Seattle Schools Community Forum

I've been hearing from different people (and keeping my ear to the ground) and it seems that the vote tonight  on the tentative contract -  at Benaroya Hall at 5 p.m. - may be closer than previously thought.  There was very nearly a tie in the last school rep vote.  This is worrying because even if the contract is approved, having a large number of the teaching corps coming into class feeling defeated/unhappy, is not a good way to start the school year.   Why?  It would seem to be a combination of issues. 1) some grassroots pushback on the terms of the contract (and confusion over different points) 2) a general feeling of unhappiness about SEA leadership 3) a feeling that what is in the contract is not being adequately explained to either teachers or supporters (i.e. parents/community) Issues: - evaluation - the complaint is that they will have to be evaluated in two ways.  One via a state evaluation system and then a second district evaluati...

Although neither the District nor the teachers' union have released details of the tentative agreement on a new contract, KUOW's education beat reporter, Ann Dornfeld, has a copy of the agreement and reported these elements, each of which is a compromise on the primary areas of disagreement: It's a two-year contract. The pay raise will be 2% in the first year and 2.5% in the second year. Test scores will be an element in teacher evaluations, but a smaller factor than currently. Elementary school teachers will work an additional 30 minutes, but with some flexibility about when that time comes. I don't have details about case loads for PTs, nurses, and counselors. I don't have any other details. I heard this on the radio; there's no story on the KUOW web site about this yet.

The SEA announced that, as of 12:18am, they have a tentative agreement with the school district. Details to follow.

  From the SEA rally outside of Eckstein Middle School this afternoon. It was about 60 teachers and kids. Spoke with SEA head, Jonathan Knapp, who had no new information but said their issues were a "package deal" and "doable." He also said the teachers could strike but they also could just go to work on September 4th under their old contract and continue negotiations.  I spoke with a couple of teachers from Greenwood and Pinehurst.  Good spirits but feel that the district just chips away at both their salaries and their class time with students.  They worry that Common Core will continue that because "you teach what you test" and what happens to art, music and PE?  What was interesting is that both Knapp and the teachers spoke out about how the supporting school staff - the front office staff and the professionals like nurses and speech pathologists - are getting more thrown at them all the time (just as teachers are).  The teachers ...