Two Items to Read from Senior Management - First, Messaging from Superintendent Ben Shuldiner

The first essay is the Superintendent's Newsletter, dated August 30, 2026. Here's a link. There is also a link in this post about his newest Newsletter, dated September 6th. All bold mine.

It's fairly lengthy as he goes over much of his thinking during the teacher contract negotiations. 

Highlights:

- However, as many folks know, by not addressing things in public, only one side is being heard from. I have negotiated many contracts in my time, and I have never responded publicly about any of them. But that is also because I have never had a union or association share so publicly as SEA does. That is certainly their prerogative. I would never tell a union how to negotiate.

With this current bargain being so important and the community being so attuned with the machinations of the negotiations, I think it is important to follow suit with the union and explain a bit about what is going on.


- Note: Throughout bargaining, I am sure you have heard the term COLA (Cost-of-Living Adjustment) or IPD (Implicit price deflator). Seattle seems to use these terms interchangeably, so I won't really make a distinction. Each year, the state legislature gives school districts an IPD increase, which is great. However, this increase is based on the State's "prototypical model." The State funds us according to the way they think we should be staffed, how much we should pay our staff, and how much we should pay in transportation, among many other things.

For instance, we have Multilingual Learner Instructional Assistants in Seattle. The state doesn't fund those at all. So, when the state "gives us IPD" what they really are giving us is a dollar figure calculated by their model not our reality.

So, this means anytime a staff member asks for and receives the full IPD percentage, they are really getting much more than the State gives us. This is not a pass through; it is an added burden on an already burdened budget. And you might think, that 0.87% isn't a big deal, but it represents millions of dollars for the district writ large.


- Additionally, as part of their contract many SEA members get the equivalent of about an extra 15% of their salary for "TRI" days (Time, Responsibility, and Incentive), as well as payment for 4 tech days and 5 PD days.

I was a teacher many years ago. I got paid for my time in the school. I got a salary for showing up to work and teaching the kids. Lesson planning, grading papers, and planning with my co-teachers after school was never part of what I got. Here in Seattle, our teachers get the equivalent of around 27 days of pay for all of these "responsibilities."

I have never seen anything like this outside of Washington. I am not saying the teachers don't deserve this. I am only saying I wish I got this when I was a teacher. I also want to make sure that the community knows that this is already in their contract.

To put this in perspective, the salary line that the greatest number of teachers are in (1060 teachers), has a base wage of $118,716 for 180 days of work. Then they get $3,298 for 5 extra contractual days, another $2,638 for 4 "tech days" and then $17,932 for TRI days.

Thus, taking the total wage to $142,584. And this does not include any other benefits, retirement, stipends, extra hours, or other payments that some teachers receive.

And, just for clarification, in the current CBA, these "TRI" days are assumed to be done. There is no verification or paperwork for them. The TRI is in the check.


On Special Education
- Education as a place and not a service. A child is “in Distinct” or “in Focus” rather than say “this wonderful student receives specific services as laid out in their IEP.” So much of what we do here is focused on ratios and class separation that we don’t do as strong a job in actually helping our students as we should.

And please don’t think this is a knock against our teachers or paras. I know how hard they work. It is a knock about how we are structured and organized. What makes this even worse is that we have a system that separates kids so much that many students with IEPs can’t go to their neighborhood school. The other major issue I see is that in many of our classrooms there are unmet behavior needs, because again, SPS has historically thought about Special Education as a place and not a service.

We are not wedded to our initial proposal nor any of the subsequent ones. But we are committed to try to find something that actually works better for kids, that keeps them at their neighborhood school, that gets the teachers the behavioral support they need, all while not bankrupting the district.

If the only response from SEA is “Special Education.” then by definition there is no discussion anymore. And to all of the folks that have suggested some kind of taskforce or working group, we have had those for years and as far as I have been told very little if anything moved. Others have asked why would we even talk about this during bargaining; that is because we have to if we want to make structural changes. As many of you know, I am a huge supporter of Special Education and have a deep background, especially as a Superintendent in leading large scale systemic change to better service students and their families. But if we can’t even negotiate things and we are being asked to “take it off the table,” that will only continue the situation we are in.

If folks want to have a deeper understanding of what we are trying to do around strengthening the services for our children, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our amazing Special Education department.



