BACK-TO-SCHOOL NOTES: Contract talks, not-ready portables, expansion celebration

With Seattle Public Schools scheduled to start Wednesday, we have three notes tonight:

CONTRACT TALKS: We hope to hear more Tuesday about the district’s contract talks with Operating Engineers Local 302, the union for several categories of staff including culinary services, custodians, grounds, security, and alarm monitoring. SPS acknowledged Friday that the contract had expired Thursday but insisted, “It is not unusual to go past the contract end date for these negotiations.” The South Seattle Emerald reported that union reps speaking at last week’s school-board meeting said talks had been under way since spring but the district just made its first money proposal a week earlier. Meantime, the question many are asking is whether teachers would refuse to cross the picket line if this union goes out on strike. There’s been no public statement on that, though it’s been requested that teachers not step in to do the work IUOE members would do. (Tuesday morning semi-update: We asked SPS for the latest. They sent us a statement that is word-for-word what they published on the SPS website Friday. So, no update yet.

NOT-READY PORTABLES: After we reported a week and a half ago that West Seattle High School‘s new portables were in place in the parking lot, a commenter said staff had been told they won’t be ready to occupy for the start of the year.

(WSB photo, last month)

We asked SPS if that was true, and if so, why. Spokesperson Tina Christiansen replied, “According to the senior project manager, it’s an issue with the availability of electrical contractors.”

WEST SEATTLE ELEMENTARY CEREMONY: Last month we showed you the renovations and expansion at West Seattle Elementary School, where classes are resuming after two years at the former Schmitz Park Elementary.

(WSB photo, last month)

WSES will celebrate the project before school on Wednesday morning, combined with their red-carpet rally to welcome the students, starting around 7:15 am

Steph September 5, 2023 (12:31 pm)

It should be a crime for school districts to put students in these portable buildings. Most of them have dangerous levels of outgassing VOC’s including formaldehyde, PVC’s, glues, etc. They damage children’s immune systems when the kids are forced to inhale them. Parents should insist on the school district showing testing for levels, although the results would probably be altered or dismissed as insignificant based on past/ current experience. Look what happened to those children and teachers who finally won the lawsuit over toxic air in their school for years. Can’t make up for the health problems caused.

So ... September 5, 2023 (12:56 pm)

Can we assume kids will be in school tomorrow? Last year the district also reached out days before classes started and said “we’re negotiating a contract but there won’t be any impact” … and we all remember that two-week delay.

Josh September 5, 2023 (1:43 pm)

School starts tomorrow. The teachers union has not taken an official stance yet on their response to any action by this union. I have been receiving emails from my kids teachers ,even one a few minutes ago, about school tomorrow. The engineers union has not taken a vote to strike. School starts tomorrow, a disruption down the line is possible though.
MercyMoi September 5, 2023 (9:44 pm)

Two-week delay?? Educators went on strike W-Th-F-M-T, school started Wednesday exactly one week later and everyone had to make up five days of missed instruction.
- Josh September 6, 2023 (8:54 am)
  
  You are wrong. They delayed school 2 weeks and made up 2 weeks at the end of the year. Summer break was only 9 weeks when it was originally scheduled for 11. Also the district never said that there would not be any delay in the start of school last year. The memory of the above posters is incorrect.
  - WSB September 6, 2023 (10:19 am)
    
    No, it was not two weeks. This is all in our coverage and elsewhere online.
    -The originally scheduled start date for the 2022-2023 SPS school year was Wednesday, September 7th. Because of the strike, classes started Wednesday, September 14th.
    -Five makeup days were scheduled because of the strike: February 2nd, and June 27-30 (the last day of the school year became Thursday, June 30th).

ST September 5, 2023 (3:25 pm)

It’s certainly possible that if the Operators Local 302 strikes, the teachers will refuse to cross the picket line. The CBA probably has a provision that allows the teachers to do this without facing discipline. This happens a lot in construction where, if one trade strikes, other trades cannot be forced to cross a picket line even though it is not their “primary” strike. I hope the union and SPS gets something worked out. The impacts of another delayed start to the school year impact the kids’ learning, working parents, etc. ST

Math Teacher September 5, 2023 (4:01 pm)

That’s not exactly correct Josh. The teacher’s union has taken the stance that teachers will not make up the work of striking employees. So – teachers will be doing their regular jobs, but not be emptying the trash, cleaning up spills, managing security, etc. Downtown is assigning staff to “volunteer” in buildings, i.e., to do the work of custodians, security and food service. It appears that the district would rather pay 200K to principals to empty the trash than pay any kind of close-to-livable wages to lunchroom staff.

Josh September 5, 2023 (5:21 pm)

My comment was in regards to if SEA had said if they would ask members to not cross the picket line if 302 strikes. My comment stands, SEA has not declared this officially and 302 has not called a strike vote and as such in regards to the question does school start tomorrow the answer is: yes. I am not privy to what 302 has asked for or what SPS had offered so I will not guess or offer an opinion.
Josh September 5, 2023 (8:38 pm)

And they now have a tentative agreement, so don’t worry no principals or teachers are going to have to empty the garbage.

Sorry, comment time is over.