Seattle Schools vs Seattle Education Association: It Doesn't Look Good

Parents, it doesn't look good. You might start preparing to have your student home for the first week of school. I'm sorry. 

Yesterday, SEA on Twitter:

Sounds hopeful. 

SEA today on Twitter:

Yesterday SPS canceled 5pm bargaining at 4:52pm. Today they say they're not available. It's time for SPS to match SEA members' dedication to our students and to starting school on time. Send an email to the SPS Board - spsdirectors @seattleschools.org


From the SEA website:

Upcoming Events


From SPS:

SEA Declines to Enter into Mediation

Seattle Education Association has turned down Seattle Public Schools’ request for legal mediation in an effort to reach a contract agreement before the start of school next Wednesday. The offer, extended earlier today, was met with immediate decline by SEA. 

SPS was prepared to begin bargaining in June, and we honored SEA’s request for a two-week blackout period from June 27-July 11. SPS shared our first proposal with SEA at the end of June with the majority of SPS proposals shared with SEA by August 9. We received SEA’s first proposal on August 2.  

While this news is disappointing, SPS believes mediation is necessary. We remain committed to the needs of our students and to a meaningful negotiations process. SPS gave SEA reasonable notice of our meeting schedule through the holiday weekend and into next week. Our bargaining team is ready to make substantive progress and has identified three days of availability – Sunday, Labor Day, and Tuesday. Mediation also remains on the table. 

Comments

Immigrant said…
I don't understand what the district and the board are doing. I reached out to a board member and she said she couldn't legally tell me what they are thinking regarding the contract negotiation, while the union keeps pumping out their messaging.

For the first time I have started researching private schools. It won't happen right away but my confidence in SPS is shot.
Anonymous said…
Immigrant

It is bad strategy to divulge confidential parameters and negotiations. Parties bargain in confidence for a reason - leaks can create rumors and influence union votes. It doesn’t help taxpayers to let unions know how much money is set aside. I can’t imagine any attorney advising breaking confidentiality, legal or not. I feel bad that a board member put herself out there with a statement about this to see parents jump on her about it. Notice all the boardmembers saying nothing.

Zip
Anonymous said…
I have similar sentiments. After keeping kids away from school for too long during covid this does not seem like the appropriate time to strike. I don't know or really care if the district or the teachers are being the most unreasonable, kids need to be in school learning! I wonder if the community will give as much support to teachers as the last time they went on strike.

Northend parent
My take is that the issues around Special Education have been going on for far too long. The Board and the district like to talk about inclusion in the classroom which is great. BUT, without the right supports, it is folly. And no student will really get what they need.

I note that the union is also supporting better pay for paraprofessionals and that is also good.

My thought would be that the teachers themselves take a pay raise off the table entirely. Yes, I know how expensive Seattle is to live in but frankly, the union should read the crowd.

Parents want their kids in school. Asking for money now if it is blocking progress on the contract is not good optics. Asking for money for supports for Sped kids? Yes. The union wants more cultural competency and I think the district is onboard for that. There are areas of agreement.

This time, though, don't let teacher pay stop progress to get school started on time.
Anonymous said…
In 2015, the SEA enjoyed widespread community support when it struck. In addition, the SEA started negotiations early and prepared its membership long in advance for the possibility of a strike. It also helped SEA's cause that the district was overconfident, generally clueless about how much antipathy the public harbored for the district, and inept in its public relations campaign. My favorite anecdote is that when the public gathered outside the JSCEE for a demonstration, the sprinklers suddenly came on and dispersed the crowd. Not good optics, to say the least.

This time around it has to be asked whether the SEA leadership has fully prepared its members and cultivated the support of the community.

DE
Anonymous said…
@Melissa,

Re: reading the crowd. Does the crowd know that the state approved 5.5% for our wages and that equates to a 3% pay cut in this town? Expecting teachers to continue to make martyrdom and suffering part of job description is why we are losing so many staff. Also, that SPS is sitting on over 150 million in cash they refuse to spend?

We aren't asking for money that isn't there and there is no way that educators should take a pay cut or sacrifice for a district swimming in cash and highly paid district administrators. We've seen the numbers and there is no reason that SPS can't meet all these issues and still have tens of millions of dollars in the bank. It is bad governance. Give back the money they aren't going to spend or spend it to make the district functional.

SEA is at the table. SPS walked away. They have the money and they want the strike. If they wanted to start school on time they'd be at the table...and would have been at the table in June. This drama is entirely of their making.

Theo M.
Anonymous said…
I am a teacher in Seattle and have been in the district since 2008. As a member of SEA I have been annoyed and frustrated at how little talk there has been about pay. In fact, in our meetings I am willing to say that discussion of pay has been underplayed and has had little emphasis in our Q&A. That being said, the increases being proffered by SEA -and this is the consensus of my colleagues- have been meager.

So, no, pay should not be taken off the table at all.

What is gumming up the negotiations is this simple fact. SPS seeks to assume near unilateral control over SPED staffing and instructional delivery models. All of my SPED colleagues have a different set of skills. And SPED students come with a demanding set of particular needs. For SPS to "dump" these students into one large homogenous group, indifferent to their needs and the teachers who know them best, No. That can't happen.

In the end, even IF pay were taken off the table, there would still be strike because the stakes and the issues around SPED support -and my colleagues who support those students- is resolute. SPS has failed, time-and-time again, SPED students. I think it's time to draw a really bright line in order to highlight that.
Anonymous said…
Another contract year, another mess of blame casting and misinformation on both sides. District not showing up? Union rejecting mediation? Again we're getting half truths and the start of another school year is at risk.

At this point, I trust neither. From a special ed perspective (which is a disaster), SPS says inclusion! but manages to make it very clear that it's certain that the kids (and teachers) would be virtually unsupported. Like the working towards eliminating HCC, once again, unfunded MTSS will save the day! On the other side you have SEA who says they support inclusion, but oh look, another task force to see what we should do. Also as in the past, pretty sure the special ed improvements (which, why is effectively following IDEA even a possible thing that gets negotiated) if they got the compensation they're requesting. In 2015 I was hopeful, but at this point, I'm just cynical and counting down the years until we're done with this.

North Seattle
Aitch El Shaken said…
I'm a bit confused about the teacher salary discussion and am wondering if I have the correct facts. Based on the fiscal.wa.gov K-12 School employees salary site, I was able to screen anyone for teachers (excluding substitutes but including part time) and came up with the following (for 2020/21SY):
-38% of teachers make $100K or more.
- Mean Salary is $89K
- Median Salary is $87.6K

I know there is much more to the negotiation then salary, but are these numbers accurate? If they are accurate, I tend to agree that whilst I'd love to see a median teacher salary of $100K, or even more, these wages seem within the realm of "reasonable". What am I missing from the perspective of SEA and the teachers on this board?

I'd also say it seems central administration seems particularly overbuilt...120 employees with Director/Supervisor classification that cost over $16 million), but at this point I'm more curious w/ respect to understanding the teacher salaries.
PTAPrezDad said…
People never seem to want to talk about how (seemingly reasonable) many teacher salaries are in Seattle or how badly mismanaged money is on the building and district level. The conversation always dies at that point because it's uncomfortable / not easy enough to put into catchy talking points, so they always try to gloss over that in my experience.

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors