The full negotiating teams for Seattle Public Schools and the district's striking teachers union will resume talks on a new contract this weekend, bringing the two sides back to the bargaining table for the first time in more than three days.
The announcement Friday afternoon comes after the third full day of a strike that's kept more than 53,000 students out of school since Wednesday and ends a stalemate in the negotiations.
Bargainers for the Seattle Education Association and the school district had held separate meetings with state mediators Friday.
From their discussions with the mediators, union president Jonathan Knapp said his bargaining team came to feel Friday afternoon that the district had — as the union had wanted — brought forward enough "new concepts" on major sticking points to merit a return to full-fledged talks.
"We understood there were some new concepts to look at. The district, until now, had not been putting those things out in front of us to look at and hadn't been offering any new ideas over the last few days," Knapp said.
Earlier this week, district bargaining team members said they're seeking a three-year deal including raises for teachers of 2 percent the first year, 3.2 percent the second year and 4 percent in the third year.
Union leaders had been seeking a two-year deal, with pay increases of 5 percent in the first year and 5.5 percent in the second year.
The two sides are also at odds over a district proposal to convert 20 minutes of teachers' before- and after-school prep time into more instructional time — meaning a longer school day for students. Though district leaders have said a longer day will help high schoolers meet increased state credit requirements, union officials say they don't see the need to make the proposal part of this contract negotiation.
Union and district negotiators have also grappled over recess time, teacher evaluations, assessment, therapist and counselor caseloads and school office workloads. Knapp declined to elaborate on what "new concepts" the district had brought forward.
"It's not an offer yet. It's not a counter-offer. We're a little upstream from all of that," Knapp said.
Union spokesman Rich Wood added a note of caution.
"That doesn’t mean they’re going to get a settlement together. That doesn’t mean it won’t completely fall apart tomorrow," he said. "That doesn’t mean there’s going to be school on Monday."
The two sides' bargaining teams are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Saturday.
