SEATTLE TEACHER TALKS: Superintendent says mediator's been called in after Saturday night breakdown

Sbre August 30, 2026 (10:32 pm)

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Concerned August 30, 2026 (10:34 pm)

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Yikes! This late night rant sounds very much like our current president.

Neighbor August 31, 2026 (12:11 am)

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Stop being so blinded by politics. That “rant” was well-structured, well-reasoned, and coherent.
We Can Do It 33 August 31, 2026 (12:14 am)

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It sounds nothing like our current president. There were no insults, hyperbole, faux cries of fake news or “lock her up.”Seemed like a lot of objective facts with little in the way of commentary or creative license. Not sure how you compare this to our current president; unless your comment was disingenuous and intended solely to create a false narrative and discredit a well written recitation of what has actually transpired.
- JT August 31, 2026 (12:59 am)
  
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  Not exactly like Trump, but very rambling and full of performative exasperation as though in all his days he’s never seen such antics for what is actually a reasonable stance. I found the email to be unbecoming of a leader and petulant. “I wouldn’t typically do this but since they’re doing it I must,” to paraphrase.
K August 31, 2026 (5:45 am)

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It was a very far cry from the rants of the current president. I did feel it came off as petty and childish at several points, and overall tone deaf. Schuldiner is doing his best to bring the public conversation back to money, because the teachers are raising very valid concerns about special ed staffing.

Federal mediators are not as neutral as the position sounds. Much like judges, the positions are appointed and we see how that is going.

SPS Parent August 30, 2026 (11:15 pm)

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Can’t imagine what it’s like to try to negotiate this stuff with a $87M budget deficit for this coming year. I also never realized how well Seattle public school teachers are paid, but they deserve it. Sucks all around. Maybe it’s time to vote for a state income tax to fund public schools if folks think it’s as bad as the union says.However, Everyone loses with a strike. As he said in the email:“ So let me be absolutely clear, SEA does not have to strike. Period, full stop. If they do, that is completely up to them. They have a contract that they signed and it will continue. The current contract they are working under remains in place. We are not the NFL owners who lock out our players trying to exact concessions or give-backs. We are good faith bargainers who are trying desperately to negotiate a contract that is good for staff and students. And the district has been clear that we would always be willing to provide retroactive pay, if they don’t strike, when a new contract is signed. There is absolutely no reason to strike other than to flex power. No one is “forcing” the union to strike. There is no Special Education agreement unless the union votes for one.”

Brandon August 31, 2026 (2:07 am)

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Its probably harder to negotiate with people who play to the camera as the good guys when theyre really just playing games. I didnt need the superintendent to tell me what was already obvious about SEA; sad he thought it was necessary because so many people buy into their bs.

But to your other comment. Mismanagement of funds should not be awarded with more funds. Especially with declining results… Thats like giving your drunk neighbor money to buy groceries, and you award the fact he keeps buying beer with your money by giving him a larger allowance.

Education funding is a priority. If theres not enough funds for it, maybe another pet project should go. Only in a liberal state do you get to say a priority like education funding is at risk unless we tax more while leaving everything else off the cutting room table. This is not a problem, its a point of leverage for politicians to sway a vote.
Concerned August 31, 2026 (5:37 am)

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If the district is truly bargaining in “good faith” they should not be discussing removing resources for Special Education during bargaining but use the joint committee that was created to review the program. Removing resources at the classroom level impacts ALL students. The district has no ability to guarantee the roving “resources” are available on a daily basis leaving classrooms at risk. Special Education is not just students with learning disorders, but children from trauma who have emotional and behavioral challenges that can act out physically.
Salary Increases August 31, 2026 (6:54 am)

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Teachers deserve to be paid, but let’s be real. The superintendent’s explanation of their pay is incredibly illuminating. $150k for not a full year of work, asking for guaranteed yearly increases greater than many private sector jobs, when they know full well the district is drastically underbudget? If they weren’t at a living wage…then OK…but that’s been fixed! They are taking advantage. I am incredibly disappointed.
- SJ August 31, 2026 (10:18 am)
  
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  I disagree that teachers are “taking advantage”. The state legislature approved a cost-of-living increase of 2.9% for 2027 (for all districts, not just SPS). That number doesn’t come from teachers or the SEA – the state has already increased their funding to the district to cover the increased cost of living. It’s up to SPS to decide how it gets applied to salary schedules, but they are required to use it.
  
