Washington State PTA Position Statement: Uninterrupted Operation of Public Schools

Does PTA have a position on work stoppages and strikes? Are there guidelines for local PTAs?  Yes and Yes!
WSPTA position:  Washington State PTA will not support work stoppages and/or strikes which interrupt or disrupt the educational day. National PTA also has a position statement on “Teacher Negotiations, Sanctions and Strikes” which provides guidance for local PTAs.

Please read below for additional information and texts of both position statements.

Our regions, councils and local PTAs in many areas of the state are being  impacted this week and possibly in the coming weeks by work stoppages, and/or strikes in many of our school districts. This can be a difficult and stressful time for all. Remain PTA mission focused to support what is best for all kids by providing resources from your community on activities and social services for children and families. Strive to create the safest path with the lowest impact on children. 

In order to ensure that guidance is provided to local PTAs and councils, the following applies: WSPTA has a resolution regarding Uninterrupted Operation of Public Schools and the National PTA position statement on Teacher Negotiations, Sanctions and Strikes. Both are listed below and may assist our regions, councils and local PTAs with information on how to respond to strikes.

The Washington State PTA Resolution as passed by its membership:

UNINTERRUPTED OPERATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 18.6, Resolution passed 1986; revised 2006

Whereas, the Washington State PTA has a purpose “To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, spiritual education”, and

Whereas, Quality Education is a high priority issue for the Washington State PTA, and

Whereas, Washington State citizens have historically valued the reliable delivery of vital services and the orderly management of public institutions including fire and police services and public schools, and Whereas, the Washington State PTA also holds that a disruption to the educational system in the form of work stoppages and strikes is detrimental to the best interests of the children and families affected by those actions, and

Whereas, the Washington State PTA believes that a disruption to the educational system in the form of work stoppages and/or strikes is often detrimental to the best interest of the children and families affected by those actions. While acknowledging that more state resources must be committed to the educational process in the State of Washington, including higher salaries for educational employees. Therefore, be it

Resolved, that the Washington State PTA shall work to produce conditions with regard to the collective bargaining process which will consistently produce, in a timely manner, labor agreements negotiated and fully embraced by the direct parties thereto and which will not cause disruption to the school calendar; and be it further

Resolved, that the Washington State PTA will not support work stoppages and/or strikes which interrupt or disrupt the educational day.

That said, here are some guidelines from National PTA and WSPTA:

These are suggested measures for action organized appropriately during the strike, and after the strike. These guidelines, plus counsel from the state PTA and the basic good judgment of the people, should enable the council and the local PTAs to minimize the dilemmas and to contribute constructively to community understanding, teacher satisfactions, renewal of cordial parent-teacher dialogue, and improved educational climate for children.

From National PTA’s position statement on “Teacher Negotiations, Sanctions and Strikes”:

During the Strike

• Urge immediate and continuous negotiations and if necessary mediation to get schools open as soon as possible. If negotiation is delayed, the PTA should seek to bring the school board representatives and teachers' organization representatives together.
• PTA should not man the classrooms, except possibly for a day in the absence of advance notice of a strike. Not only is manning of classrooms inconsistent with PTA efforts to obtain a qualified teacher in every classroom, but personal liability may be incurred. If the school administration intends to keep the schools open during a teacher walkout, it should develop a corps of volunteers outside the PTA structure.
• Suggest and urge appropriate action by parents, community agencies, and volunteer groups that will protect children during the period the school is closed.
• Encourage the full and continuous participation of teacher members in PTA activities.

After the Strike

• Plan activities that will restore harmony, promote teacher morale, and renew parent-teacher dialogue.
• Through informed public opinion see that the negotiated agreements, which settled the strike, are faithfully implemented.
• Work for community understanding and support of school needs.

Washington State PTA Supports HB 2214

PTA Members Take Action - Urge Senators to Support House Bill 2214

Wednesday afternoon, the House passed House Bill 2214, which will make needed reforms to academic testing in Washington State. Washington State PTA supports policies that increase academic rigor which results in career and college readiness. We are asking members to take action and send a message to the state senate, urging the passage of HB 2214 today!

