After putting the district on notice earlier this month that its members were willing to vote on a strike, the Vancouver Association of Educational Support Professionals demonstrated at a special Thursday school board meeting in support of improved wages and working conditions.
As board members and district staff held their meeting — which lasted 10 minutes — VAESP members and supporters marched past the windows at the Robert C. Bates Center for Educational Leadership. The meeting was advertised as a “special meeting,” meaning the school board did not accept public comment.
“We didn’t feel like we could go without being here,” said Lynn Davidson, who works for the Washington Education Association’s regional office and is the lead bargainer for VAESP.
The Thursday meeting, which started at 4 p.m., was at an unusual time and day for the school district. The board typically meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 5:15 p.m.
But the board postponed its Dec. 11 meeting, saying there was nothing urgent on the board agenda. That meeting, however, coincided with a planned VAESP rally at district headquarters. The district denied there was any connection.
The demonstration is the latest public display in heated bargaining between the district and the union, which represents more than 700 paraeducators, secretaries, clerks and other classified staff members. Those employees are paid between $16.53 an hour and $25.32 an hour, depending on their position and years of experience. Many work six hours a day, nine months a year. Davidson estimates the average VAESP member’s salary is around $20,000.
Board members and Superintendent Steve Webb spoke over the shouted cries of “fair contract now,” ignoring the march taking place just on the other side of the wall from them.
Toni Burnett, a paraeducator at Fir Grove Children’s Center, said through a megaphone that she was hit by a student in school that day, and that her $17.35 an hour salary is less than she deserves.
“We need a living wage,” Burnett said.
The district’s latest proposal includes an 8.5 percent salary increase this school year, increasing to 15.5 percent by 2021-22. The district projects its current proposal would cost $12 million over the next four years. The union said that includes the 3.1 percent cost of living increase excepted to come from state funding each year, however, suggesting that VPS’s numbers are inflated.
VAESP members must work 25 years before topping out the salary schedule. A special education paraeducator who has worked for 25 years or more, for example, would see their hourly wage increase from $20.71 an hour in 2017-2018 to $23.89 in 2021-22.
According to the district, VAESP’s proposal earlier this month would include 20.6 percent salary increases, costing the district $4.93 million. The union has declined to offer further specifics.
Paraeducators, clerks, secretaries and other support staff voted unanimously that if a deal is not reached by Feb. 1, members of the union will vote on a possible strike. Though the district has not responded in the aftermath of that vote what it would mean if support staff went on strike, union leadership predict it could close schools.
“We need to stay the course and continue to put pressure on Dr. Webb and the Vancouver School Board to reach a tentative agreement,” union leadership wrote on their web site.
The district and union traded barbs in the aftermath following the vote, with district officials reporting that union leadership had walked away from the bargaining table earlier this month, and the union denying having done so.
The district has also warned paraeducators not to use their sick leave in an attempt to slow work as bargaining continues, and noted that the district may investigate an employee’s sick leave if it seems they misrepresented why they took a sick day.
Webb declined to comment after Thursday’s meeting. The union and district are slated to bargain again on Friday.
