Strike or contract: Tentative contract reached for Northshore teachers

Update

The Northshore Education Association has reportedly reached a tentative contract with its school district.

The agreement was reached late Thursday night, but the contract is not yet official. The teachers union as a whole must vote to approve or deny the contract at its next meeting. That vote will take place on Aug. 31 — the same day the current contract expires. The contract will cover the next three years for teachers and support staff.

Also slated for that same meeting is a vote to strike, should the teachers reject the contract. Otherwise, Northshore classes are scheduled to start on Sept. 1.

There was a union rally scheduled for Friday morning, set to be amid contract negotiations. But the teachers’ union called that rally off upon the announcement of the tentative contract agreement.

The Northshore Education Association has kept the option to strike on the table for months. It first voted to prepare for a strike — but not to approve a strike — in June.

Original story

A Northshore teachers strike is possible as early as next week if bargaining teams don’t come up with a contract in time.

“We look at the glass as half full, however, we also have to prepare for it to be half empty,” said Tim Brittell, president of the Northshore Education Association. “If we don’t have a collective bargaining agreement, we are ready to put to our membership the request for strike authorization.”

“That is last resort,” he said. “We want to see a settlement. And we’d like to see it at the end of the week.”

Analyst: Students more likely to experience teacher strikes in Washington state

The Northshore Education Association is the union that represents teachers.

Brittell noted that the bargaining teams are slated to finished up by Aug. 26. But they are prepared to continue talking through the weekend and into next week. The ultimate deadline is Aug. 31.

“Our collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight on Aug. 31,” Brittell said. “If there is no agreement and we have a strike authorization vote on the 31st, the picket lines will go up on Sept. 1.”

Teachers voted in June to allow the union to prepare for a potential Northshore teachers strike. But to make a strike official, they have to approve it with another vote. The union has a meeting scheduled for Aug. 31. A vote on a contract, or a strike, is expected at that meeting.

“There are people who certainly don’t like labor action, and neither do we,” Brittell said. “But we also like a fair contract. When we enter into negotiations we expect the other side to enter in good faith. It took the district a little longer to get there this year. Thus, things have moved slowly. We are working as diligently and quickly as we can.”

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson previously speculated on the potential for a Northshore teachers strike in June, and in May, but he was hoping that the talk about such a strike was mostly “saber rattling.”

Northshore teachers strike or contract

Brittell said that there are three main things that remain to be worked out between the district and the union: modified policy on education support professionals, school safety, and better wages.

Education support professionals, or paraeducators, assist teachers and Brittell argues they often work with special education and students with special needs. He said they are often limited to working four hours a day so the district can avoid providing insurance benefits.

“By restricting their hours, it doesn’t allow the special ed instructor to coordinate the program for the child with collaborative work with the paraeducator,” Brittell said. “That was not benefiting the kids.”

Then there’s school safety.

“That includes improving the locks on our doors so, on two-thirds of our classrooms, the teacher does not have to step out in the hall,” he said. “Last year, one of our teachers in Bothell was the victim of a vicious assault … we would like to have better protocols in place for when assaults like this happen, and I hope to God they don’t.”

As for pay, Brittell points north of the school district to make his case. He argues teachers are being lured away from the Northshore area with better pay.

“Those districts are ahead of us in their salary schedule,” he said. “I am losing teachers to surrounding districts. It’s about making a livable wage here. It cost less to live north of Bothell, and the teachers north of Bothell are paid more. That’s a recipe for losing teachers.”

The Northshore School District covers the areas around Bothell and Woodinville. Should there be no Northshore teachers strike, classes are scheduled to start on Sept. 6.

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