Teachers ratify new contract; school starts Wednesday
August 28, 2008
By Laura Geggel
In an overwhelmingly strong show of support, teachers belonging to the Snoqualmie Education Association voted Aug. 27 to approve a new three-year contract. The vote took place at the general membership breakfast and was passed by more than 80 percent.
“We are very pleased to report that school will start on time on Sept. 3,” said the district’s Public Information Coordinator Carolyn Malcolm.
About 150 teachers, students and community members had marched in front of the district office and annex Aug. 26 in a “Show of Support” action before bargaining began that afternoon.
The teachers’ union and the district met for more than six hours before reaching a tentative agreement on the contract.
Mount Si High School Jazz Band Teacher Adam Rupert said teachers arrived to the breakfast early Wednesday with signs demanding a fairer contract. Association President Art Galloway, who could not be reached for comment, joined them outside and announced on a bullhorn the positive news from the night, Rupert said.
Once the breakfast got started and the annual tradition of introducing new teachers and members of the school board had passed, the association’s negotiation team presented the proposed contract to teachers in both a lecture and a written format.
“It was very thorough,” Rupert said. “There were several ovations throughout the presentation acknowledging the work of the negotiators.”
Teachers voted on paper ballots and dropped them into voting boxes. The votes were tallied within two hours and the outcome was posted on the district’s Web site, www.svsd410.org.
Rupert said he released a sigh of relief.
“My immediate reaction was ‘Phew!’ I’ve only put in seven years and I haven’t been through a strike before, but I know it’s very rarely a good thing.”
Yet, Rupert said, teachers will have to wait two years to see the higher hanging fruits of the contract. Contract specifics have not yet been released.
“We’re going to see the biggest increase in benefits in that third year,” Rupert said. “I feel we’ve been pretty patient, and it will be hard to wait these two years,”
Still, “we feel its much closer to getting us toward average than we were before,” he said.
The School Board will vote to either approve or reject the new contract at a 7:30 p.m. meeting Aug. 28. School board meetings – held at the district office at 8001 Silva Ave S.E., Snoqualmie – are open to the public.
Malcolm said that both the district and the association should be commended for the hard work they put in to reach this agreement.
“We do believe that the tentative agreement does address the issues presented by the union and also upholds the district’s priorities to support our staff, to ensure the fiscal health of the school district, and most importantly, to enhance quality student learning,” Malcolm said.
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