Seattle students start school with teachers strike suspended

A tentative deal was reached between Seattle’s school district and teachers’ union, ending a five-day strike.

Seattle Schools Superintendent Larry Nyland, second from left, visits with students Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, on the first day of school at Chief Sealth international High School in Seattle.

Teachers, substitutes and support staff complained that living expenses have become unaffordable as the city’s high-paid technology industry booms and they have gone six years without a cost-of-living increase. The full union membership will vote on the deal Sunday.

Seattle teachers are back in their classrooms on Thursday, but it might only be a temporary start to the school year.

Johnson said he was a little nervous about starting school because the full union membership isn’t voting until Sunday.

Chicago teachers, who went on strike in 2012, pushed for more recruitment of teachers of color so students would have proper role models, Bruno said.

“A lot of us (parents) are trying to take the energy from the strike and turn it toward Olympia”, he said of the state Capitol, adding that they want to pressure lawmakers to find a consistent revenue stream.

The walkout that began Sept. 9 delayed the start of school in Washington state’s largest district.

They are “moving the bargaining away from the worker-centered economic interest to the broader defense of education”.

“The school district had offered raises of ‘2 percent this year, 3.2 percent next year and 3.75 percent the year after that, ‘ as member station KPLU reports”.

“I’m really ready for school”. “I stand by teachers”.

On Monday, Seattle’s city council adopted a resolution of support for the teachers, in a unanimous vote.

“This is a trend that really is going to continue to blossom across the country”, she said.

The strike had broad support among parents, who organized meals, walked the picket line and held a march Tuesday that brought several hundred people out to back teachers.