Tacoma school district officials announced at 8:30 tonight that classes would be canceled Thursday for the eighth straight day, even as negotiators kept working behind closed doors in Olympia. A robocall message will be sent to families shortly.
The parties worked through dinnertime, either ordering food or bringing in their own.
Throughout the strike, the district has typically canceled classes by midafternoon the previous day.
A Tacoma Public Schools spokesman earlier reported optimism about the ongoing negotiations with the teachers union, though no agreement on a new contract has been reached.
Tacoma Public Schools officials and members of the teachers union earlier answered a request to report to the governor’s office after failing to reach terms of a new contract on their own today.
Among those who filed into the office of Gov. Chris Gregoire between 2 and 3 p.m. were Tacoma Superintendent Art Jarvis, School Board President Kurt Miller and members of the Tacoma Education Association bargaining team.
This morning, negotiators for striking Tacoma teachers and the school district were back at the bargaining table in Tacoma, at the request of Gregoire.
The governor wanted the two sides talking today. Since they didn’t reach agreement by this afternoon, she called both sides to her office to talk “until their differences are reconciled and the school doors reopen,” according to a statement from her office.
The governor does not have the authority to force a resolution between the teachers and district; that power resides with Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff, who has ordered both sides to settle their differences and report back to him Tuesday under the threat of teacher sanctions.
But Gregoire can apply pressure by using the bully pulpit of her office. That’s what she did with doctors and lawyers in early 2006 when she presided over four weeks of intense, closed-door negotiations that led to reforms to Washington’s medical malpractice system.
A spokesman for the governor said he didn't know of a previous teachers strike during Gregoire's tenure when she brought opposing sides to Olympia.
“Ordering the strike to end is not going to end the problem," said spokesman Cory Curtis. "You have to get both sides in agreement for a long-term solution.”
Gregoire’s intervention came after negotiators for the school district left the bargaining table late Tuesday and talks broke off.
Rich Wood, spokesman for the teachers union, said he was surprised that the district chose to abandon the bargaining process when both sides appeared close to settlement.
“It threw our team for a loop,” he said this morning. “They truly believed we were close to settlement. I think that’s still true from our perspective this morning.”
School district spokesman Dan Voelpel said this morning that the walk-away was “not unusual.” He said it happens when one party at the table “decides they are not going to make any more progress.”
He said the union presented the district with new proposals Tuesday night, after the district team thought issues had been resolved.
He said those issues are summarized today on the district website, .
But Wood said some information posted there early this morning did not include the union’s latest proposals from Tuesday night.
“Settlement has to occur at the bargaining table, whether in Tacoma or Olympia,” Wood said.
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