Tacoma teachers, like nearly everyone in this economy, are probably worried about money. Their union has been quarreling with the school district over the best way to absorb a 1.9-percent state cut in funding for teacher salaries.
They're also worried about class size. They say more crowded classrooms – a measure the district initially proposed to save money – are not good for learning.
These are two issues in the contract dispute that have teachers poised to vote Monday, for the second time in two weeks, on whether they should strike if there's no tentative agreement. Contract talks were continuing late into the evening Saturday. No new talks were scheduled for today.
But the Tacoma Education Association and Tacoma Public Schools officials both agree that money and class size aren't the biggest stumbling blocks to a contract settlement.
The main obstacle lies in a section of the teachers' contract known as Section 85: Displacement/Involuntary Transfer.
It governs how teachers are reassigned when student populations decline or shift, when a district alters a program in a school, or when a district shutters schools, as happened last spring in Tacoma with the closure of Wainwright and McKinley schools.
And it often means the least-senior teacher gets moved – even if the principal wants to keep the person. District officials are determined to change that formula.
"We want flexibility," said school board President Kurt Miller. "We want principals to be able to bring in the teachers who are the best fit for their buildings."
The union, however, calls this one a strike-provoking issue.
"It's a lot more complex than ‘We want to hold on to seniority,' " said union President Andy Coons.
Tacoma district officials say 136 teachers were displaced at the end of the last school year. Three had yet to be re-assigned to permanent jobs when school opened Sept. 1.
CHANGES OPPOSED
The Tacoma teachers' expired contract says the district will involuntarily transfer the least-senior employee within a staffing category. (The four categories are special education staff, elementary school teachers, middle and high school teachers, and non-classroom certificated employees such as counselors.)
The contract also states that an employee can avoid an involuntary transfer if someone volunteers to take his or her place.
The district has proposed an overhaul of this section of the contract. It would allow district officials to consider 10 other factors, in addition to seniority.
The union has no problem with the first four. But the other six, it says, are too subjective. The union argues that it's not possible to measure things such as "setting high expectations" or "promoting positive interactions with families."
Teachers say they fear the added criteria could be used as a smokescreen to hide discrimination based on age, gender or race. The district points out that federal and state laws prohibit such discrimination.
Still, one teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, says she fears age discrimination if the district proposal goes through: "I've seen principals say, ‘I want those young, energetic teachers in my school.' But they need mentoring to become good teachers."
The district has offered a peer review panel for teachers to challenge reassignments, but the union says the superintendent would have veto power.
SEEKING ‘BEST FIT'
District officials argue that today's classrooms require more options for administrators making teaching assignments. They want principals to be able to consider a teacher's credentials, performance and individual school needs.
"Our principals have been very clear," said Superintendent Art Jarvis. "They want some options on who comes into their building. They want the best fit for students."
Jarvis said that the old collective bargaining agreement isn't the best way to assign teachers to some of the district's more specialized schools such as Lincoln Center, Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, the Science and Math Institute and others.
School board member Catherine Ushka-Hall said that it would be a mistake to displace newer teachers who have helped build special programs "from the ground up."
In some Tacoma middle schools operating with federal grants aimed at boosting student achievement, Jarvis said many staff members would be eliminated if future moves were based on seniority.
Some of those schools were required by the grant to bring back no more than half their existing staff when the reform effort was launched last year. The displaced teachers were not laid off but were assigned to jobs elsewhere in the district.
Coons said that because of last year's moves at those middle schools and elsewhere, "there's not a lot of trust" between teachers and the school district.
"Everyone knows someone in that (displacement) pool," he said. "Teachers felt like pariahs. The displacements were not done according to contract."
In May, the union filed a grievance over the displacement issue.
PAY
Even though both sides say pay isn't the thorniest issue in the contract negotiations, they still have no agreement on how to distribute state reductions in teacher salary funding.
In some of the latest contract proposals, teachers have offered to forgo the 1-percent annual increase they secured in the past, in exchange for working four half-days. (Half-days can count as full days under the state 180-day school calendar requirement.) But teachers want to maintain the current salary schedule, which rewards them for having more years of service and advanced degrees.
The school district proposed maintaining the salary schedule, with no cut in base pay. To make up for the state cut, teachers would be asked to give up three non-school days' worth of pay – for instance, two days of paid training and one day of paid personal leave.
The district said the average teacher salary in Tacoma last year was $63,793.
Teachers want the district to loosen the purse strings and spend more of its reserve fund to cushion the state pay reduction. They point out that other districts have done exactly that. But some of those districts have also won other concessions from teachers, such as increased class size.
Tacoma district officials contend that they already plan to spend down more than $24 million of the current $39 million reserve fund over the next three years.
Still, the union maintains that Tacoma's reserves are larger than those in similar-sized districts that are also suffering through the recession and state cutbacks.
"Is Tacoma going to be hit harder than everybody else in the state?" asked union Vice President Adrienne Dale.
CLASS SIZE
Staffing ratios are another issue that has divided the district and teachers, but it's one issue where there's been some movement.
Initially the district proposed increasing maximum class sizes spelled out in the contract to save money. But it later said it would agree to hold to the current contract language.
Teachers have asked the district to reduce class sizes by one student in elementary and secondary schools, and for specialists and others who work with students outside the regular classroom. But union officials have also said they might be able to live with maintaining the status quo on class size.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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