  For comparison, Schuldiner’s compensation is $425,000 a year – a 9% increase over Brent Jones’ salary ($390,940). And this doesn’t include a monthly “car allowance”, moving expenses or his retention bonus for staying 4 years (Seattle Public Schools’ new superintendent will start in February with $425,000 contract)
  
  As an aside, I think it’s sufficient pay to handle the occasional poop emoji without making a public spectacle. Teachers and staff are expected to cope with obscene graffiti all the time!
- WSMom August 31, 2026 (6:57 pm)
  
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  For pay he is using the example of the most senior teachers, with the highest level of all the credentials and degrees and such. Also the teachers aren’t asking for a raise. They are asking that SPS honor the COLA (cost of living adjustment) that was in the state budget for teachers.
- WSMom August 31, 2026 (6:58 pm)
  
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  For pay he is using the example of the most senior teachers, with the highest level of all the credentials and degrees and such. Also the teachers aren’t asking for a raise. They are asking that SPS honor the COLA (cost of living adjustment) that was in the state budget for teachers.The main issue is the special education model. SPS wants to fundamentally restructure it and they gave no one any warning. They threw this into the bargaining in August.
wsteacher August 31, 2026 (7:34 am)

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a new teacher starts st $79000/year, and with a masters degree and 9 years of teaching they are at $99k and I think the level he refers to in the email is a masters degree and 12 years of service. You top out at 16 years and a masters degree plus 155 college credits total or one step further is a phd degree. The pay is not why I am on strike this time, it is because he wants to restructure sped supports into a model that would not support the students adequately.
Daughter of a teacher August 31, 2026 (9:20 am)

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As an SPS parent and daughter of a former teacher, I took issue with how he talked about teacher salaries. They are paid on a scale that combines years of experience and level of education/number of continuing education credits that teacher has earned. The salary he quoted is the ABSOLUTE MAX on both of those scales, or the bottom right on this chart: https://mysps.seattleschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/106/2024/07/FINAL-Certificated-Non-Supervisory-3.7-2024-25.pdf. That’s great that we have so many highly educated, dedicated, long-serving teachers. But that’s not the average salary by any means and it is disingenuous to suggest that it is, as he did in that email. I hope it will cause you to read the rest of his email with similar caution.
HP August 31, 2026 (9:49 am)

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Doing Sped support badly the first time leads to more money out the door the next time.
Another SPS Parent August 31, 2026 (12:28 pm)

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THIS! Teachers do not have to strike. We are a proud union household here (higher ed), and at different times, we both have had to work under old contracts while bargaining continued for several months. It was a bit stressful, sure, but not nearly as stressful as striking. My own union has also had to take salary increases (other than COLA) “off the table” in order to get other, more important priorities met by administration. If Special Ed really is the most important issue, then SEA can agree to smaller pay increases in order to get a Sped agreement they are happy with. As the parent of a current SPS student, and a younger one who will most likely need special ed services, I feel a little bit like Sped kids are being used as pawns here to curry more favor from the public. I’m praying everyone can get back to the bargaining table and get some kind of agreement on next steps by Tuesday night! Striking should be the absolute last resort.

JT August 31, 2026 (12:46 am)

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This man is whinier than the kids I’m about to spend an extra week with, but I’ll happily do it if he takes the loss. I guess in our current political climate, if you act indignant enough and clutch enough pearls, some people will believe you that the other side is crazy.

Nw mama August 31, 2026 (7:27 am)

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JT- as a parent we don’t think either “other side” is crazy at all! This is a crappy position that the state has put education systems under, of which they are forced to operate- within a budget. It would be prudent for the district and teachers union to work on educating their members and the general public that we MUST tax income over 1 million (richest 1% in WA) to get the education system we need. Threaten the general public with a mass strike if we repeal the millionaires tax.
Derp August 31, 2026 (8:16 am)

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He had been in office just about one year. It is a lot for a person to deal with this issue. Be is getting to appease the teachers and the parents at the same time. And he doesn’t want to hurt feelings. He isn’t whining about anything, he is trying to make a point, which you missed.
- WSB August 31, 2026 (9:22 am)
  
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  Seven months.
  https://www.seattleschools.org/news/superintendents-first-100-days/
Reasonable Adult August 31, 2026 (8:42 am)

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This 👆It was also disappointing to see him write about SEA teacher salaries being unlike anything he’s seen outside of WA. Other places pay their teachers horribly so…

Person August 31, 2026 (5:27 am)

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Next step:Ben Shuldiner for mayor. He’s exactly what SPS and Seattle need.

