Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update:  Rally for teachers before vote from 1-3:30pm outside of Benaroya Hall where the vote is to be taken.  Doors open for teachers at 2 pm with the general meeting starting at 3 pm.

Per this Slog entry about not getting ahead of ourselves, there is this Tweet from SPS: The union members also need time to be informed and vote.   This is true; leadership may not like the deal but the members do have to vote. From SPS Communications: Bargaining teams from Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association have reached a tentative agreement to end the strike. Both teams worked diligently all day Monday and overnight, with a shared goal of getting the district’s 53,000 students back into 97 schools. The tentative agreement was reached just before 7 a.m. today.

In the interest of fairness, here's the link to the district's page on the strike.   Commendations To address questions about the start of school, the strike and contract negotiations, the district has established a message line. Questions left at 206-252-0207 will be added to the FAQ on this section of the website. However, there are some points which both sides continue to work toward agreement, including teacher and professional salary. Below is a brief summary of the top issues in the negotiation. Read the negotiation proposals and counter proposals on the Negotiation Proposals webpage.

 From SPS Communications: SPS has offered $62 million as a counter to the $172 million worth of asks of SEA · Includes:

It is a fast and furious news cycle for public education in Seattle and our state. On the overturning of the charter school law, there is so much to say that I will be putting up a separate thread.  There is an telephonic Charter Commission meeting tomorrow where the issue will be discussed. On the state of the strike in SPS, the word is that, despite movement on the contract, that it seems unlikely they will get it done before tomorrow and highly likely t here will be a strike.  You will have to use your own best judgment about how you, as an SPS  parent, want to view this strike.  Of course, it would be a terrible imposition for parents - there is so much organizing of daily lives to do, explaining to your children and the worry about how long it would be for and those outcomes to your student's academic life. I do urge you to consider that the union has been careful to say that the district has dragged its feet in coming to the table over and over.  ...

FAQ page from Seattle Schools on Teacher Contract issues and start of school. From the Times: Also according to Seattle union officials, agreement was reached Sunday to increase pay for certificated and classified substitutes, an attempt to address a general shortage of substitutes. As well, a group of parents have started a support group for teachers, Soup for Teachers: Soup for Teachers is a Facebook group that SPS parent Ljiljana Stanojevic Penuela started a few days ago to support striking teachers with food, cards from kids, and other necessities: https://www.facebook.com/groups/507823286040448/ .

The Superintendent put out a rather bland assessment of the issues of the teacher contract negotiations.  I say bland not because the issues he states aren't important - they are - but there is nothing new to see here with a few exceptions.

The agenda is up for the Curriculum&Instruction Meeting on Monday at JSCEE from 4:30-6:30 pm. At the bottom of the agenda, there is a note explaining that due to the new website, they can't attach links and so the documentation for the agenda items is contained in the agenda link.  Among the topics: