The Evergreen school district and teachers union negotiated all day Sunday but still were no closer to reaching a teacher contract agreement ahead of the new school year, which starts Wednesday.
Regardless, Evergreen Public Schools students will start their new academic year Wednesday, if only for a day.
Even if an agreement isn’t reached by Tuesday evening and teachers vote to strike, a judge has ordered them to work on the first day of school. A judge also is expected to decide Wednesday afternoon if teachers must continue to work after Wednesday.
The district and union are working with a state-appointed mediator and plan to continue negotiations Monday and Tuesday. On Sunday, negotiations began at 10 a.m. and lasted into the night.
Teachers remain hopeful that the district will “address the issues needed to avert a strike,” said Washington Education Association spokesman Dale Folkerts, who is assisting the Evergreen Education Association during negotiations. “So far we have not seen any major movement in that direction. Our plan is to still meet on Tuesday evening hopefully to ratify a new contract, but at this point it appears we may still be forced to take a strike vote instead.”
Evergreen district spokeswoman Gail Spolar expressed hope that a deal could be reached.
“We’re trusting the process,” including the guidance of the state mediator, she said Sunday evening.
The current contract between the district and its more than 1,800 teachers expires Wednesday. Negotiations have been ongoing since March, and officials have only reached an agreement on curriculum.
“The teams have been working on trying to get some of the minor issues resolved, but major sticking points still remain,” Folkerts said.
Four main bargaining points still unsettled are: salary and benefits competitive with the state’s 10 largest districts; more support for special education students; additional counselors and support services; and securing enough substitute teachers by offering higher pay.
Spolar said the district wants teachers to be fairly compensated and have manageable workloads, “but we also have budget constraints.” The money it pays teachers, beyond what’s provided by the state, comes from local levies, and the district must be responsible with those local tax dollars, she said.
“What we’re doing is trying to find that middle ground,” Spolar said.
Evergreen teachers made between $40,417 and $76,179 in total compensation during the 2015-2016 school year. Without additional district money added to their pay through bargaining, district teachers would earn between $41,144 and $77,549 during the 2016-2017 school year. That pay increase is the result of additional state money approved earlier this year.
Clark County Judge Suzan Clark’s temporary restraining order, issued Friday, prohibits district employees on Wednesday from striking, coercing other employees to refuse to do their job, interfering with building entrances or taking sick or personal leave to strike. Clark said the action was necessary to protect Evergreen parents from having to arrange child care at the last minute.
Her decision came after the school district requested an injunction to prevent teachers from striking. The request is set to be heard at 1 p.m. Wednesday in Superior Court.
Although a formal opinion written in 2006 by then-state Attorney General Rob McKenna concluded that public employees do not have a right to strike, state law has not established penalties for striking. A court could decide to impose penalties, however.