SPS Teacher August 31, 2026 (6:01 am)

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Everyone, the salaries are the wool over your eyes. This is about the real issue of SPED services and classrooms with most vulnerable students. Other working conditions too.The superintendent using his own experience with a crappy teacher salary was akin to people denouncing student loan forgiveness because they’ve had to pay their own student loans.I think there’s something to be said for continuing the current contract, but the district doesn’t care to bargain during the year, they also create these conditions in which it is coming down to the wire. They benefit from how quickly people turn on teachers.Teachers in Seattle have good salaries, but there are many adults working in the school system, making it function as best it can, who don’t. We aren’t standing on an increase beyond COLA. Salaries for ALL workers should increase as life gets more expensive, we just happen to have a stronger union than most have experience with in this country. Don’t forget to consider the conditions of the US culture— it is markedly anti-union, are you just playing along with that narrative?

SPSEmployee August 31, 2026 (7:17 am)

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Preschool IA here (Working in an inclusive classroom, but not paid equivalent to other SPED paras in the building), as one of the lowest paid positions at SPS, it is incredibly unnerving to read emails such as the one I read last night. Making comments about working conditions when he was a teacher made me sick to my stomach. I wouldn’t even be able to pay HALF my bills without my spouses salary. All school staff and teachers work their butts off and are still working outside contract hours, consistently! Meanwhile… we live in a super high cost of living city and many of us are raising families and trying to have work life balance. I have also seen how lack of SPED staffing at current rates affects my children’s education as well as countless other kids. Cutting that?! Unfathomable. Classroom teachers can’t take it all on, they need support and not just randomly sent out staff when it’s convenient for the district. Currently we need months of data to (maybe!) get the extra support needed. It’s very easy to make comments such as these when you make over $300K a year and have $60,000 going into a retirement account this year… must be nice. But hey, WE are the ones causing the budget crisis… Barf.

Neighbor August 31, 2026 (7:32 am)

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Too bad this wall of text doesn’t seem to include a definition of “regressive bargaining”. When I do web searches for that term al I find are definitions of it as something the *employer* might engage in. No idea how labor could meet that condition. I didn’t bother reading the whole screed but I did notice lots of irrelevant personal anecdotes and perceived slights. SPS needs more competent leadership.

Adam August 31, 2026 (8:03 am)

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Regardless of what my thoughts are on who should win this debate, what I see based off reading the SI’s email and what I see in people’s comments here, it’s clear that ideological alignment for many leads to knee jerk natural opposition to anyone not aligned with them. Why do I say that? One person above relates the superintendent’s email to a Trump rant, and another describes him as “whiny”. You cannot read that email objectively and come to those conclusions. JT and Concerned, you are the problem. You’re not solution-seeking, you’re only driven to bring your side a “win” regardless of the merits of your argument. You’re disingenuous. You may just be outright lying.

JT August 31, 2026 (10:24 am)

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“Reading objectively” is not a thing.

Parent August 31, 2026 (8:15 am)

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I greatly appreciated his email and feel very positive about him. The part that really stood out to me —they can keep negotiating and avoid a strike on the first day of school. If those negotiations result in a new contract they will get back pay for the new wage increases. The choice to strike remains while those negotiations are ongoing. That is good faith; sending poop emojis, responding to a proposal with two words, waiting days to reply at all when the clock is ticking, increasing the cost in your counterproposal when the district has an $87M deficit —that’s not good faith.

SPS Parent August 31, 2026 (8:26 am)

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I have kids in SPS, I’ve volunteered in their schools and have gotten to know their teachers and staff, and most of them are compassionate hardworking people who I think deserve at least twice what they’re making. However, I also understand that like any other public school district, we don’t have unlimited funds, and that our state routinely underfunds education. Yes, Special Education students and teachers deserve all that and more, but what should be cut in order to make that happen with the current budget we have? Because we’re not getting more money from Olympia in the next few days.If SPS financials go into the negative, we go into binding conditions – the state steps in and decides which schools to close and how many teachers to fire, and the state doesn’t give a sh-t about what Seattle values. Bellevue is currently in binding conditions. Vancouver just entered binding conditions. These are not small districts.The current state of SPS financials is the result of past school boards and past superintendents kicking the can down the road with wishful thinking that the state or feds or someone else will give us more money, promising raises without money in the bank. Superintendent Shuldiner is finally the adult in the room tackling these difficult issues.The real solution is for SEA, SPS and families to unite to pressure state elected officials to fully fund public education, especially since this is an election year and many of these politicians are running for (re)election (looking at you, Joe Fitzgibbon).

