On the eve of Labor Day, four Clark County school districts and their teachers unions announced they had reached tentative collective bargaining agreements, clearing the way for students to return to school this week.
Vancouver Public Schools, Camas Public Schools, Ridgefield School District and the Hockinson School District all announced they’d struck deals with their respective unions, ending a week of tense negotiations and, for Vancouver, Ridgefield and Hockinson, striking teachers.
“We’re feeling wonderful,” said Rick Wilson, Vancouver Education Association executive director. “We think we’ve gotten a great deal for our members, for the community, for the students that we serve and we’re looking forward to getting this in front of our members.”
The Hockinson Education Association will meet at noon Monday, the Ridgefield Education Association will meet at 3 p.m. and the Camas Education Association will meet Monday evening to vote on whether to ratify the agreements. Assuming the membership approves the deal, school could start in the three districts as scheduled Tuesday.
“I’m very happy to not have to use the signs our picket captains built,” said Mark Gardner, CEA’s bargaining team lead.
The two-year deal in Camas, if approved, will set teacher salaries at a range of $50,727 to a maximum of $97,529 for the most experienced teachers. The following year, 2019-2020, would increase teacher salary to a range of $52,868 to $100,110. For the lowest and highest paid teachers, that’s a respective salary increase of about 15 percent and 16.4 percent over two years.
“You have to stand up for what you think is right,” Gardner said. “It’s hard. It can be painful at times. When you stand up for what is right, it can be worth it in the end.”
Vancouver Public Schools, the Ridgefield School District and the Hockinson School District released no details about its deal.
“We have an agreement from both sides in terms of the salary schedule that we want to share with our members,” Wilson said.
Vancouver had to negotiate its entire contract, not just salary increases, adding extra hurdles to the bargaining process this year. After a marathon 22-hour bargaining session Friday into Saturday, Vancouver bargaining team members joined the table at 1 p.m. Sunday and bargained for another eight hours.
“It all kind of blends together,” Wilson said. “I didn’t get any sleep (Saturday).”
Vancouver will vote Tuesday morning. If the contract is ratified, students will return to class Wednesday.
Hockinson announced its settlement at about midnight Sunday. It followed days of marathon sessions between the district and the Hockinson Education Association.
“We appreciate our community’s patience during these negotiations and their enthusiastic support for education in Hockinson,” Superintendent Sandra Yager said in a statement posted on social media early Monday morning. “We are eager to welcome our staff and students back to school and to embark on another exciting school year.”
The Ridgefield Education Association announced that a deal was reached shortly after 4 a.m. Monday.
Meanwhile, teachers at three other Clark County school districts continue to strike. The Washougal School District already announced it had canceled classes Tuesday.
Districts around Washington this year are negotiating how to spend the additional money they’re slated to receive after two years of McCleary legislation. The Legislature allocated $7.3 billion over four years toward basic education during the 2017 session, then put another $1 billion toward teacher salaries this year.
The state’s largest school district, Seattle Public Schools, has a tentative agreement on the table, which will give a 10.5 percent raise for 6,000 district employees, The Seattle Times reported this weekend.
Whether Camas’, Ridgefield’s and Vancouver’s settlement agreements have a domino effect on other still bargaining districts remains to be seen, though Gardner said the union and district agreed on what details to release publicly in hopes it might “impact neighboring districts positively” in their ongoing negotiations.
Evergreen Education Association President Bill Beville said the union and Evergreen Public Schools are “trading insignificant details” at this point. The two groups will continue bargaining Monday. And Linda Peterson, president of the Battle Ground Education Association, said by text Sunday that the union and district had exchanged three salary proposals.
“Still at the table,” she said shortly after 7 p.m. “Here’s hoping.”
