Updates on the Seattle Schools Teacher Strike

Update 6:25 pm

Gotta say, for a district that says it is transitioning to "Student Outcome Focused Governance," it sure seems weird they can't settle a strike over supports for students. Just sayin'

Update 5:16 pm

NO school tomorrow, September 12th.

I just want to note that SEA on Twitter asked that a different screenshot be used and I went back and changed it. The Seattle Times has not.

Update 5:04 pm.

I had received some screenshots from a document that I was told came from the district's negotiations with SEA but I could not be sure. The Seattle Times now has them embedded in today's story on the strike.

You can see that that several items like social workers and counselors are crossed out in several places, both in elementary and secondary schools. 


I have to wonder if the district thinks they will get SEA to cave on this if the teachers get a big raise and the district gives some help with ratios in Special Education and ELL programs. 

A 1:250 ratio of social worker to students is recommended by the National Association of Social Workers. It would make caseloads more manageable for school social workers in Seattle, who are typically understaffed. 

The 700 students at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School have one social worker, Carrie Syvertsen, to go to, she said last week.

The Times also reports that families will be emailed info this afternoon on whether there is school tomorrow. I haven't heard from parents but I suspect the answer is no.

End of update

Today has a two-fold importance.

One, it's the 21st anniversary of 9/11. We can never forget what happened to our country on that day and how it has changed our lives. We need to honor all those who died that day or were injured, including the first-responders. (Shout-out to Jon Stewart for his tireless work to agitate for support for those first-responders.) 

Two, locally, if the SEA and SPS cannot reach agreement by, say, 8 pm tonight, then the district will be looking going into a second week that schools are not open. I think that will be of great sadness and upset to parents and students. 

SPS Updates

A video update from Superintendent Brent Jones says that the district "is ready and eager to start the school year" and that staff is working tirelessly towards that goal. He said there are "complex demands after the pandemic" for teachers. He said he knows that families are experiencing "far more strain than necessary."

Kindergarten and Preschool First Day and Family Connection Visits: We hope to know more about Family Connection Visits and the start of school for kindergarten and preschool students soon. We will share an update as soon as possible.

Student Meals: New Locations Starting Monday, Sept. 12. The location for student meal pick up has moved from SPS school sites to Seattle Parks and Recreation locations. Families can pick up free sack lunches from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.

No new SPS tweets since Friday.

Seattle Education Association Updates

Tweets are just about supporting teachers and their demands to SPS to create better classrooms.

From the SEA website:

Time to turn up the heat (bold mine)

While we’ve made incremental progress at the bargaining table, it isn’t enough for our students who need our teaching and supports now, not tomorrow or next week. Because they have ultimate oversight over the whole district, the Seattle School Board is the decision-maker. That’s why we hold the School Board accountable to getting SPS to agreement with us NOW.

The most powerful thing we can do is strike and strong picket lines send a message about our unity. We also need to mobilize our community, sharing leaflets and getting our supporters to call and email the Seattle School Board. They have the power to tell the district to settle this contract NOW. Talk to your neighbors and ask them to call the school board and leave a message: 206-252-0124 (this is a direct line to the Director of Board Relations). (Editor note: this is the number for Julia Warth, Director of Board Relations and Strategic Initiatives.)

City of Seattle update 

 Looks like the City is jumping in, starting Monday to help parents out:

The City of Seattle is providing a range of services to support parents and families in response to Tuesday’s announcement from Seattle Public Schools (SPS) that the start to the 2022-2023 school year will be delayed. 
 
Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), in partnership with the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) will offer Recreation Activity Hubs at eight designated community centers starting on Monday, September 12. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade will have access to free recreational programs and activities, and families will be able to register online starting Thursday, September 8.

Recreation Division will offer Recreation Activity Hubs
Starting – Monday, September 12 Hours of operation will be 9:00am to 5:30pm at designated centers
Age group 5-12 (school age)
8 designated community centers
Offering free recreational programs and activities
Families will be able to register online via ActiveNet starting Thursday, Sept 8th

Comments

Historian said…
Very sad that kindergarten students couldn't attend a meet and greet in a normal fashion.


Seattle Education Association shouldn't get a free pass because they sat on the Special Education Task Force that was tasked with creating a new special education service mode. Both SEA's vice president (Uti Hawkins) and SEA Special Education representative were on the task force.

https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-teachers-strike-delaying-first-day-of-school/

Naturally Manuela Slye aka Manolita light was involved and weighed in:

"Manuela Slye, who represented Seattle Council PTSA on the task force, said she is confused about why these issues didn’t come up earlier. The group disbanded amicably this past spring, congratulating each other on the work they did together."

We have a board pushing a new special education delivery system during a once in a 100 year pandemic and they failed to have a single board meeting and/ or public comment period.

And we have a district and union that failed to convey the message and get buy -in from teachers.

This is an epic failure - alll the way around. A strike could have been averted, IMO>
Anonymous said…
Did the school board approve bargaining goals for this round of negotiations with SEA? WSSDA guidance suggests that boards do this. SEA sent out a family survey that informed SEA's bargaining goals...

Just Wondering
Anonymous said…
I can't say for sure but I am skeptical that removing all MLL and sped staffing ratios was part of what they decided to do in the spring. Rather, they were working on a plan for improved inclusion; I believe there was movement toward using IEP minutes to determine staffing instead of # of students. But the Union did not sign off on this undefined "workload calculator." Maybe it doesn't matter, because SPS has not honored those ratios for many years and the Union did not encourage grievances over it because they couldn't be resolved in time to help. The Sped teachers in my school ended each year approximately 40% over what the contract required (29-30 instead of 22). Speaking for myself and my colleagues, no one wants to be on that sidewalk, but no one has any more to give in terms of workload. I worked 16 hour days plus at least one full weekend day throughout remote school, then 60 hours a week minimum last year - and I know my class demands less than most.
-Seattlelifer
lake_city_mom said…
For those interested in the details of the special ed negotiations, SEA has a pdf document (not sure if it is the latest version) showing the changes to the details of the special ed negotiations on their website:

https://www.washingtonea.org/file_viewer.php?id=53115

It is very dense and hard to tell which side has made which changes, but my guess is that similar to what can be seen in the document posted by the Times about the social worker and counselor negotiations it boils down to SEA wanting to be sure that there are VERY detailed metrics to ensure that their members are appropriately compensated for the extra work that SPS loads on them every year. There are bonuses to teachers/fines to the district for not maintaining the agreed upon staffing ratios.

This whole rigamarole is infuriating. I 100% support SEA in sticking to their guns on these issues. You can't roll all the multitude of issues that come with trying to be "inclusive" by suddenly putting a huge mix of Special Ed, ELL, and Highly Capable kids into one class with one teacher and maybe some part time IAs and expect it to go well. At a minimum give the schools the extra Special Ed, ELL, counseling and social worker staffing they need to try to make something like this work post-pandemic.

Cut the damn budgets at JSCEE! SOme of the costs of this can come out of the board and superintendent budgets.

OH, and kudos to SEA for their transparency and "showing the work."

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