WASHOUGAL — It looks like another strike in Clark County is coming to an end.
The Washougal School District announced that it reached a tentative agreement with the Washougal Association of Educators shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday. The teachers union has been on strike since Aug. 28.
That leaves only teachers in Evergreen and Battle Ground on strike. Washougal teachers will hold a ratification vote on the agreement Thursday morning. If the teachers approve it, they will join teachers in Vancouver, Ridgefield and Hockinson to end their strike, and teachers in Camas who voted to approve a strike, but reached an agreement before the strike started.
“We worked really hard to get where we are,” Eric Engebretson, president of the Washougal Association of Educators, said. “The district worked hard to get this agreement done and back to school.”
Not many details were provided in the district’s announcement. It will be a two-year deal for teachers, and “addresses salary, class size, combination classes, and special education caseloads,” according to information from the district. Superintendent Mary Templeton said the agreement will make the district “very competitive for Southwest Washington.”
“The salary schedule across all of the cells in the grid, it’s fair and equitable,” Engebretson said. “All members see a good increase in pay.”
The teachers union will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday to hold a ratification vote. Last year, the teachers union voted against ratifying an agreement between the union and district. They ratified a new contract about two weeks later.
“I would suspect this will pass,” Engebretson said.
If the contract is approved, the first day of school will be Friday. When the strike started, the district announced that if the strike lasted longer than four days, it might have to change the date of Washougal High School graduation. In tonight’s announcement, the district wrote that graduation will be held June 8, 2019, which was its originally scheduled date.
Templeton said that should the union vote for the agreement and end the strike, she doesn’t think it will have much impact on the calendar this school year. She said the district might have to find some additional time for seniors to get in hours to help them certify their graduation.
She also said the district could potentially use some pre-planned snow days to make up for the six days lost to the strike. If there is a snow day, the district might have to add time onto the end of the school year, she added.
“I’m feeling excited, optimistic for the future and ready to get school open,” Templeton said. “We’re ready to get those kids back in school.”
Earlier in the day, nearly 100 teachers marched in front of district offices wearing red shirts, trying to cool down with neon green ice pops and holding up signs reading “fair contract now” and “we are still here.”
“We have not wavered in how many people we’re getting out here every day or in honks we’re getting from the community,” said Erin Darling, one of the district’s picket captains.
The two sides bargained until about 1 a.m. Wednesday, and returned to the table around noon. Engebretson said he started thinking that a deal might happen around 3 p.m. Wednesday. The two sides came to an agreement by about 4:30 p.m.
Battle Ground and Evergreen updates
News from Evergreen Public Schools and Battle Ground Public Schools was relatively quiet Wednesday, as both bargaining teams continued to negotiate with help from a state-appointed mediator.
Evergreen Public Schools teachers appear to have shifted the focus of their protests on the elected officials that govern the district, Clark County’s largest with more than 26,000 students.
A group of Evergreen Public Schools teachers took their demonstrations to downtown Vancouver, marching outside Comfort Interiors, which is owned by Evergreen Public Schools board member Victoria Bradford. Members Tuesday delivered a letter to a Columbia Credit Union branch managed by Julie Bocanegra, another board member.
As they marched, teachers handed out signs with the names and photos of all school board members, along with a photo of Superintendent John Steach.
“Evergreen School Board members need to direct Evergreen Superintendent John Steach to negotiate competitive pay for our teachers,” the fliers read.
In response to Columbian questions about the demonstrations, district spokeswoman Gail Spolar pointed to a question-and-answer page on the district’s website.
“In both cases, the School Board members did have factual, polite conversations with the teachers,” district officials wrote.
Evergreen Education Association President Bill Beville also said at this point, “John Steach’s ego” is the most significant obstacle to striking a deal, accusing him of attempting to sway the bargaining process by speaking to individual members of the district’s bargaining team and posting about negotiations on social media.
Were it not for that, Beville said, the district would be close to striking a deal.
“There’s not a lot to talk about,” he said.
Again, Spolar pointed to the district website, which reads, “the superintendent plays a key role in communicating and problem-solving with both the district negotiations team and with the school board, which the negotiations team ultimately represents.”
Evergreen’s latest proposal would start teachers at $51,288, which includes five days of pay for professional development, with salaries topping out for the most experienced teachers at $98,279. The following year, that range would increase to $52,263 to $100,090.
In Battle Ground Public Schools, both sides expressed disappointment in recent bargaining. In a text message sent at about 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Linda Peterson, president of the Battle Ground Education Association, wrote that there were “no gains” in bargaining that day.
“If anything, I would have to say they went backwards,” Peterson wrote.
Battle Ground’s latest proposal, announced late Tuesday, would increase teacher salaries by 11 percent in the first year, and 20.3 percent over three years.
In the first year of the agreement, new teachers would start at $47,482, while the most experienced teachers would top out at $91,269. By 2020-2021, the range would increase to $50,177 to $96,449.
“Bargaining did not go as I had hoped it would,” Battle Ground Superintendent Mark Ross said in a district statement. “We expressed our concern again — that we are using all of the McCleary money that was designated for teachers’ salaries and using additional funds from our local levy to cover the cost of our proposal.”