HTB August 31, 2026 (9:55 am)

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I think multiple things can be true at the same time. The State Funding is untenable and the expectations around Special Ed funding and staffing are 100% accurate. That said, I think the superintendent is correct in describing the strike as a “power flex.” The tone out of SEA comes off as though the union is just itching for a fight and that’s being done at the expense of students. We’ll see, but the past 2 strikes lasted 5 days each which would indicate they were done to make a point. I could be naive — but I would think walking off the job should be a last resort. I’m an SPS parent and want the best for the teachers but SPS and the superintendent are really sounding like the adults in the room right now.

JT August 31, 2026 (10:28 am)

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Collective bargaining is supposed to be a power flex. It’s for people with less power.
k August 31, 2026 (11:43 am)

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Using your ability to mass e-mail every single SPS family your version of events, complete with asides on the other side’s bargaining tactics, misleading data on teacher salaries, and opinions about how things were better in the place you came from than here in Washington, that’s definitely a “power flex.” The teachers have no such reach or ability. It’s the equivalent of a captive audience meeting from an anti-union employer. He’s playing dirty, which is basically an admission he knows his proposals won’t win on their own merits, because they will hurt students and teachers.
- k August 31, 2026 (2:51 pm)
  
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  And now they’re having a press conference to further try to use the public as a cudgel in negotiations instead of just withdrawing their proposal to upend and undermine special ed.

WSB August 31, 2026 (11:34 am)

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Note that the link to the superintendent’s message has changed (thanks to the reader who just pointed this out). It is now, for those who didn’t get it via email,
https://www.seattleschools.org/news/superintendents-newsletter/
I don’t know if anything else changed, but I have substituted the new link in the story above.

JT August 31, 2026 (12:56 pm)

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For everyone saying he was “objective” in his email. He uses the mode income as a basis, because it’s six figures. He doesn’t use a median income, which for all we know is much lower. That’s disingenuous for a guy who uses the term “good faith” throughout the letter.

SPS student August 31, 2026 (12:56 pm)

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The proposed contract asks our teachers to work an extra 4 hours a week without pay. As a senior, I have seen many strikes and it is never the teachers that us students resent. But the superintendents who propose preposterous contracts that further undermine the hours our teachers put in every day and week. The issue starts at the top, budget cuts to education. Parents and adults can look in and make their assumptions or opinions known. But at the end of the day it is the students and teachers who suffer from insufficient funding. Teachers deserve to be paid fairly! They deal with your kids every day and still make equal to or sometimes less than your average fast food employee. Fair payment for our teachers is an investment in our future. Let’s not forget. WE are your future.

Brandon August 31, 2026 (3:34 pm)

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The fact they make the same or less than a fast food employee is the fault of the constituents that think everybody needs a livable wage distorting the market and working force. Thats not on the school district that is trying to keep a growth pace of raises and reasonable COLA. Your elders voted for this. Take an econ class and vote against them to fix it when you turn 18, dont echo them.

Ps. Those budget cuts at the top are also due to the leverage they give your political leaders. Mismanage funding so you get more through another initiative.

REN Stone August 31, 2026 (3:16 pm)

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While all SPS staff attend required district directed training until 4pm today, our new Superintendent has planned a press conference to start at 3pm and invited us to attend. Seems like a good way to make sure we don’t have a chance to hear what he’s saying or not saying about what he’s proposing for special education. If he really wanted to build trust as we journey towards being a higher performing and more inclusive school district along with closing the budget gap he would make sure it was when we were finished with our training. He could propose a additional year extension of our contract and work with his school community to improve special education, get clear about supports with any proposed changes and then roll it out gradually with the support of the school staff and community that he claims care about as he has been hired to lead us. It feels like smokes and mirrors, an effort to vilify SEA and the teachers as being money hungry and a disingenuous claim to support labor and a disregard for our students with special education supports and the staff who work hard to support allstudenys. Dear SPS Community, Seattle Public Schools is committed to keeping our community informed as labor negotiations continue. The district will host an in-person press conference for media at 3 p.m.to share updates on negotiations and school opening preparations. We encourage families, staff, and the community to tune in and hear information directly from district leadership. Watch live: https://www.youtube.com/@SeattlePublicSchoolsTV/streams To join: Visit the SPSTV YouTube page and click the “Live” video.