Kent teachers and supporters were out in force Friday morning at school-district headquarters, waving signs and making it clear they wouldn’t be going back to school Monday without a contract.
“I’m prepared to stay on the line,” Mountainview Academy teacher Lorraine Nixon said, amid the waving signs, if negotiators cannot come up with a workable contract.
“I feel I am doing the right thing thing for my students,” she added, in reference to two of the teachers’ demands – smaller class sizes and less meetings to ensure more time in the classroom.
By all accounts, Monday will be a telling day for the Kent School District and its striking teachers.
On Thursday, King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas ordered teachers back to their classrooms by Monday, outlining a series of stiff financial penalties for them and their union, the Kent Education Association, if they did not.
Darvas said that even if the teachers were correct in their demands, “they are wrong in their actions,” by striking.
“In short, they are breaking the law,” she said.
Under Darvas’ order, teachers who remain on the picket line Monday will face fines of $200 per day, retroactive to Sept. 8, the day of Darvas’ original ruling declaring the strike illegal.
The KEA also will face fines of $1,500 per day, retroactive to the same date, for each day that its teachers remain on strike starting Monday.
But out on the picket lines, waving signs and cheering, Kent teachers looked resolved in their stand.
“NO CONTRACT, NO SCHOOL!” protesters shouted in unison at one point, cheering as some of the vehicles that passed them honked in support.
The picket had the feel of a jubilant bake sale, minus the cookies.
Aside from the upbeat nature of the shouting, teachers didn’t seem to focus so much on the judge’s order as much as a contract.
“I don’t plan on crossing the (picket) line,” said Marilyn Young, a special-education teacher at Panther Lake and Sunrise elementary schools, who came with a small American flag to wave. The flag was one of many that teachers were waving that day, in honor of 9/11.
Young said she wanted to get back into her classrooms.
“Hopefully there are no hard feelings and we can come up with a contract,” she said.
Contract negotiations are scheduled to resume at 2 p.m. today.
“We want our teachers back in class,” said Kent School District spokeswoman Becky Hanks, describing the district’s commitment to wanting a resolution. “We know our (negotiating) team will work through the day.”
KEA spokesperson Dale Folkerts said negotiations are scheduled day-by-day and said further negotiations depends on the district, adding that “any rational person” would see that the union’s most recent proposal, which he said meets both the union’s class size goals as well as the district’s financial needs, could have ended the strike and it would be “ridiculous” to continue if the district insists on higher class sizes.
Thursday, negotiators had been at the bargaining table through much of the morning, with KEA presenting a contract proposal to district negotiators.
According to Hanks, the deadline on the proposal was noon that day, but by that time, the district hadn’t had a chance to fully go over the specifics outlined in it.
District negotiators at that point responded with a counter proposal, and the state-appointed mediator dismissed the meeting, instructing both sides to go to their respective corners and evaluate their numbers, returning to the bargaining table today.
Folkerts said the KEA rejected the district’s Sept. 10 offer because class size numbers still did not meet the union’s requests.
“It was trying to enlarge class size [from the union’s offer] instead of reducing them,” Folkerts said.
Union reps. have claimed their proposed contract is $277,000 less than the contract the district is proposing, but the district is refuting that claim, with Hanks calling it “false information.”
“We’re certainly willing to show them our data,” Folkerts countered, adding that the union sent the figures with the proposal. “I think they’re trying to dodge the issue.”
Hanks also claimed KEA’s proposal would cut $2,000 a year from the outlined salaries for first-year teachers, which is not acceptable to the district, as it wants to be competitive in employing top new teachers.
“We want first-year pay for teachers to be addressed,” Hanks said, of what will be on the table during today’s talks.
Folkerts said the decision by union negotiators to remove the stipend for first-year teachers was a cost-cutting method designed to take the focus from compensation and put it back on class size, but said it was a recognition obey the district that salaries are not where they should be.
“It sounds like the KSD is starting to realize they have a problem with compensation,” Folkerts said, adding “But that’s not why Kent teachers are on strike.”
A $1,000 increase to the “commitment stipend” of all other levels on the pay scale remained as part of the KEA proposal.
When asked if the district would be willing to bring in replacement teachers, if KEA members continue to strike, Hanks didn’t say yes or no, but stated, “We want to work with our teachers to resolve this.”
On the picket line, the buzz also was about health-insurance benefits, and if teachers would be on the string for them if they remained on strike.
Hanks said teachers who are in their classrooms by Sept. 15 will have their premiums covered for the following month.
Teachers who remain on the picket line past that time “have the choice of paying the premium themselves,” she said, adding that the Washington Education Association – the parent of the KEA union – has offered to assist striking teachers cover those costs.
Folkerts said the district was spreading rumors about losing insurance as a “fear tactic” and said there is a WEA policy in place that will continue coverage through a labor dispute.
“It’s not the district’s decision to to cut off insurance policy,” he said, adding “despite the district trying to scare pregnant mothers and cancer victims.”
Hanks said the District would no longer pay insurance premiums after Sept. 15, but said it was her understanding that the 1,484 KEA members who have selected the WEA plan as their health care provider would continue to receive coverage.
Reporter Brian Beckley contributed additional reporting to this story.
KEA’s Sept. 10 proposal:
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