It’s a done deal.
The Tacoma School Board on Wednesday ratified a three-year teacher contract in a unanimous vote, one week after leaders from the district and the teachers union reached a deal leading to the end of an eight-day strike.
“We ratified the contract and are ready to move on,” school board President Kurt Miller said after the brief meeting. “We still have a lot of work to do (this school year).”
Andy Coons, president of the Tacoma Education Association union, said, “We look forward to being able to focus on the students for the rest of the year.”
Union members approved the tentative deal last week.
The wording of the contract document, which is lengthy, still is being edited and put together. It likely won’t be available to the public for more than a month.
Highlights of the pact include:
• Freezing pay at current levels, with teachers giving up one optional paid training day the first year. That training day will be reinstated the second year unless there are more state funding cuts. The salary section of the contract will reopen for negotiation the third year.
• Maintaining current class-size limits.
• Forming a committee to develop a new process governing transfers and reassignments.
That issue was the primary sticking point in contract negotiations. The district wanted more flexibility, while the union worried about criteria being too subjective.
The new process will use factors in addition to seniority, and will be in place by next school year. For now, the current practice of using seniority will stand.
The contract ratification also means teachers and other TEA members who went on strike will receive full paychecks on their next payday, Oct. 5 – something that was in question late last week.
The district said it would be illegal to pay them for time they hadn’t yet worked. But the union said withholding money from the Oct. 5 check would be unfair and retaliatory.
Teachers noted they aren’t paid by the day; their salaries are parceled out over the year.
The district said it sought advice from the state Auditor’s Office and was told there wouldn’t be an issue as long as, by payday, a contract was in place specifying that the employees get 24 equal payments over the year.
That language is in the pact.
Salaried employees such as paraeducators also will receive their regular pay. Hourly employees will be paid for the time they worked; they did have some paid training during the strike.
The district Wednesday estimated the strike cost $406,740 in everything from the trainings to lost food. It started Sept. 13; the district and union reached a tentative deal late Sept. 21, after being called to Olympia by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Classes for the district’s roughly 28,000 students resumed Friday.
Also Wednesday, the school board unanimously approved extending the existing contract with food-service workers represented by Public School Employees of Washington for another three years.
Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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