The fight between Tacoma teachers and the school district shifts this morning to a Pierce County courtroom, where district officials will ask a judge to order the striking teachers back to work.
The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. before Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff.
School was canceled for the second straight day today when it was announced Tuesday that a hearing on the district’s request for an injunction against the teachers union, the Tacoma Education Association, could not be heard until today.
Members of the association reported to picket lines across the city Tuesday instead of to their jobs – an action the district contends is an illegal strike that is harming students at its 57 schools, as well as other employees, the community, and students in other districts who get services through Tacoma.
The district said teachers crossed picket lines at about 10 schools Tuesday. District spokesman Dan Voelpel said he could not say how many teachers did so.
“They reported for work,” he said. “They have other things they can do in their classrooms – lesson plans, working on assignments.”
The teachers and district are at odds over the district’s proposal to change contract language that governs teacher transfers and reassignments. The two sides also disagree over how the district should deal with state cuts in funding for teacher pay, and they have argued over class-size limits.
The rhetoric heated up in Tuesday’s court filings, in which the district accused teachers of orchestrating an illegal strike. An example: The district claims the union told teachers to hide their computers, lesson plans and other materials. The union denies it.
The union represents nearly 2,000 district workers, including teachers and other employees with professional certificates, such as guidance counselors, librarians and nurses.
School district attorney Shannon McMinimee said Tuesday that officials hope Chushcoff will issue a ruling immediately requiring employees to return to work.
“The district is doing everything it can to get its staff back to work,” McMinimee said outside the County-City Building just after noon Tuesday. “(The teachers) are engaging in an illegal strike. From what I understand, the teaching union has refused to negotiate since Saturday. Letting that go on longer is not going to do anyone any good.”
Tacoma Education Association President Andy Coons said that union negotiators – mostly teachers – have been bargaining every evening after school since the start of the school year Sept. 1. He said union bargainers worked all day Saturday and into the evening. He said district negotiators did not ask to talk about two issues – class size and pay – until after 8 p.m. Saturday. By that time, he said, his team was tired.
Coons said he thought the district would call teacher negotiators to the bargaining table Tuesday instead of asking them to appear in court.
“Every one of us is getting an individual summons to court – every member of the executive board and every bargainer,” Coons said.
The district claims that all striking employees are still under contract and in violation of it. Since it expired Aug. 31, teachers have been working under the contract, which can stay in effect by mutual consent, the district contends.
The union says that under an expired contract, its members cannot carry grievances through to conclusion, and that means the district is free to interpret the contract as it wants.
The district says in its legal filing that state law prohibits the union from striking and that courts have upheld school districts time and again when it comes to South Sound teacher strikes – in 2009 in the Kent School District, in 1995 in Fife, in 1983 in Clover Park (Lakewood), and in 1978 in Tacoma.
A prolonged strike would cause substantial harm to the district and its students and employees who can’t work when school is not in session, the district contends. It listed in its pleadings 21 specific negative effects of a prolonged strike, including the possibility of lost revenue from canceled athletic events and uneaten food spoiling in cafeterias.
“The strike interferes with the college-application process for high school seniors and reduces the time district students can prepare for high-stakes examinations (which cannot be rescheduled), placing district students at a competitive disadvantage,” the district pleadings state.
The district argues that several groups would be especially hard hit by a protracted strike: its 3,800 special-education students, the 18,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals, and other district employees – bus drivers and cafeteria workers among them.
District officials also worry about loss of public support for school levies and bonds, the court pleadings state.
“Every day the district is prevented from performing its public duty increases the degree of irreparable harm to Tacoma’s students, families, staff and community,” Superintendent Art Jarvis said in a declaration filed with the pleadings.
The district, in its legal filings, accused the union of encouraging teachers to hide “district computers, teacher manuals, lesson plans and any other materials that a substitute would need in order to effectively teach.”
The union said it advised teachers to remove personal belongings from classrooms, as well as grade books and lesson plans, because teachers would not have access during a strike. Coons said teachers are legally responsible for grade books, and he said lesson plan books would ordinarily not be left for a substitute teacher. He said teachers write separate lesson plans for substitutes.
Coons said the district’s statement in legal papers shows either “a lack of understanding of what happens in the classroom, or they are just trying to spin it.”
The union leader said the decision to strike was an emotional one for him and other teachers.
“I completely broke down when I made the motion,” Coons said. “It was not a decision made lightly. It was done in desperation. We tried everything we can at the table. We’re stuck.”
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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