Pasco schools to close for third day, marathon contract talks set

The Pasco School District’s teachers strike will stretch into a third day.

Negotiators with the Pasco Association of Educators made their first formal contract proposal in about two weeks during bargaining Wednesday afternoon. They requested a marathon, face-to-face, 18-hour bargaining session on Sept. 3 to strike a deal.

Lead negotiator Matthew Polk also offered to remove Washington Education Association staff assisting him and his team from the talks if the district pulled its professional negotiators as well. The district reportedly agreed to the marathon session but rejected the union’s contract offer.

“We’re not going to be done until this problem is solved,” Polk said.

The district expressed optimism earlier in the day about the negotiations but did not change its latest offer made to the union on Aug. 31. That offer was an $8.4 million package with salary increases, guarantees to pay for supplies and materials, and other assurances.

Citing teacher concerns about curriculum, district spokeswoman Leslee Caul said during a news conference that the district has been working on the issue but noted that teachers must be part of the process, which requires them to be in the classroom. The Pasco School Board had a similar message in a letter posted to the district website late Wednesday afternoon.

“In order to adequately address the needs the teachers are expressing, we need them to come back to work,” the letter said.

The union contract proposal touches on curriculum, testing, classroom size, pay, teacher planning time, teacher evaluations and classroom supplies with some previous proposals on other issues included. There are no firm costs associated with anything — even the section on pay states: “Pasco’s compensation schedule needs to reflect the additional duties already being performed by teachers here in comparison to other districts, including the need to spend evenings and weekends working as curriculum developers.”

But the document does push firm benchmarks for what teachers want: a textbook for every child using a curriculum the district claims it has approved and adopted, only state- and federally-required standardized testing, and specific caps on classroom size dictated by grade level.

“We want to make it clear to the district we’re not tied to specific numbers,” Polk said.

School board members said they are committed to reaching an agreement with teachers, noting that their concerns are genuine, the state has woefully underfunded education and Pasco’s relatively low property tax base limits the district’s budget.

“The district’s most recent offer on the day the strike was called was not an easy concession to make, as it will significantly stretch our local budget during the next three years,” the board’s letter said.

Caul said Wednesday that there’s a specific legal process the district and board must follow to review and adopt curriculum. Teachers were an important part of developing curriculum for the district’s first science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM elementary schools, Rosalind Franklin STEM Elementary School.

“Until we have teachers working on the process, we can’t fully develop a plan for curriculum without knowing what teachers want,” Caul said in a prepared statement.

However, both sides continued to criticize the other about their willingness to negotiate. Polk said talks were scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Wednesday but district representatives didn’t show up until 11 a.m. The school board’s letter denied that, saying the district has shown up on time for all negotiations.

Caul also had to update a prior claim about mediators not being available Tuesday and that was why contract talks weren’t held that day. She said she learned later that the mediators were available.

The district was willing to meet, but only if the union offered a formal contract proposal, Caul said, “but that based on the nature of PAE’s last supposal, the district believed it would be more productive to meet Wednesday morning in mediation.” A supposal is a non-formal contract offer generally not made public.

Union officials had said they were willing to meet Tuesday. They’ve also blasted the district for moving so quickly to file for a preliminary injunction to force teachers back to work. That request is scheduled for a court hearing Sept. 4. Caul said that the legal request doesn’t mean the district will drag its feet in contract talks.

“It would be wonderful if we could get back to work before Friday,” she said.

Teachers continued to picket throughout the community Wednesday, though some moved to areas more in the public eye and not just in front of schools. Kim Mead, president of WEA, visited picketers outside the district’s headquarters and at New Horizons High School.

Other support has also come in with The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council, Central Washington Building and Construction Trades Council and Boilermakers Local 242 pledging $1,250 to the teachers union. Officials with those unions, as well as community members, also have sent food and water to those on picket lines.

“Kids are bringing cupcakes to teachers out there,” PAE president Greg Olson said. “I’m so proud of Pasco.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Pasco schools to close for third day, marathon contract talks set."