This bill comes at a time where transitions are underway and each graduating class has different graduation requirements. This bill supports many tenants of the Washington State PTA public policy platform including providing a meaningful high school diploma that includes academic rigor leading to a career and college ready diploma. It makes available pathways to graduation that provide alternatives to meeting the assessment standards while continuing to increase students’ ability to acquire the knowledge to be successful in life after high school.  In HB 2214, the legislature states that: “The purpose of a high school diploma is to declare that a student is ready for success in post secondary education, gainful employment, and citizenship, and is equipped with the skills to be a lifelong learner. The Washington State PTA supports the streamlining of high school assessment requirements and the opportunities for increased local determination of alternate coursework to meet the requirement in the 12^th grade year in support of future success after high school.  We believe that requirements established in HB 2214 will assist in building and maintaining the integrity of a high quality assessment system that supports career and college ready learning standards and the requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Click here to send a message to your state senator.

Not to be Outdone - Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats Offer Their Compensation/Levy Proposals, too...

Just when you thought the legislative session was going to close on the equitable funding discussion for McCleary, the House and Senate came out with Teacher Compensation proposals late last week.  The competing proposals would shift the funding for teacher compensation away from local taxpayers and over to the state.  The resulting shift would have the state to fully fund basic education and leave levies, as originally intended, to pay for additional enhancements. 

School Superintendent Randy Dorn Offers Fully Funded "Go-Home" McCleary Proposal

Citing the need to take the discussion on resolving the McCleary Lawsuit to a new level, State School Superintendent Randy Dorn introduced his plan to fully fund McCleary last week at a press conference in Olympia.  The proposal would extend the phase-in of McCleary to 6 years in order to leave time to recruit and train enough teachers and support staff to meet class size reduction requirements.  Unlike current plans on the table, the Dorn Plan funds class size reductions for K-12 and require fully funding teacher compensation at the state level.  His revenue proposal was rolled out in an additional press conference on Monday morning and is described below in a separate article.

59th Day of Legislative Session E-Wire - Sine Die Tomorrow!!!

Hi folks,

The E-Wire has had a rough week trying to keep priority PTA Bills in play down in Olympia. Veteran lobbyist, Nick Federici, described the situation concerning several of these bills as “Schroedinger’s Cat” Bills.  Dead, yet alive at the same time.  For the most part, we consider most of these priorities very much alive and their ability to remain so at the waning hours of the session depend on PTA members burning up the wires telling their legislators to keep moving ahead on these issues.

This is where we are at so far:

CTE - Alive, and not subject to Cut-off.  The House Bill is in the Senate, but is not likely to move anywhere.  The Senate Bill is part of SB 6552.

Breakfast – now likely dead, but it is still in the House Budget.  It is not subject to cut-off, but unless there is agreement in the Majority Caucus, it will not be passed this session.   

Rural Schools - Endangered, but still alive and not likely subject to today's cut-off being that it is in the House Budget.

Omnibus Education - Endangered, but still alive.  It is rumored that the legislature has embraced an amendment offered by Representative Sam Hunt.  Information from the striker is listed below.

Foster Care Expansion - in Senate - Alive, and currently in the Senate. It is a budget item, so not likely subject to cut-off.

Capital Budget - Funding School Construction – there are competing bills to address some of the needs this year.  Their likelihood of passage is unclear at this writing.  We report on them below.

If you are reading this – and have not contacted your legislator this year – you need to – we’re close to hitting the mark on most of the bills we prioritized this year and, hey, we’re greedy for kids – let’s get them all out!

E-Wire Special Budget Edition...

The E-Wire is down in Olympia today hunting for clues and reading tea leaves on a variety of bills of interest to PTA members.  Among the concerns – 24 Credit Hours, Career and Technical Education Equivalency Courses, expanding financial resource opportunities for rural schools, and Capital Funding for K-3 Schools. 

Top story today, House passes Supplemental Operating and Transportation Budget which includes more funding for education and teacher salary cost of living increases.  Budget includes closing tax loopholes like this one and a few sticky issues like this one, this one, and this one. 

There have been some issues with the Majority Coalition Caucus.  The initial rift was over the passage of the Dream Act and dissident members included Senators Benton, Roach, and Holmquist-Newbry.  It got hotter when Senator Jan Angel killed a bill to fund homeless programs and boiled over into a legislative nightmare last evening. 

