TEACHER TALKS: Union reports ‘promising progress’ in marathon negotiations; district briefing at 3 pm

1:53 AM: With Seattle Public Schools still scheduled to start Wednesday unless there’s a strike, the Seattle Education Association sent this update minutes ago:

SEA members want to be back with our students on Wednesday. Our Bargaining Team worked past 1 am to get closer to the agreement our students need. We feel we made promising progress today and will return to the table this morning (Tuesday). SEA members will rally today, Tuesday, at 5 pm at the John Stanford Center to call for a student-focused contract NOW.

This statement comes 10 hours after Superintendent Ben Shuldiner‘s media briefing, which we covered here.

11:31 AM: The district has announced another 3 pm media briefing, and this time announced a streaming link in advance. We will also live-chronicle the briefing.

Tax Payer September 1, 2026 (6:57 am)

The owners of all the money are still left out of the negotiations. Until they live stream all the talks, the tax payer is not part of the conversation about OUR MONEY. These secret conversations should be illegal.

Brandon September 1, 2026 (9:28 am)

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We vote for the superintendent. There is your voice.
- WSB September 1, 2026 (11:30 am)
  
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  No, the superintendent is not an elected official. He is appointed by the School Board. THEY are elected (Gina Topp, current board president, represents the board district including West Seattle),
  - Brandon September 1, 2026 (12:03 pm)
    
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    Thank you for the correction however the eventuality is the same though an elected process. He may be appointed, but we had some say by means of the board members we voted for.
Derp September 1, 2026 (9:29 am)

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These negotiations have never been public, like you are referring too. This is between the teachers, the union and the district. Tax players have never been involved in this. So, why would they start doing this now ?
Adam September 1, 2026 (9:38 am)

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This is how all union negotiations go. Never trust the admin side or the union side. Without opposition to each other, we wouldn’t require either side nearly as much. They exist to oppose and they oppose to exist. Every time a union win happens, they exclaim it’s the best contract ever, only to tell us a short 3 years later that it’s the worst they’ve ever had to work under. Admin plays the same games. We’re all their pawns. Don’t put either side on a pedestal, nor vilify one side over the other. Same coin, different sides. Don’t fall for it
K September 1, 2026 (12:07 pm)

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Man, could you imagine if SPOG negotiations were public?

IlovePublicSchool September 1, 2026 (10:11 am)

Stop making this teachers vs. administrators! Support for Superintendent Ben doesn’t mean there isn’t support for teachers. I would argue it’s actually the opposite. The reality is we all live in the same economy right now and years of mismanaged education dollars means he has the difficult job of cleaning up this mess. Without this cleanup, we will lose our district to the state and we don’t want that outcome. The narrative of us vs. them just means the children lose in the end. So please stop!

CarDriver September 1, 2026 (10:39 am)

Taxpayer. If you can make that happen you’ll be a shoe in for a Nobel prize.

Parent September 1, 2026 (11:39 am)

Do we know if the district will announce whether or not there will be school tomorrow at another 3pm news briefing or are we going to have to wait until 1 am? It would be nice if parents and students had at least a days notice😒

WSB September 1, 2026 (11:54 am)

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It’s billed as a negotiation/first day of school update. Though the superintendent declined yesterday to say they’d make the decision by a certain deadline, when I asked if they had one, at some point there’s enough logistics involved that somebody has to say, on/off. I can also recall past situation where a union said, ok, we’re close enough that we’re not going to strike, yet …