Teachers strike in Seattle ends

Classes resume on Thursday, as an arrangement was met Tuesday.

Educators 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. Union leaders had hoped to oust the metric – which tracks teachers’ performance using changes in student test scores from one year to the next – from the district’s teacher evaluation system.

While there was some excitement, some teachers weren’t thrilled with the contract.

Yet as the teachers celebrated, some said they didn’t win every argument. In Washington, the state legislature determines the base teacher salary, but districts can supplement it in negotiations. That is on top of a state-approved 4.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment over three years. The district offered raises totaling eight % out of native levy cash in that point. Teachers were originally asking for about an 18 percent salary bump.

Some teachers and parents said they were eager to see what’s in the deal. “We really appreciate the strong support from parents and students”.

Stanojević-Peñuela said she supported the union’s fight to protect recess, along with its wage proposals.

The school district said it wanted a contract that’s fiscally responsible.

The city opened 21 community centers around the city to help accommodate up to 3,000 students during the strike.

The elimination of the Seattle Student Growth Rating.

PTA member Ljiljana Stanojević-Peñuela organized strike support through the Facebook group Soup for Teachers. “But we also can’t deny that it’s super disruptive to all families”.

That’s the sentiment echoed through Machinist Hall after SEA union reps voted to end the ongoing strike. “We had students there”, Russell said. “Something’s getting cut somewhere, and we don’t know what”.

Last week, the state supreme court ruled that charter schools were unconstitutional because they use public funds without oversight from an elected governing board. Despite plenty of frustration to go around, today’s mayhem does seem to have reached a fever pitch-and right now, teachers’ unions have the high note. That walkout lasted 19 days.

“[Union President Jonathan] Knapp said teachers would get a 9.5 percent raise over three years”.

The agreement was the culmination of a very long process.

Miller said the school board canceled negotiations on Wednesday.

Some members of the bargaining teams were in the headquarters building for almost 24 hours. “However, we need to take care of ourselves, as well”, Treistman said. “But we’ve got a foot in the door”.