Seattle schools welcomed students to classrooms across the city Wednesday after a strike by its union teachers was averted late Tuesday night. The school district and Seattle Education Association teachers union agreed to a tentative contract that still needs to be ratified by a union vote. That will take place Sept. 11, when union members will convene at McCaw Hall, according to reporting in The Seattle Times.
Superintendent Ben Shuldiner praised district and union negotiators for their “hard work” in reaching a proposal, which allowed school to begin as scheduled.
“We did it,” Shuldiner said at a press conference at Alki Elementary in West Seattle. “We got to open up school, kids got to come. It’s beautiful.”
The days before the start of school were tense. Contract talks stalled on Aug. 29, and a mediator was brought in to lead the negotiations. Two issues were salaries and special education reforms and staffing. Under the three-year proposal teachers would receive a minimum salary increase of 8.8%.
The district’s early proposals for special education would have immediately restructured the program, including staffing levels — deal-breakers for many educators.
“That was a big change and I recognize that,” Shuldiner said. “What we’re looking forward to is a couple of years of really working together, thinking about it, studying it, but with actual outcomes.”
The superintendent said that the updated proposal would take the first two years of the contract to study and prepare for a special education “pilot” program before implementing it by the third year.
KNKX has reached out to the leaders of the teachers union but has not heard back.
At a rally outside school district headquarters on Tuesday before the tentative agreement was announced, more than 200 union members and supporters showed up to cheer on their negotiators.
Sam Friedman, an educator at Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle, said union members are open to the idea of restructuring special education, “but that restructuring needs to be super thoughtful and I think maybe there needs to be some outside of bargaining work involved in that.”
The full details and text of the tentative collective bargaining agreement had not been released to the press as of Wednesday afternoon.
Special Education Instructional Assistant Kathleen Roll showed up to the rally in a bright red Seattle Education Association t-shirt, sported by most of those in the crowd. She waved a handmade yellow placard that read, “Don’t Gut Special Education.” Roll said many of her students are nonverbal. With the tentative agreement, Roll is now back in her classroom at North Seattle’s Whittier Elementary.
“I’m so excited to see all my students returning,” she said. “They’re all taller. It’s just so much fun to see the kids again. Why else would you do this work if you don’t really love seeing them learn and grow?”
Another rallygoer was parent Lillian Rambus, who has two kids in Seattle schools. One of them has had an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, the backbone of his special education plan. Rambus credits her son’s teachers with preparing him to graduate in 2027.
“I’m here to stand up for special education and IEP. I just wanted to stand up for the people that were very instrumental in helping him to get where he’s at now,” she said.
Rambus grew up in the district and has seen strikes in the past. She wishes contract negotiations could start earlier, so that last-minute contract talks would not be the norm.
“The adults in the room have to stand up and take the initiative and change some things,” Rambus said. “Sometimes we need to do things a little different. And the way they negotiate their contracts definitely could be something that could be done a little different.”
Nearly 49,000 students are enrolled for this school year in Seattle. While most students began the new school year on Wednesday, preschool and kindergarten students start the school year on Sept. 8.
