What's Happening with Seattle Schools and the Seattle Education Association Contract Negotiations?

I ask because Kent teachers have gone on strike and now North Thurston.  

FYI, the superintendent of Kent SD is Israel Vela who used to work in Seattle Schools as an Executive Director.  From the KING-5 story:

On Wednesday, the union passed a vote of no confidence in the Kent School Board and Superintendent Israel Vela. 
 
"We respect and value our staff and recognize the incredible work that they do," he (Vela) continued. "It is our goal to find a mutually agreeable solution that continues to reward our valuable teachers while managing taxpayer dollars wisely. By focusing on coming to a solution that is both fair and fiscally responsible in order to start school is in the best interest of students."

Seattle Schools' last update on their contract with SEA was on Wednesday, August 24th and they sound hopeful. 

SEA is have a public event today at 5 pm at their Facebook page; they call it SEA Educator Roundtable for our community.

Here are their asks for the new contract:

SEA's Bargaining Team has been driven by a full year of member input through blueprinting, listening sessions, and surveys, plus the voices of our community through listening sessions and surveys. Our proposals strengthen our school communities and:
    • Create the framework for successful inclusion of students in Special Education and Multilingual Education by ensuring adequate supports, 
    • Seek long-needed, sustainable solutions to growing workloads, class sizes, and caseloads, and
    • Focus on living wages for all classified and certificated SPS educators.
Now, just over a week out from contract expiration, it’s time to address our students' needs with the urgency they deserve. We need a contract we can be proud of and we need to get there by September 1.

I note that their September 1 date is a week before the school opening date of September 7th. 

Comments

Kate (Belltown) said…
I think you can read between the lines of the SEA statement to see that they probably aren't feeling very hopeful at this point.
8/26/22, 8:34 AM
Anonymous said…
Last week I'd have said there's a 50/50 chance of a strike, but this week based on the SEA statement I think it's now closer to a 60% chance or higher.

I have to say I want the union to push back on the special education plan that the district is foisting on everyone last minute, which seems to be a major theme in the negotiations at this point. Not because the inclusion model is bad, very much the contrary, but because as usual the district has done absolutely no planning in advance of what is a radical change. The reason they're doing it is not to benefit kids; it's to save a buck. So call me sceptical they have "student outcomes" at the forefront of their thinking on this.

If you have a student with, say, resource room services that will transition to the gen ed classroom, how on earth will your student's needs be met? I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm saying I want details, very concrete details involving instructional models, teacher training, universal curriculum design, role of classroom aids and the like. Additionally, I want to understand how the "individual" part of an Individual Educational Plan is enhanced in this new model. Details. We need many many details.

In 2010 the district tried something very similar, and it backfired spectacularly. Now in 2022, they're saying they want to do inclusion. How convenient they're doing it at a time and in a way that is meant to save a lot of money! If it were so awesome for students, why didn't this plan emerge last year? Why hasn't planning been public and transparent? I worry parents of students with IEP's are in for a major shock when the whole thing is day-lighted.

The union should also be careful what it agrees to, because they'll draw parents' intense, singular ire if it's not pulled off well, or if the abuses and neglect of students with IEP's continue or get worse.

So, yes. 60% chance of a strike at this point. Rising daily. That's what I think.

Mitt
8/26/22, 11:50 AM
Anonymous said…
This certainly feels like 2015, where SPS is pushing SEA to strike in the belief that the public will finally side with the district against the teachers. SEA isn't doing a good job communicating with the public but parents have figured out that SPS wants to keep teacher pay down and add to teacher workload by adding multilanguage and special education students into general ed classrooms without the support staff needed to make it work.

It's possible that SPS thinks that the public will be angry at another closure of schools in the wake of the pandemic. But SPS once again fails to understand that nobody trusts them and that Seattle always sides with its teachers, especially against a backdrop of popularly-supported labor activism at Starbucks, Amazon, and beyond.

If there is a strike and a delayed start to school, it could also be the final straw for Hampson and Rankin.

Red for Ed
8/26/22, 12:38 PM
Patrick said…
Yes, Red. If SPS thinks the public is going to sympathize with District HQ over the teachers in the event of a strike, they are very much mistaken.
9/1/22, 11:31 AM
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