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 ...