attract and keep good workers is to pay them and respect them.
reader47
-say it ain't so
-Godot
I don't think that is the problem at SPS. If anything the board has been too meek, to willing to go along with administrators. Just take a look at the lawsuits and settlements costing SPS $ millions. Maybe with proper oversight by a board there would be more $$$$ in the class rooms and less $$$$$ spent at the JSCEE.
--Sell JSCEE
Right on! I think if I hear another board candidate say, "I not a micro manager" I'm going to puke! We need people who will manage even micro manage when the time comes.
It seems the time has come!
BALLARD BEAVERS
The SEA proposal is much lower.
This impacts all students in the classroom, not just special ed students.
-sped parent
SIT DOWN AND TALK!!
reader47
pissed off
-Parent
Don't complain about spending a $100K a day then, administration. It's your choice to piXX it away.
Who has the most to lose?
Nyland (who makes $1,000 a day and is fresh out of retirement and not on a career ladder up but looking to go back into retirement in a year with a tidy sum from the district) vs. Teachers (who will see the end of the month approaching rapidly and realize there will be no pay-check w/o work. And quite a few of us teachers have babies at home, stay at home wives/husbands, mouths to feed and rent to pay.
Hmmm....Who do you think will cave first?
And Nyland really seems to believe (I believe this) that there is no money in the budget.
Sped Reader
In the other corner, we have the school district. They have managed to mess up the enrollment paperwork for three out of four kids. They don't return calls. They have closed and we now reopening one kid's original school because the district can't manage its way out of a paper bag. The district sold my neighborhood high school and we ended up with a Supreme Court case based on the ripples from that. Another one of my kids is in a program for which a new school is being built, and that new, unbuilt school is already too small to hold the program.
Seriously? Why would I trust the district? Why would I think the district could plan?
SEA Supporter
I haven't emailed every one of my child's teachers, but I've emailed a fair sample, and when I do I always get answers and often get answers in the evening or early morning. When I've emailed the Administration, whether I have general questions or specific questions about my child, no response at all.
David Edelman
I don't think the school district admin really appreciates the animosity that they have created against them in the community over the last few years. They have spent years soiling their bed (to put it politely), and they don't have the goodwill needed to get the public on their side. People appreciate their teachers and believe the district admin is around in to screw things up and waste money.
I agree with other parents about how the district staff treats families. They are so patronizing that it's infuriating. I can't see myself going to another district meeting where they congratulate themselves on the great work they are doing and tell all the parents their ideas can't be done and are terrible.
I don't believe that the district admin is treating the teachers any better than they treat the parents. They need to get over themselves and completely change their behaviors. I hope that this strike will start that process.
-sick
My most recent Tweet.
If you don't like the district's work, wait till you see what Meg Diaz has figured out about salaries.
In Seattle Schls, btwn 2012-13 and 2014-15, total compensation for the top 100 compensated employees in SPS increased by about $1.4M (~12%).
The pay for the top 100 compensated Seattle Schools teachers contracted slightly, by about 1.3%.
For Seattle Schls, that's a 12% bump for senior staff (most at $100K) versus slight teacher downturn about 1.3%. Any questions? @SeattleEA
David Edelman
"Yet, unless something changes next week, I don’t think that will happen. The district will keep to its strategy, and I, for one, will not waiver in my determination. And you know why? It’s because I don’t like the taste of subservience. I want my good work to be held up with dignity, not held in contempt. And for that, I will persevere.
In my many many years in teaching I have observed a widening divide between teachers and administration. This divide is amplified by in some cases administrative arrogance.
In 2006-2007 my only year in the SPS, I began testifying at school board meetings after an invitation from Director Sally Soriano. She wanted the Board to hear from a teacher at a school what was really going on, which was greatly different than the lines she was being fed by senior staff as a Director.
I learned that many on the Board had little interest in facts, they preferred the baloney they were being fed.
School Board Action Reports were full of misinformation and incorrect data. I remember some directors visiting New Tech Sacramento and finding out it was not a STEM school after they arrived. The SBAR data on New Tech schools was straight out of an advertising brochure. Claimed graduation rate 98% actual numbers revealed 39% one year and 44% the next.
Goodloe Johnson presented a strategic plan, with impossible to meet fairy tale numbers masquerading as achievable goals. Carla Santoro (and the Board)adopted Everyday Math and mandated Fidelity of Implementation with much longer math class times. Santorno said the math achievement gaps would be eliminated in five years. [The gaps remained the same or larger].
The top-down mandates ignore relevant research and ignore even common sense. Teachers are hardly treated as professionals, their views are not wanted.
Professional learning communities are NOT. In many places they are only top down indoctrination sessions.
