Teachers and family members pose for a photo during a community block party last month in Centralia.
Centralia teachers voted Wednesday night to strike unless their union, the Centralia Education Association, and the Centralia School District reach a settlement on contracts before midnight Aug. 31.
“The motion made stated the united members of the Centralia Education Association empower the CEA bargaining team to call for a strike if no agreement has been reached by midnight on Aug. 31,” said Kerri Kite-Pocklington, who is a co-chair of the union and K-3 physical education teacher at Edison Elementary School.
The CEA came to the decision at its general meeting on Wednesday evening. The union’s ninth, and most recent, bargaining session with the district was on Saturday. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Aug. 17.
“We emailed the district attorney and said we have our calendars open and are willing to meet,” Kite-Pocklington said. “We already have the Aug. 17 date set aside, but we are willing to make other dates if they will meet with us.”
Kite-Pocklington said there were 129 voting members at the meeting and 98 percent of them voted for a strike. The decision only required a supermajority of present members.
“We met and we went over what’s happened at our nine bargaining sessions,” Kite-Pocklington said. “There were some questions asked, then the motion was made by a teacher and seconded by seven to 10 different individuals. There was about a 10-minute discussion, but really it was just people saying they agreed with (the) decision.”
Even if the teachers go on strike, Kite-Pocklington said students will still attend school 180 days per year. Centralia School District Superintendent Mark Davalos did not return request for comment and it is unclear at this point how the district will respond.
“Our bargaining did not come to a consensus of what we thought would be appropriate,” said Lauri Johnson, who is co-chair of the union, in a voicemail.
Kite-Pocklington noted that the district’s offer was much lower than the union was willing to settle for.
“We were left in about a 3-hour caucus where we gave our financial package and last proposal,” Kite-Pocklington said. “We gave our package (and) the district had us wait three hours while they looked at it. When they came back it was not anywhere near what we asked, so we ended before 5 (p.m.).”
Elizabeth Collins, a UniServ representative for Washington Education Association (WEA) Chinook, said the meeting was “unproductive.”
The McCleary case, in which the Supreme Court ruled the legislature was not fully funding K-12 education, complicates these negotiations.
In the McCleary case, the court ruled that the state was causing school districts to use local levy money to supplement teacher salaries and basic education, giving districts in more affluent areas of the state an unfair advantage.
The ruling was handed down in 2012, but the Washington legislature came into full compliance this year by passing a bill that overhauled school funding and provided more state money for teacher salaries.
However, it remains unclear how raises should be allocated after McCleary. No one The Chronicle has spoken to has provided the same answer.
Davalos previously told The Chronicle that he does not believe the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) gave school districts clear guidelines for how to proceed post-McCleary.
Davalos said the change in funding has caused a net $1.3 million decrease in funding for the district.
The union disputes this figure. The WEA assembled a multi-year funding model for Centralia School District that is based on information from OSPI.
Moving from the 2017-18 school year into the upcoming one, these projections show a $1,455,015 decrease in local funding and a more than $5 million increase in state funding.
“While they are assembled by WEA, these are OSPI’s numbers,” Collins said.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 17.
