Seattle Schools Community Forum

  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...

And he also called the bus drivers to turn them back. The school was completely destroyed and there would have been massive fatalities and injuries without his quick thinking.  https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1QiUcAwFvE/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Here's the Bargaining Updates page . There is a notation at the top of the page that there will be daily press conferences starting Monday, August 31st. I will endeavor to try to attend. Here's their summary . Highlights:  -  A guaranteed salary increase of 2.6% in 2026-27, 3.6% in 2027-28, and 2.6% in 2028-29, totaling nearly  9% over three years. This is in addition to annual salary step increases, which average around 4% per year  for eligible employees. In comparison, management and non-represented staff will receive a 1.73% increase and are required to  take two furlough days. This means that the district's offer to SEA in the 2026-27 year is more than 2.5  times greater than what management and non-reps will receive. The creation of VEBA accounts for employees in 2026-27, with district contributions of $10 per month in  2027-28 and $15 per month in 2028-29 to support future health care needs after retirement. -  Because Special Education is ...

  From The Seattle Times: Health officials are warning people to avoid the 4200 block of 23rd Avenue West in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood, due to elevated levels of lead. The concerns come after Seattle Public Utilities in July collected samples from the road along that block, as well as a stormwater catch basin along 23rd Avenue West, according to a blog post by Public Health — Seattle & King County. After additional testing this month to confirm findings of elevated lead, a contractor is working to clean up the contamination, and perform more environmental testing. What to Do While cleanup work takes place, Public Health — Seattle & King County is recommending that pedestrians use other routes around the 4200 block of 23rd Avenue West, between West Elmore Street and West Commodore Way. The agency cautioned that people should also avoid the alley between 22nd Avenue West and 23rd Avenue West, if possible. “Lead-contaminated dust can be carried on shoes and on stroller a...

One big thing that did happen when Seattle Schools' teachers went on strike in 2015 was the organic creation of the group, Soup for Teachers. From Seattle Magazine: During the strike, groups of parents used social media to coordinate food, coffee and support for the teachers’ six days on the picket line. Some even joined the picket lines, citing common interests, such as a guarantee that students would get recess.   In terms of galvanizing parents, the strike did its job. Part of its success came from the slew of attention it drew; after all, Seattle teachers had not gone on strike since the 1980s. What’s more, picketing teachers hit on hot-button issues in education. The Huffington Post, National Public Radio, The New York Times and other media covered the strike, drawing the attention of more disengaged parents. But parents specifically mentioned the teachers’ push for recess as one of the reasons they were drawn to support the strike.   “[The teachers] weren’t out here just...

I have not one, not two, but three budget analyses about SPS' budget. Finance is not my forte so I am very grateful for this in the weeds, in-depth work. First to note is parent Albert Wong (and new advisor for the Board's Finance Committee) who has his own section on Reddit.  He has two threads of interest there. One is his " SPS Simulator: Who or What Would You Axe (in the SPS budget)? You TOO can DOGE the world. Cut the Superintendent first! Or just cut electricity. What you'll find is that you can cut nearly ALL of central staff and only just start closing the budget deficit. You can do a little "better" if you just ignore the fact that our Economic Stablization Account is 0. Or you can disable the budget fill and just continue our dive into bankruptcy at the current rate. Whatever you want! The key point: we clearly have bloat . But our deficit is HUGE. We need to pressure to remove the bloat, not just cause of money but cause it causes problems and is ...