Teachers are inundated with nonsense work that has little to do with the improving the delivery of instruction to students. Instead the reading and discussing of the latest book selections handed down from admin consumes valuable time.
I am still trying to figure out how the investment of time into transitioning to "Standards Based Grading" produces any return on investment. Standards Based Grading appears to be the latest way to conceal "dumbing-down".
===
To find out that the Top Hundred admin received a 12% pay raise over two years causes me to wonder "how many of those folks would have left if there had been "no raises"?
I just find it hard to visualize other employers offering any of these hundred folks anything near what they make in the SPS. --- especially when considering any accomplishments if found.
"I want my good work to be held up with dignity, not held in contempt."
Don't we all.
Stop Seattle Public Subservience.
-- Dan Dempsey
Sorry district, you wanted the parents to be enemies & now you have it.
-HS Parent
No more long Work Sessions where staff does more talking than Board members do asking questions.
No more "rush, rush, gotta get it done" BAR items on the Board agenda.
No more believing every word of a BAR is gospel.
I know and like and yes, even respect many people at JSCEE. I do believe in their hearts (with a few exceptions) that they are there to better Seattle public education. But most of fail to realize the REAL work is in schools. The REAL change comes in schools. And every layer of bureaucracy fails that mission.
NH
I agree! We always hear about "accountability" for teachers.
We have a central administration that is out of touch and out of control--and some of them even got huge raises and promotions this summer.
More layers of administration also get created (I am old enough to remember when John Stanford cut central administration in half; if qualified, they had to either return to being principals or back to teaching ). Well, here we go again: we now have a new position, Chief of Schools, that exists to supervise the regional education directors to make sure that the principals are doing their jobs!
Unfortunately the culture at JSCEE encourages a particular attitude and behaviors.
I know there are wonderful people there who work hard, want to make the District better and do not think they are above the public and the law.
Why can't the School Board do their job(s): supervise/evaluate the Superintendent, providing oversight instead of rubber stamping everything certain highly paid administrators at JSCEE tell them? Why doesn't the School Board get their questions answered and insist on transparency at JSCEE?
Another recent example: When MCHS - High Point was illegally closed in June, only three board members (Patu, Peters, and to a degree, Peaslee) were interested in having the Superintendent obey Washington State law. Instead, Nyland and certain administrators were allowed to dance around language over whether it was a program or a school or whatever so as to avoid having to follow ANY policy or state law where they were required to engage with parents and community.
@HS Parent reminds us of some other major recent incidents.
I know it can be a thankless job. The point is this: Many on the current Board do not feel comfortable with being asked to do the job they were elected to do. That's a problem.
--Baile Funk
Agreed a thousand percent. But after he managed to keep OSPI from taking over special ed. I can promise you that Nyland and the board LOVE him and he's trading big time on that unquestioning love. He's recommending rolling back special ed. staffing ratios and still refuses to provide caseload caps to speech therapists and OT/PTs that are anywhere near those documented in surrounding school districts.
My guess is that Jessee will be selected as the Seattle's next superintendent. That's what he has his sights set on and he usually gets what he wants in Seattle.
Comparing 2014/2015 and 2013/2014 years:
14/15 - total employees = 6018
13/14 - total employees = 5916
Increase = 102 employees
14/15 total salary = $302,911,645.00
13/14 total salary = $287,302,971.00
Increase = 15,608,674 - which is about 150,000 per new employee (though I'm sure some of that increase was in various raises)
reader47
M
M
Thank you...
Parent @4:15pm
Robert Cruickshank @4:16pm
SEA Supporter @4:36pm
sick @4:58pm
Dan Dempsey @5:25pm
HS Parent @5:28pm
Baile Funk @6:01pm
Welcome to Seattle, Larry.
Exactly, welcome to Seattle. We were pissed off at the poor decision-making, the turmoil, the theft, the disrespect, the superior attitide, the platitudes, the lying and cluelessness before you arrived. Now you're here with your shrug, your bullying of teachers, your secrect contract signings, your focus on training board members not to direct your efforts or question your data and your community engagement meetings where parents are allowed to ask questions but no response is given.
We are having a march on Tuesday? We are ready for that.
Teacher AND parent
Thank you!
I have to say, it came as kind of a shock.
So, BS on this featured awesome editorial in yesterday's fact-challenged Seattle Times, written and posted on 9/11 while teachers were doing community service rather than picketing.
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/zero-raises-rhetoric-in-teacher-strike-is-misleading/
-Froginpot
reader
Secretaries will be greatly impacted by students being in school an additional half hour.
The office calms down once the students have left for the day, and that time is used to work on the many projects we have that are time sensitive.
Has anyone thought about compensating secretaries not just teachers for this additional burden?????