This pretty little thing hung on the Transportation Budget.  The Amendment was offered by Senator Jamie Pedersen and would require the residents of Medina to pay for any SR 520 Cost Overruns.  Incidentally, in case you didn’t know, Senator Rodney Tom, the Senate Majority Leader, represents Medina.  The E-Wire noted this amendment last night, but didn't give it any note as these things usually are tossed as bombs and don’t go anywhere.

Well, it did. 

Senator Baumgartner turned around and introduced an amendment to the Pedersen amendment which would have shifted the costs back over to Seattle.  In the end, an agreement was apparently made to withdraw both. But not before it almost led to this.  Senate was back to normal this morning and the Transportation Budget passed last night.

As an FYI, our friends over at The Washington Wire have more on the story which bears reading.  They also give a fun tutorial on the havoc wreaked with the move to 9^th Order in the Senate (it’s 8^th Order in the House).

Moving forward on Education Goals.

Washington Student Achievement Council is Hosting an Event in Yakima on improving academic success for under-represented groups.

Memos from a bipartisan town hall in Issaquah.

All Puyallup Elementary Schools will offer free All Day K starting this fall.  Sequim, too.

Peter Callaghan dives into the “he said, she said” debate over Title I usage (although Tacoma Schools is probably not the best example of the state as a whole due to their large menu of cutting education programs designed to close opportunity gaps.)

Eva Moskowitz vs. Bill DeBlasio Round II.

Kansas Senate pulls controversial bill targeted at Librarians and Teachers.

Federal Department of Education looking to crack down on For-Profit Colleges.

Seattle School District looks to later start times, but faces challenges in doing so.

Sunnyside kids off to Knowledge Bowl.

In other Sunnyside News, award winning teacher Maria Garcia is named ambassador for Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

Common Core Ramps up in Washington.

Parents face challenges in dealing with Seattle Schools Bureaucracy.

And on a final note, the SAT will drop the essay portion of the exam and return to the 1600 point test that you and I were used to taking so long ago...

The E-Wire is written by PTA Legislative Staff and edited by Director Sherry Krainick.  Got a question? Write us!  legconsultant@wastatepta.org

E-Wire for March 3rd - Counting down to the Close!

Guess what happened over the weekend?  Yes, the Senate pulled together a series of bills to move forward on the Transportation Budget.  Senator King has offered 13 votes and is asking for 12 votes from the Democratic Caucus to pass the bill.  It has no referendum clause and it has some issues that may be non-starters in the House.

Guess we will see, eh?

Last Friday also seemed to be the witching hour in the Senate.  The move in committee to kill a bipartisan supported bill raised eyebrows among members.  This led to a floor fight, which the Democrats lost.  Here is the transcript of hearing that led to 9^th Order Move by Senate Democrats.

On a lighter note, the Senate is currently hearing a proposed solution to the Teacher Evaluations issue that has bedeviled the legislature all session.  The House has its own version.  Nothing doing,  but doesn't anyone remember that the vote against this bill concerning teacher evaluations was bipartisan?  Just wondering.  Here is the House Version and the Senate Version.

The Washington State School Directors Association will be hitting the hill tomorrow in an attempt to push the legislature towards addressing a long-standing unfairness in the way the state funds rural districts.  The goal would be to adopt language which lets school districts keep timber subsidies for counties that have Federal Forests and Parks in their jurisdiction.  Washington State is the only state that takes the money into the General Fund and doesn't allow school districts to keep the additional funds for school programs.  WSSDA will try to get the State to change this long-standing practice.  The PTA supports their efforts and supports the policy to allow these communities to be compensated for the tax revenue loss created by our ability to enjoy their bounty. 

E-Wire Special Morning Budget and Omnibus SB 6552 Edition

Good morning folks!

The PTA was out in force today testifying on behalf of Senate Bills being heard in the House Education Committee.  Priority bills for us include the Omnibus School Hour and Credit Reform Bill and Pathways for Special Education Students.  Several PTA members were in attendance to testify including President Gillette, Director Krainick, and Bellevue Special Needs PTA VP Sarah Butcher.  There was an uncommon amount of give and take in the hearing between the very engaged legislators and the members of the public testifying.  As a result, this was one of the better hearings in House Education and worth your time to listen in to when you get the chance.  Links will be posted here (6552).

The second big ticket item of the day was the release of the Senate Budget.  Some of the Capital Budget directive language to OSPI for school construction looks pretty well thought out – this is likely due to the fact that buried in the budget bill is $78 million that was left unspent in the School Construction Assistance Program.  The reason for this is that there were fewer projects that qualified for grant funding than anticipated.

