As a Tacoma parent, I want the best public education for my daughter and son.
They deserve schools staffed with experienced, highly trained teachers and support professionals.
They deserve uncrowded classrooms stocked with adequate supplies and modern equipment and technology. They deserve the opportunity to become readers and learn to love math and science – and music and art and all the other subjects that make a well-rounded education.
As a Tacoma resident, teacher and the elected president of the Tacoma Education Association, I want these things for all 28,000 students enrolled in Tacoma Public Schools.
The current collective bargaining agreement between TEA and the Tacoma School Board expires Aug. 31. This is a great opportunity to negotiate an innovative, progressive agreement that focuses on what matters most: Tacoma’s children.
Merely maintaining the status quo isn’t an option. That’s what I tell my students, and it’s what I believe as TEA president.
The opportunity to be a part of contract negotiations was one of the major reasons I ran for union president. I believed my practical classroom experience, as well as my professional expertise, would help our school board and teachers negotiate a new student-focused agreement based on research and what we know helps kids learn.
The two sides have met 20 times to negotiate a new contract. Disappointingly, the problem-solving approach we’ve been using hasn’t produced a settlement. Led by a highly paid outside negotiator, the administration’s bargaining team simply hasn’t shared TEA’s commitment to negotiating a new contract before school starts.
So as Tacoma teachers and the administration’s negotiators meet again this week, we’ll take a more traditional approach, offering proposals back and forth until we have an agreement.
We’re hoping to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that strengthens student learning, one that supports Tacoma educators so they can meet the needs of all students.
Specifically, we need a student-focused collective bargaining agreement that:
• Maintains reasonable class sizes so teachers can provide the individual help and attention their students need to excel. Overcrowded classes hurt student learning.
• Provides teachers training that will strengthen their teaching skills. Ongoing training is an important part of being an effective, highly qualified teacher.
• Strengthens the way we evaluate teachers, including the use of student learning data to improve teaching. TEA has been at the forefront of efforts to improve teacher evaluations. I’m especially proud of a new evaluation model we are piloting at Jason Lee, which has the potential to shape a new district-wide model.
• Provides compensation that allows Tacoma to attract and keep the best educators for our children. The state cut funding for educator salaries by 1.9 percent, although many local school districts have agreed to make up the cut with local funding. Those districts recognize cutting teacher pay is not the way to attract and keep a highly qualified, effective teaching staff.
• Makes student learning the top budget and administrative priority. We must provide the resources and administrative support educators need to help every child succeed.
The TEA bargaining team, made up of teacher volunteers, is prepared to negotiate every day until the start of school. TEA members are meeting Aug. 29, and I hope we’ll have a tentative agreement to review. If not, we will meet again Aug. 31 to decide our next steps.
Until we have a settlement, TEA will continue providing regular updates about negotiations at www.WeTeachTacoma.org.
Our children deserve dedicated, caring, highly trained educators who have adequate support. That’s what it takes to ensure all children have the opportunity for success. And for members of the Tacoma Education Association, that is the ultimate goal.
Andy Coons is a national board certified teacher and president of the Tacoma Education Association, which represents 2,400 classroom teachers, counselors, librarians, therapists, nurses, technology professionals and school secretaries.
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