The Aberdeen School District has submitted a revised contract proposal to its teachers union that does not change the 15 percent raise previously offered, but does include some additional benefits for the teachers.
The new proposal removes a mandate that would have required teachers to be at school at least eight hours a day, as the district’s previous offer stated.
Supeirintendent Alicia Henderson told The Daily World that instead, the district has added a list of “professional responsibilities” to the contract that acknowledges work teachers do outside of class.
These responsibilities include preparing for the opening and closing of school, arriving to class at least 10 minutes before the start of school and staying 10 minutes after it ends, and communicating with parents when issues arise, among many others.
Members of the Aberdeen Education Association, the teacher union, were not satsified with the district’s previous offer, and said that requiring longer workdays for more pay isn’t a true raise.
There are a couple of other changes as well in the new proposal. For one, the district agreed to the union’s request to compensate teachers each time they cover for a colleague during a free period in the day. The proposal also agrees to pay special education specialists more if they have prior experience outside of education, like occupational therapist work. And finally, the district widened the criteria for bereavement leave, so teachers can take paid time off if any of their relatives die.
However, the AEA is still not satisfied with the district’s latest proposal, which does not change the salary increase from 15 percent, as originally offered July 30.
“The district’s current offer does not confirm upon the teachers the funding that is due to them under McCleary,” AEA President Michelle Reed wrote in an email to The Daily World.
With a new state funding model going into effect in 2019 due to the McCleary court decision, teacher unions all around Washington have pushed for significant teacher raises. Some districts have already settled their contracts, while others have pushed back the start of school as teachers are striking.
Aberdeen teachers have been going to work despite not securing a contract, but the AEA did authorize a strike in June, meaning the AEA bargaining team can call for a strike if it wants to. After calling for a strike, the AEA’s members would need to vote again to confirm it.
The next bargaining session is set for Sept. 5, but the AEA may have already provided a response to the latest proposal from the district.
Reed added in her email that the AEA has “provided the district a way for settlement, which they have taken to the board.”
She did not elaborate or explain what this meant.
Reed also said that the district’s latest proposal “is no longer up for discussion,” and that “the parties will be working off what the AEA has provided the district as a pathway to settlement.”
Henderson declined to elaborate on what the AEA provided them, and said she looks forward to meeting with union representatives on Wednesday.
At the next meeting, the district will be using a mediator from the state Public Employment Relations Commission to negotiate with each side separately and relay information.
Reed has said she doesn’t believe the two sides are at an impasse that would require a mediator, which the district requested after the bargaining session on Aug. 21 failed to happen after miscommunication issues.
Both parties sat in separate rooms in the district’s offices, but neither side contacted the other. The AEA’s bargaining team said they believe the district was intentially boycotting their bargain meeting in response to the teachers’ rally outside Aberdeen High School the day before, but Henderson said the district’s team was simply waiting for the AEA to contact them first.
