We’re at Seattle Public Schools HQ in SODO, where district superintendent Ben Shuldiner‘s media briefing is starting, two days before the scheduled start of school, which is in question because the district and its educators’ union haven’t yet reached a contract agreement. We’ll update with toplines as this continues.
Shuldiner says he’s glad that educators are in schools today, getting ready for the start of school, which he says “is the only thing I care about.” He says the talks are difficult because “We’re broke.” He says he’d love to “give money …to everyone,” if he had one. He says both sides are meeting right now, with the mediator present.
If a strike is called, though, “we are prepared,” and there will be meals available for kids, nonprofits that operate in schools will be able to operate, and they might have some “programming” for kids. But he say his “hope” is that school will still start on Wednesday.
On specific issues, he starts with special education, and says that it’s become a “place, not a service,” and he says that has to change. He said it’s “OK” that “folks didn’t like” the district’s first version of special education changes, and says they’ve made changes since then. They want to “try different ideas,” he said, and to “negotiat(e)” them.
He says things have “gotten better” since the the mediation began. “We are working, we are working on negotiation, we are working on getting schools open on time. “Please know that negotiations are going on.”
First question: When did the talks resume, with the mediator? On Sunday, he said.
Second: Is the district opening childcare options if there’s a strike? “We are working on partners we already have to see what we can do about that.”
Third: Elaborate on the special-education proposal. He says it was intended as “rebalancing” so that students who need more support have more staff to provide it. He says they’re on “version 4” of the special education proposal.
Fourth: When was the first special education proposal made? A few weeks ago. Is changing special education a must? Yes, because it’s “so important for our children.” But it doesn’t necessarily have to happen immediately, he said. So now they’re trying to figure out if they can “create something now with a larger road map.” He said they “talked a lot about it” last night.
Fifth: What’s your confidence level that school will start Wednesday? He’s hopeful. He’s meeting with principals tonight. He suggests families take questions to their schools.
Sixth: We asked when tomorrow they’d make a call about whether there’ll be school on Wednesday. He said that’s up to the union – whether they decide to call a strike, and he suggested they wouldn’t announce there’s no school Wednesday unless the union says they’re striking. (So right now, there’s no particular deadline for making that call.)
Seventh question is about money, and he repeated “We’re broke” and that they don’t want to have to cut some other place to move money to an area.
Eighth question was about the stated hope of offering special education as a neighborhood-school model so that “students don’t have to move from school to school to school.”
Ninth question was different interpretations of the potential special education changes – staff cuts or not? He says it’s “complicated,” and there certainly is a way to view it that would make it look like cuts. “We’re not trying to balance the books on the backs of our children.” He says “version 4” … “changes the ratios, changes the model.”
Tenth question, what kind of pay increase? Shuldiner says the district has 8.8 percent over three years on the table, and isn’t going to say where the union is countering on that – “I think they’re working on that upstairs right now.” What’s the median teacher salary? He offers to get the reporter who asked the question info on that.
Eleventh question is about how inflation is affecting the wage offer – he elaborates that the offer is a “minimum” of 8.8 percent over three years. “This is not a pass-through,” he says, regarding state funding and the formulas. “We get about two-thirds of what the state gives us,” he explains, because Seattle is “super-expensive.”
Twelfth question was why SPS finally went public with its proposals – definitely because of the union’s public discussion, he said. Would he want negotiation to be that way? Maybe if it’s collaborative, going “super-public” could be a good thing.
Thirteenth question – is there an updated budget deficit number? Depends on what’s in the contract they work out. But next year, if changes aren’t made, “we’re insolvent.”