Issaquah School District staff members vote to strike

Educators with the Issaquah School District voted Tuesday night to authorize a strike.

RELATED: Seattle Superintendent wants to close gap in racial equity

Issaquah Chapter of Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948 voted 98 percent yes and Paraeducators from SEIU Local 925 voted 94 percent yes.

“All we are asking is that the district do the right thing and honor the union contract that we negotiated,” said Emily Freet, assistant to the principal at Maple Hills Elementary and president of the PSE Issaquah Office Professionals Chapter.

“We work hard every day to make sure that every student is cared for and has a great day at school. If the district doesn’t do what’s right, employees won’t be able to afford to live in their own district. The surrounding areas respect their school staff with quality wages and follow through on what was negotiated. Our staff, and most importantly our students, deserve better than this,” Freet added.

“We negotiated in good faith with the school district,” said Chrissy Richmond, a paraprofessional at Issaquah High School and member of the SEIU 925 bargaining team. “A cost-of-living increase is clearly stated in our contract, but the school district has refused to honor this despite the fact that we testified at two School Board Meetings and filed an official grievance. We want Issaquah to follow the lead of the 290 other school districts in Washington and pass on the COLA increase to classified staff.”

Written by Ranji Sinha