Other Parts of the Proposal

The district has also put on the table, as part of this total package, adding 6 Psychologists, having at least one full social worker or counselor at all schools with over 350 students.* The district has also agreed to bringing in house many of the contracted BCBAs and BSPs. This would add to SEA's rolls. All of this is meant to support student needs. And all of this is a total package designed to better run SPS for students.

We have also agreed to set up VEBA accounts where the district would pay 10 dollars a month in year two of the agreement and $15 a month in year three of the agreement, if we can set the accounts up. (Editor's note - VEBA stands for Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association. "Created in 1984, the VEBA Plan is a funded health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) program for school districts, educational service districts, and community and technical colleges in the state of Washington.")

We have agreed to adding a training day for over a 1500 Paras and SAEOPs, which would be the equivalent to almost a 0.5% raise each year for those employees. We have even agreed to lowering the number of staff meetings from every week, to three times a month.

All of this has been done while also trying to balance a budget that is terrible and currently leading us to insolvency.

The District has tried its best to do right by students and staff in this bargaining.

* Editor's note - See that schools with "over 350 students?"  It sorta has that "well-resourced schools" ring to it. Remember that later when school closure comes.


He ends by laying out in solid terms what comes next in the negotiations and lays what happens next  at SEA's feet.



His latest newsletter is "Thank you, I am sorry, Let's get to work."


Thank You (partial)

- I want to thank SEA, and specifically every member of the bargaining team, for working incredibly hard to get us over the finish line. The thoughtfulness, care, and time that every member put into this work was apparent throughout the process.

Even when we disagreed or small groups became frustrated, no one lost their cool or acted unprofessionally. There was no yelling, pounding of tables, or threats of any kind. I have been in a lot of negotiations, and for such a large bargaining team to reach a TA with so many moving parts is an incredible accomplishment. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of you all.

I also want to thank the district bargaining team. You worked incredibly hard so we could open school on time. I will never be able to thank you enough for blocking out the noise of negotiations and focusing on the needs of our students, staff, and district. I am forever grateful for those who showed up day after day to do the hard work of bargaining.

I also want to thank our entire community for understanding that negotiations are a process. What is a proposal on Monday may change five times by Friday. A salary request or programmatic change might be "put on paper" at 5 p.m. while a small group is simultaneously discussing changes that will be made by 10 p.m.

So many of you sent emails of encouragement and support. Even the terser and angrier emails were couched in a desire to have the district better support our staff and students. Thank you for being so engaged in the process.


I Am Sorry

I want to apologize for the long and somewhat fraught process. We didn't reach a TA until very late Tuesday, which meant many folks went to sleep not knowing if there would be school the next day. We tried to finish as quickly as possible, but we also wanted to get it right. A possible three-year CBA is not something you want to rush at the last minute.

I also want to apologize for anything I might have said or done that caused offense. It was never my intent to cause harm or unease. The long email I sent last week was necessary to express the district's side of the story, but there were very clear rules about what I could and could not say. I am sure some of what I wrote came off as stilted or possibly worse, and I am sorry for that.

Most importantly, I am sorry if anyone took my words as an attack, especially on the SEA. When so much information, and some misinformation, abounds, it is important for the district to share its perspective. If I did that in a way that was hurtful, I deeply apologize. Now that this part is over and school has opened, I hope we can all move forward and work together.


Let's Get to Work

This week I visited 10 schools and attended three high school football games. Everywhere I went, people were excited and engaged. The energy, enthusiasm, and love of our school community pervaded everything I saw.

Shout out to Alki Elementary for their first day in their new building. Congratulations to Rainier Beach on the opening of their new Performing Arts Center, and congratulations to both Lincoln and Ballard for a sold-out opening football game. I can't wait until we open Memorial Stadium so we can have even more of our community in the stands.

This year is shaping up to be very special, and I cannot wait to share with you all the great work we are doing on behalf of our 50,000 students.

Thank you all for believing in SPS. With your help and hard work, SPS truly will be the best urban public school district in the country.


My observations

- It sure isn't often when a superintendent apologizes for ANYTHING but Shuldiner did. And it isn't after the loss of a student life and you hear platitudes. It's for staff and SEA actions that took so much time on the contract that it was upsetting to parents and students alike.

- It sure is great to hear that the negotiations were done in a civil and professional manner and that Shuldiner said that has not always been his experience. Kudos to those negotiators on both sides.

- He went to three high school football games? Amazing. He doesn't have to do that and yet he was there. Showing up and being visible are truly important to students' families and the public and yet not many superintendents do it. 

Shuldiner did.