By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – This will likely be a big week in the Port Angeles School District as the teacher’s union and district officials appear to start negotiating a new contract.
Just two weeks before school starts, the District is sitting down to address teacher concerns, and whether or not the two sides come to the table ready for good-faith bargaining remains to be seen.
John Henry, President of the Port Angeles Education Association (PAEA) told KONP that on Friday the School Board told union members the board would meet in special session tonight (Monday) at 6:00 to “talk about positions and bargaining”. And then an actual bargaining meeting is scheduled from 9:00am-5:00pm on Wednesday.
Henry says if the teacher’s union doesn’t see any movement after that, they will show up in force at Thursday’s School Board meeting.
“The bigger thing is, there’s a school board meeting on Thursday, and so, depending on how this plays out, if the District decides to make movement, then it will probably go pretty smoothly. Because we’ve been prepared since February. We’ve had it all laid out since February, and the District has been very slow and very reluctant to do anything. And so now, here we are in August with the District having made very little motion. And if they’re still withholding a lot of things, we will definitely get our members out to the school board meeting. And even though it’s on Zoom, we’ll plan an event at the Lincoln Center.”
Teachers are seeking what they call reasonable gains on three main issues. The first is compensation. They want, a minimum 5.5% Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, which the District has said they can’t afford. Teachers are also seeking adequate planning time to be scheduled during their contracted workday, and they want to be compensated for required work done outside the contracted day.
Henry says, a decade ago, Port Angeles was the highest paid district on the North Olympic Peninsula. But based on their current agreement, the teachers say they are now the lowest paid teachers on the Peninsula.
“Because right now, our contract is, when you compare to local districts, we’re pretty much at the bottom now. And as you know, we have to stay competitive with those districts.”
We reached out to District Officials for a statement Monday and here’s what they wrote; “Since the spring of 2022, the Port Angeles School District has worked with the Port Angeles Education Association to reach a new contract that supports educators and furthers our mission to create learning communities that prepare students to live, work, and learn successfully in a changing world. We honor the collective bargaining process and give space for negotiations to provide the best work environment for staff.”