As reported here earlier, the Seattle Education Association went on strike first thing this morning. While talks are continuing, at this point it looks like the strike will continue for a second day Thursday. Here’s the information we have so far:

(Photo sent by BJ: Lafayette Elementary strikers this afternoon)

UNION: As of an early-evening statement, SEA says, “The Bargaining Team met with SPS in joint session with the mediator today starting at 10:30 a.m. and continues to make progress. SEA remains united for student supports, reasonable workloads, and respectful pay.” That followed negotiations through much of the night, according to SEA president Jennifer Matter, with whom we spoke at Sanislo Elementary this morning shortly after picketing began. The union statement says: “Unless the district comes to an agreement tonight, the 6,000 Paraprofessionals, Substitutes, Office Professionals, and teachers will be forced to continue the strike and picket again on Thursday from 7:30 – 3:30 pm.” When an agreement is reached, Matter told us, they will be able to call a general meeting “quickly” online to consider it. The union’s bargaining-info page, including a comparison of proposals, is here.

DISTRICT: Seattle Public Schools says that from here on out, it will update families daily by 3 pm. Today’s update, as we noted briefly earlier, officially canceled classes again tomorrow (Thursday, September 8th), which would have been the second day of the 2022-2023 school year. The SPS update also mentions that a mediator is participating: “While we don’t yet have an agreement, both the district and SEA are committed to working on our shared challenges. We are certain that an agreement can be reached that both values educators and serves students.” The district’s bargaining-info page is here.

MEALS: Again tomorrow, the district will offer sack lunches for all students at certain schools. Early this afternoon, we stopped by the Chief Sealth International High School/Denny International Middle School distribution site, which is in the dock area on the east side of the campuses:

The full list of meal sites is on this district webpage.

CITY RESOURCES: The city has published an update on various resources to assist families – see it here. Key point – If needed, starting on Monday, the city will offer eight community centers – two in West Seattle – as “recreation activity hubs”:

Starting Monday, September 12

Hours of operation will be 9:00 am to 5:30 pm at designated centers
Age group 5-12 (school age)
Designated community centers
Offering free recreational programs and activities
Families will be able to register online via ActiveNet starting Thursday, Sept 8th
(Here are the two West Seattle) designated community centers:

Alki Community Center
High Point Community Center

We’ll update if any other information emerges tonight.

(WSB photo, Sanislo Elementary)

9:54 AM: Hours after the Seattle Education Association announced a strike – authorized in a vote announced 12 hours before that – many of its members are out picketing. We stopped at three local schools in the first hour. Above, Sanislo Elementary on Puget Ridge drew TV crews because SEA announced that’s where president Jennifer Matter would be in the early going. We talked with her briefly there; she said negotiations are continuing and had been for much of the night:

The union has dubbed this the “Strike for Student Supports” because a key issue, as Matter noted, is staffing levels as the district moves special education into a more-inclusive model; one of the hand-lettered picket signs on view at Sanislo said the school has a nurse one day a week, From there we went to adjacent Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School. Sealth picketers walked along busy SW Thistle and drew frequent honks from passing drivers.

(WSB photo, Chief Sealth IHS)

To the north, Denny picketers walked a line in a mostly residential neighborhood.

(WSB photos above and below, Denny IMS)

The union says picketing will continue 7:30 am-3:30 pm daily for as long as the strike – their first one since 2015 – lasts. The two sides have been negotiating since early June. Union bargaining info is here; district info is here. We’re headed out to some other West Seattle schools shortly.

11:51 AM: Just back from four more schools. Picketing video from each of the seven schools we’ve gone to this morning is on our Twitter feed at @westseattleblog. Our fourth stop was Alki Elementary:

At Alki we talked with building strike leader Julie Calkins, a fifth-grade teacher who is in her 16th year at the school. “We are feeling unsupported,” she said.

She spoke of issues including the need to keep caseload caps. And yes, salary is an issue, she said, but primarily for the lowest-paid workers in the union, office staff and paraprofessionals – the higher-paid educators are “looking out for” them. She added, “We want to be in our building … (but) we feel we have no choice” but to strike. She encourages people to read information on the SEA website about where they stand.

Next we went to West Seattle High School:

Teacher Jennifer Hall told us she and colleagues had worked through the Labor Day weekend to set up their classrooms so things are ready to go whenever this ends.

She also spoke about the importance of keeping caselaad caps – “if caps are removed, we can’t give the students the services they need” – and the need for more support in areas such as mental health. Hall described WSHS as a “very unified school” where educators are determined to fight for respect. “This isn’t lots of fun.”

From there, to Madison Middle School:

Sixth-grade teacher Kara Kreider – who’s been teaching for 20 years – talked with us about the perception that the district isn’t supporting the priorities it has given voice to. “We’ve had so many district trainings” about inclusion, for example. But teachers feel the contract proposal doesn’t offer support for turning training into reality. Also a concern, collaborative planning time – two hours a month, Kreider said – that would be taken away. “We need inclusion to be done in a thoughtful way.” As with other schools we visited, striking educators had support from students, some there to picket with them.

Before heading back to HQ, we stopped by the West Seattle Elementary interim site at Schmitz Park:

WSES is here for a second year while the addition to their High Point building is completed. … One more photo, texted by Althea, showing the Fairmount Park Elementary strikers:

If the strike continues tomorrow, we’ll visit some of the West Seattle schools we didn’t get to today. We’re continuing to monitor for updates from the two sides regarding bargaining and day-to-day school status – no updates today yet.

4:15 PM: The district says negotiations continue but classes are officially canceled Thursday too. (We’ll have a separate update this evening.)