From our news partners at The Seattle Times: The Seattle School District and teachers union Sunday announced they had reached a tentative agreement. If teachers approve the contract in a Tuesday meeting, school would start as scheduled on Wednesday.
Seattle teachers will vote Tuesday afternoon on a tentative contract agreement announced Sunday by Seattle Superintendent José Banda and Seattle Education Association President Jonathan Knapp.
Banda and Knapp said the two sides settled on the agreement early Sunday morning.
Banda did not include any details about the agreement in a news release, saying the membership of the Seattle Education Association still needed to ratify it. The union has scheduled a general membership meeting for late Tuesday afternoon at Benaroya Hall.
If teachers approve the agreement, school can start as scheduled Wednesday for the more than 50,000 students projected to enroll this year.
Knapp said union leaders would not be releasing details of the agreement.
“That’s for our membership to have a first look at and for them to decide,” he said. The union has 5,000 members including teachers and classroom aides.
Knapp said he has scheduled meetings of the union’s board and representative assembly Monday, which will be followed by the membership meeting Tuesday.
The teachers voted down a contract offer from the district a week ago, and the union and the district remained at odds on a number of issues — everything from teacher pay to the length of the school day for elementary teachers.
On Friday, both sides in the negotiations agreed to bring in a mediator from the Public Employment Relations Commission. Knapp said the two sides were finding it difficult to agree on some of the issues.
