TEACHER STRIKE Q&A
Questions and answers about the Tacoma Public Schools teachers’ strike
When will negotiations resume?
That has not yet been announced.
What provisions has the district made for non-English speaking families?
Electronic phone or email messages announcing that school was canceled were sent to families in English and Spanish on Monday night. The district said it also posted a sign on the door of every school saying that school is closed. The sign is written in seven languages.
Do nonteaching school district employees work while teachers are on strike?
Principals, who are on 12-month employment contracts, reported to work Tuesday. They will answer questions from parents, do office-related tasks and plan for the resumption of school when the strike ends.
Principals were instructed to call parents to pick up children who showed up at school.
Other nonteaching employees, including food service workers, bus drivers and office staff, were given the option of reporting for a paid day of training Tuesday at the school district professional development center.
“Many of those staff members are among the lower-paid employees of the district,” said district spokesman Dan Voelpel. Because those hourly employees work only when school is in session, any break in the school schedule would “impact the arrival of their paychecks,” he said.
Voelpel said he did not know if more paid training days were planned.
Why can’t nonteachers open the school gyms or other school facilities for kids while the strike continues?
“Schools are closed because the school district is here to teach school,” Voelpel said. He said district employees are not trained as day care providers and that schools are not licensed by the state as day care centers.
How will students and teachers make up for classroom days lost to the strike?
No decision has yet been made. The district could use “snow days” built into the school calendar as makeup days; the tentative school calendar for this year lists three such days. In other strikes elsewhere, districts have used snow days and Saturdays, and have extended the school year into the summer.
Will teachers continue to get paid if the strike drags on?
Teachers are paid twice monthly. They will be paid for days worked since school opened Sept. 1.
District officials have not yet decided how pay will be handled if teachers remain on strike for an extended period, Voelpel said.
Can the school district re-open school with substitute teachers?
The district has an estimated 600 substitutes under contract. That’s several hundred fewer than the number of teachers who usually work in Tacoma classrooms each day.
Are students enrolled in Tacoma’s online school, Tacoma Virtual Learning, still in school?
Some of these classes are taught by Spokane teachers, so those are continuing. Others are taught by Tacoma teachers. In those classes, students have the option of completing online lessons that were posted before Tuesday.
How much do Tacoma teachers earn? How does this compare to other districts?
Tacoma Public Schools said that its teachers earned an average salary of $63,793 in the 2010-11 school year.
That number is slightly lower than the preliminary number reported to the state by the district at the beginning of the same school year. According to that preliminary state data, published on a state web site, Tacoma teachers earned an average of $65,597, which includes their base salary and added pay for additional work. It does not include benefits.
The state listing ranked Tacoma’s average teacher pay as the fifth-highest among the state’s larger districts, behind Everett, Northshore, Seattle and Bellevue. The Tacoma average in the state data topped the list of Pierce County districts.
The district points out that Tacoma has a very experienced teaching staff. About 60 percent of Tacoma teachers have a master’s degree and 48 percent have more than 16 years of experience – both factors contributing to higher earnings.
For more information on educator pay, go to www.thenewstribune.com/averageeducationpay/.
What kind of pay increases have Tacoma teachers and administrators experienced in recent years?
According to the district:
• In both the 2010-11 and 2009-10 school years, teachers were to receive a negotiated increase of 1 percent. But in both those years, the state cut funding for teacher training days, making the teachers’ net increase amount to less than one-half of 1 percent.
• Tacoma principals had no increase in 2009-10. In 2010-11, elementary principals received a 4.14 percent increase, middle school principals a 2.51 percent increase and high school principals a 3.89 percent increase. They received no salary increase this year.
• Executive administrators received no salary increases in any of the three years.
Are teacher strikes legal?
State law contains contradictions.
One law prohibits strikes by public employees.
But statutes governing collective bargaining rights for teachers are silent on the issue of their right to strike.
A 2006 Attorney General’s opinion held that state and local public employees – including teachers – do not have a legally protected right to strike.
The AG’s opinion also noted that state law does not contain specific penalties for striking public employees.
In several past teacher strikes in Washington, school districts have gone to court and judges have issued orders demanding that teachers return to work.
Debbie Cafazzo, staff writer
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