Labor talks begin with teachers, Kent School District

Bargaining between the Kent School District and its teachers’ union has officially begun.

The Kent Education Association’s current contract expires Aug. 31 and a new contract is needed in place Sept.1 to prevent a strike.

Both sides have met and made their initial official proposals to each other. Negotiations on those proposals should begin in the near future.

KEA officials have long stated the union’s position is based on three main points: time, workload and compensation.

The Kent School Board has previously stated its interest in increasing teacher pay within the district, considered among the lowest rates in the region, on average. However, no pay increase has been included in the district’s recent proposal to KEA.

Highlights from both proposals were briefly available Thursday on the Kent School District Web site but disappeared Friday, so that district staff could update them. According to district officials, the proposals will be put back on the Web site as soon as the updates are complete.

Among the union’s proposals are a decrease in class size and workload for teachers, up to seven days leave each year for professional development that would not need pre-approval by the district, seven professional leave days, time off for union business without district approval, five extra days of pay for teachers who both voluntarily change schools in the summer or are forced to change schools, three additional paid days for teachers pursuing their master’s degree and a 4.3 percent cost-of-living increase.

The district’s proposal includes permission to hire contract personnel when necessary, permission to reassign staff to a different building, elimination of extra paid days due to a loss of state funding for them, elimination of one of the summer learning-improvement days due to a loss of state funding for them and establishment of a one-year term for this contract.

According to the district, the union’s requests would cost an additional $60 million.

According to the union, the loss of extra paid days and an elimination of “effective education money,” (the extra days no longer being funded by the state) would equate to a 7.3 percent pay cut.

“The reductions they are asking for, if you don’t include the COLA (cost of living allowances) would amount to about 7.3 percent,” said KEA president Lisa Brackin-Johnson.

Without a cost-of-living adjustment, union leadership says the district’s proposal constitutes “an 11.5 percent pay cut.”

“They want us to work with more students and do more things for 11.5 percent less than we’re making now,” Brackin-Johnson said.

District officials disagree with the union’s characterization of a lack of a COLA equating to a pay cut and said the reduction in effective education days is due to the district’s loss of $8.5 million in I-728 money, which the Legislature removed from the budget.

According to District Communications Director Becky Hanks, six of the district’s seven effective ed days were paid through I-728 and without the state funding, each day would cost the district $529,000 to pay the 1,631 teachers (presently) in Kent.

Brackin-Johnson also said the teachers in Kent would like a pay increase to be “at least in the middle of the Puget Sound Region.”

“Mediocrity would be a big step for us,” she said.

According to Hanks, raises were left off of the table because of a reduction in state funding and increasing teacher pay for some would mean letting other teachers go to make up the funding.

“If you want to try to give increases and raises, you have to cut programs,” Hanks said.

According to numbers provided by Hanks, 14.6 teaching positions would have to be cut for every 1 percent pay increase.

“We’re trying to minimize how many staff members need to be laid off,” Hanks said.

Brackin-Johnson also said the union leadership does not believe taking a pay freeze or cuts will save additional teaching jobs. In Kent, the city’s unions voted to take a reduction in pay in order to keep positions from being cut, something the teachers union is not considering.

“Putting a freeze on everything does not guarantee positions will stay,” Brackin-Johnson said, adding again that the district has the money.

The district has also proposed the new contract be negotiated for a single year instead of three, (as is traditionally done) in hopes the financial picture will be better by next summer and money can be restored.

The district is grappling with a loss of funding due to a state budget which cut $794 million from K-12 education funding overall. Included in the cuts at the state level was the cost of living increase for teachers.

Much of the money is expected to be made up through federal stimulus dollars, but district officials are worried the federal money will come with many strings attached and may not be able to be used in the same way as state money.

In preparation for the cuts, the Kent School District on April 22 approved a list of more than 129 certificated full-time equivalency teaching positions that may need to be cut, though district officials have stated they do not expect that many will have to be let go.

Despite the state cuts, union officials continue to insist the district has the extra money to pay teachers and says the district must adjust its priorities.

“We believe there is money available and they are choosing not to use it” Brackin-Johnson said. “It’s a matter of priorities.”

The union continues to insist the district is not being forthright about its fund-balance numbers and said more administration positions should be cut.

The school board has identified more than $3.3 million in cuts to administration that will take place before any programs or teaching positions will be cut and said multiple administration positions have been cut over the past several years in order to protect programs.

In total, the Kent School District’s site lists 52 proposals from the union and 13 from the district.