Welcome to Seattle Public Schools' site for informing the public on our collective bargaining agreements and ongoing negotiations.

INTRODUCTION: CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS AND DISTRICT GOALS

Over the next several months, Seattle Public Schools will be negotiating new contracts with some of the labor unions that represent most of our District employees. These negotiations are very important to ensure that we continue to help every student succeed, make progress on our Strategic Plan goals and start the 2009-10 year smoothly.

The most important goals for these contract negotiations are to:

• Strengthen teaching and learning so that we can ensure an excellent education for every student; and
  
  
• Promote accountability by measuring performance, so that we can ensure that all staff members are working effectively to achieve our central goal of student achievement.

These are also the central goals of our District’s strategic plan, Excellence for All, and they inform everything we do. For these negotiations, the District’s proposals are designed specifically to support these goals by including provisions that will:

• strengthen professional development and training opportunities,
  
  
• measure performance, and
  
  
• support strong principal leadership and increase staffing flexibility

Two of the current negotiations that will affect the largest number of our employees are:

• Seattle Education Association (SEA). Contract discussions are currently underway with the Seattle Education Association ( certificated teachers, paraprofessional instructional aides and educational office staff). SEA represents members who work in every school in our District as well as at the central office.
  
  
• Principals’ Association of Seattle Schools (PASS). Negotiations will soon begin with the Principals’ Association of Seattle Schools (principals and school administrators). PASS represents members who work in every school in our District as well as at the central office.
  

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

To ensure that valued staff are treated with dignity and respect during the negotiating process, and to provide clear and accurate information to community members, the District and the labor unions have agreed to a set of guidelines for the contract talks. They have committed that these negotiations will be:

• RESPECTFUL. The District and Unions will negotiate in good faith and with a common goal – ensuring the success of our students.
  
  
• TRANSPARENT. We will post the current contracts and the District’s key proposals for the negotiations on the SPS web site.
  
  
• FAIR. Our greatest resource is our staff, the people who make learning happen. Our negotiations will acknowledge the dignity of their work and the value of their contributions to our schools and students.
  
  
• INFORMED. Our negotiations will incorporate up-to-date studies from local and national experts. In addition, to ensure that we are sharing accurate information and to preserve good faith, ONLY members of the District’s bargaining teams will speak about the ongoing negotiations on behalf of the District.
  

COMMUNITY ROLE IN THE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

Because contract negotiations are part of a legal process between the District and its employees, contract talks are only open to members of the negotiating team. Negotiating team members are only permitted to discuss the content of the contract talks with members of the SPS Executive Management Team (for SPS members of the negotiating team) or with their representative group (for association members of the negotiating team). Members of the community are not permitted to be part of the negotiations, and the negotiations therefore do not include a community engagement process.

However, because we want to be transparent with the community about our proposals for the these negotiations, SPS has posted its current collective bargaining agreements with each labor association on this web site. SPS and the unions have also posted their proposals for the 2009 contract talks so that community members can learn about the goals that are shaping the process and understand how the contracts may change as a result of the negotiations.

Because the negotiations are not open to community members, the District will not be answering emails about our negotiations, nor will the District solicit public or staff input.

The District welcomes staff, family, and community engagement on a wide variety of topics. Please see www.seattleschools.org and click on "Get Involved" for information about how to be engaged in the success of Seattle Public Schools.

Last update 06/01/2009