PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District and Port Angeles Education Association took Sunday off after a 12-hour bargaining session Saturday with plans to resume talks today at 9 a.m.
The goal is to reach a tentative agreement over a new contract to avoid a threatened strike by the union that would start Tuesday.
A mediator with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) began working with the district and the Port Angeles Education Association (PAEA) on Friday to assist them in coming to a resolution. The district and union continue to meet at the Lincoln Center administrative building, but they now work in separate rooms and video conference with the PERC mediator.
The district had filed a request Thursday with PERC for mediation after the two sides could not agree to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.
According to the district website, the two sides have met 20 times (not including Saturday) since March without resolving their dispute.
Sunday morning, the school district posted on its website the three proposals from Saturday’s bargaining session.
“We believe that the community should be aware of both sides of those proposals,” said district communications spokesperson Carmen Geyer.
PAEA president John Henry said he and Superintendent Marty Brewer had a verbal agreement they would not release the proposals, but Brewer did call him Saturday night to let him know that the information would go out the next day.
The district outlined its Saturday proposals for salaries, class sizes and other issues, along with proposals from the union, all of which could change as negotiations continue.
Henry said that simply reading the proposals would not necessarily provide someone with a complete understanding of what is an ongoing process.
“There are pieces that are agreed upon, there are pieces are not agreed upon, and that’s why when you put out the proposals, it’s hard to interpret because you don’t have the context of the conversation at the table,” Henry said.
Like most school districts in Washington, Port Angeles negotiates its collective bargaining agreements with teachers behind closed doors. To create a more transparent process, the Pullman School Board in 2017 voted that its contract talks would be open to the public, so “All staff and our community can observe that we strive for a positive and collaborative process of bargaining.”
The district also posted on its website current average class sizes based on its database of class and attendance records, which fall below caps in the CBA that expired Aug. 31. Reducing class sizes is among the issues the union has been pressing the district on.
“Averages can be very tricky,” Henry said. “At the high school, I think they posted 18 (students), and I would say that’s a misrepresentation of a normal classroom size at the high school.”
The Port Angeles School District, like many across the state, has been negotiating with unions like the PAEA (and the Port Angeles Paraeducator Association) over a 5.5 percent cost-of-living increase the state Legislature earmarked with funds for K-12 educators.
Each district’s allotment is based on an average of teachers’ salaries across the state — a calculation that disadvantages the PASD, which has more experienced and longer-serving teachers who earn higher salaries than the state average.
According to the PAED, to meet an across-the-board 5.5 percent salary increase, it must come up with the difference between what the state has allotted it ($622,343) and what it will actually cost it to provide the increase ($1,163,035): $540,962.
Henry said other districts were facing the same challenge of how to fund a 5.5 percent salary increase but declined to be specific on how it might close a half-million dollar gap.
“All those other districts figure out the same solutions to that same problem, and I believe we can find solutions too,” Henry said.
If the two sides can not reach a tentative agreement that is ratified by its members today, the PAEA said it would go on strike Tuesday.
The district said that it will notify families by 5 p.m. today whether or not schools will be open on Tuesday.
To see the full update, go to https://tinyurl.com/2s3e664s.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
