Group starts hashing over unresolved strike issue

A nine-member group charged with finding a solution to the problem that launched the September teachers strike in Tacoma assigned itself some ambitious goals Thursday.

Group members agreed at their first meeting to come up with a new method for reassigning and transferring teachers and other members of the Tacoma Education Association.

Their self-imposed deadline: March 1.

They pledged to develop a process that is “clearly defined, simple and equitable” and one that “promotes optimal staffing at our diverse schools.”

The committee includes Deputy Superintendent Carla Santorno, TEA President Andy Coons, three union members, three administrators and an educator from outside the district.

Their work is an outgrowth of the contract settlement. An agreement signed by the district and the union to end the eight-day strike required that a group come up with new contract language to govern reassignments and transfers, also known as displacement. Their work must be done in time for the 2012-13 school year.

The agreement states that seniority – the governing factor in the old contract – can be a factor or a tiebreaker but not the sole consideration in the new contract.

Jeanne Harmon, director of the Tacoma-based Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession, is the outside member of the committee. She is donating her services.

“I know we have the right people at the table,” Santorno said. “We are excited about doing the work.”

Coons said there’s plenty of that ahead.

“There were smart people at the bargaining table,” he said. “They were not able to solve this problem. We are stuck. We need to do something different.”

Several committee members and others who spoke Thursday expressed hope that this group represents a fresh start after the divisiveness of the strike.

“We are not bargaining,” Santorno said. “We have a common task.”

Committee member Ann Welton, who works as a librarian at Stafford Elementary School, said that whatever solution the group creates “has to have ‘feet’ at the end. It has to walk out into the world and do something.”

During contract negotiations last summer, the district proposed a new set of criteria to be used, in addition to seniority, when school administrators need to move teachers between buildings. District officials said they wanted to give principals more flexibility to ensure teachers were the best fit for their school.

But union members balked, saying the district’s ideas were too vague, too subjective and too liable to lead to favoritism. The union had already filed a grievance over how displacement had played out during sweeping middle school reforms last year. The grievance was dismissed as part of the contract settlement.

On Thursday, committee members heard a summary of the summer negotiations from each side. Sara Erickson, a counselor at Stadium High School, spoke from the union viewpoint. Pat Erwin, co-principal at Lincoln High School, spoke as a member of the district bargaining team.

Erwin said two of the biggest sticking points during the talks concerned teacher evaluations and whether student achievement data should play a part in how teachers are judged. He acknowledged there is controversy nationally over such reforms.

Erickson said teachers worried they would be labeled as poor performers, even if they were displaced due to dropping enrollment in a school. She said that as time ticked by and tension increased during contract talks, it became more difficult for the two sides to have honest conversations.

“There is baggage from bargaining,” Erickson said. “Some of that just needs to be left in bargaining.”

Committee members seemed willing to do that on Thursday. They plan to meet again for three days next month: Dec. 1, 2 and 8. Meeting times and places will be announced later.

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635 debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com