Centralia High School teacher Michael Ready expresses frustrations over salary negotiations at the Wednesday evening Centralia School District Board of Directors Meeting.
Although the teachers’ union and Centralia School District are still bargaining over salaries, teachers voiced frustrations over an “insulting” offer from the district at its most recent board meeting.
At the Wednesday evening Centralia School District Board of Directors meeting, community members filled every seat and spilled out the door. Teachers showed up wearing red as part of the national Wear Red for Ed movement.
“Bargaining is always give and take,” said Centralia High School English teacher Rebekah Barnes on Thursday. “Obviously, I can’t talk about the details. But Centralia is receiving a 17.6 percent increase in funding from the state for teacher salaries, so that is what people (teachers) expected to be passed onto them. Somewhere in the 15-17.6 percent range is the amount people expected.”
The increase in funding to schools is related to the state’s response to the McCleary case, in which the state Supreme Court ruled the legislature was not fully funding education, thereby causing schools to use levy money for basic education and to supplement teacher salaries.
“You joined the lawsuit, we won the lawsuit, the legislature has provided, so now it’s time for you to step up and do your part,” said Fords Prairie Elementary School teacher Nancy Herzog at the meeting.
Since the union and the district are still negotiating, neither side said how much of a raise the district offered. However, none of the teachers will receive a pay cut.
Roughly 15 people spoke during the public comment section. Many were teachers or concerned parents and grievances were largely related to teacher salaries and the new K-6 configuration at all district elementary schools. Both teachers and parents made comments that bled into the other issue.
“Our schools are not healthy working environments,” said Centralia High School teacher Lauri Johnson. “We were not asked about the K-6 transition, but told.”
Last week, parents voiced concerns at the Fords Prairie PTO meeting over boundary changes for all the elementary schools in Centralia. The district estimates that 20-30 percent of students will change schools as a result of the new K-6 model. In addition, teachers will shift around in the district as well.
Superintendent Mark Davalos said in an interview after the Fords Prairie PTO meeting on June 5 that teachers will be assigned in January 2019 after the boundaries are finished. He added that by early February, teachers would be able to announce at which school and what grade they will teach.
“All of our teachers are going to have jobs, but they might be teaching the same grade in a different school, or maybe even a different grade in their same school or a different school,” Davalos said at the time.
More immediately, however, teachers in the district are concerned with salaries. The teachers’ union is currently bargaining with the district.
Davalos said negotiations could last anywhere from one more meeting to a couple more months.
“They had an opportunity to voice their desire to bargain and win and we don’t do that,” Davalos said of the comments. “We don’t respond. We have agreed during bargaining that we are supposed to keep bargaining sessions private. We kind of take the high road and don’t talk about it.”