WSDDA’s Marie Sullivan has a great analysis which we are including here.  House Budget is expected to be delivered later this week with a hearing by the end of the week.

Read more about the Senate Budget here, here, and here.

Jump below to read testimony by our PTA leaders on the Omnibus Bill...

Some of the Key Bills PTA was following that have been or may be scheduled for hearings this week...

Here is the list of bills we have been following that are still alive as of this writing.  There are other  bills that we have worked with over the session, but these are the ones that are looking most likely to survive the latest cut-off.  Some of these bills have already had a hearing and others are either calendered or hopefully to be scheduled soon.  All policy bills must pass by Friday to survive the cut-off.

Senate K-12 budget gives flexibility, pushes reform

Slight edge on dollar amount, but less into basic education; related bills controversial

• Highlights - Senate operating budget, as of June 8, 2013 

In the closing days of the first special session for 2013, the Senate considered but rejected the House operating budget and instead passed a version similar to what senators passed in the general session, at least as far as K-12 spending is concerned:  Increased allocation for materials, supplies and operating costs and for student transportation, and then targeted investments to promote student achievement. The Senate also invests in full-day kindergarten in high poverty schools, but at a lower rate than the House proposes.

House scales back K-12 increase

But tries to advance major components of 2009's ESHB 2261

In the news:

• House passes revised budget proposal
• House acts on budget, while Senate leaders limit their comments

Movement for basic education?

If not now, when: Tell Olympia, yes HB 2051

Special session update:

The budget committees of the Senate and House are hearing (or have recently heard) bills on revenue -- the Senate to cut revenue (SB 5939) and the House to increase revenue (HB 2034).

WSPTA to Senate: Fund education before reducing revenue

• Take action: Yes 2034, No 5939

To: Senate Ways and Means Committee
Re: May 31 public hearing on SB 5939, Concerning the estate tax; WSPTA opposes

Dear Chairman Hill and committee members,

A year and a half ago the Washington State Supreme Court clarified “paramount duty” as the state’s “first and highest priority.” That duty is to amply fund education for all children living in Washington.

Still asking: Make the hard choices

NOTE: The following letter was sent to all state legislators as the 2013 special session got underway. Once again, the regular session ended with no operating budget and no shared vision for phasing in basic education spending, despite a court order. Fully funding 2009's HB 2261 (part of WSPTA's top priority) would satisfy the court. The Senate Majority and Gov. Inslee both held press conferences Monday, May 13. Links are at the end of this letter.

TAKE ACTION: Stop Delaying on Basic Education (Armchair advocacy! Just click, send and share)

Just in time learning: Basic Ed 101

All education funding is not equal; “basic ed” is protected

Session update:

No deal for kids. Talk shifts to adult needs. Next session starts May 13

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In a legislative session that was “all about McCleary” and living up to promises made four years ago to expand and fund basic education, the state legislature ended its 2013 general session Sunday night without a budget and without agreeing on key K-12 issues – such as how much money to put into the program of basic education.

House plan has edge

Offers kids clarity and commitment; requires significant funds

Yes HB 2051, Implementing basic education expenditures

Yes HB 2038, Investing in the education legacy trust account (end certain taxing preferences)

Take Action: Legislators Need to Commit to kids

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Within the Washington State PTA, we are talking revenue.

Invest and prepare students for life

• Yes to policy bills that support reading and career and college readiness for all students. E2SSB 5237 and SHB 1692
• Yes to reviewing tax preferences and making adjustments to support K-12 and higher education. HB 2028
• Yes, to a budget that uses a balanced approach, identifies stable revenue, and charts out a linear path to fully funding K-12 education while maintaining programs that keep children healthy, safe and fed and that get our youngest ready for kindergarten.

Message to Olympia:

Testimony - Senate operating budget, 2013-15

Bill information: SB 5034
Click here to comment on the budget bill
Click here to comment about tax breaks
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What does the budget mean? Possibly, delay in restoring K-12 or cuts to other essential services

Testimony - Academic acceleration and career learning

Tell your legislators what you think:
Comment on 5243, academic acceleration
Comment on 5754, career learning
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To: House Appropriations Committee
Re: PRO, 5243- academic acceleration;  5754 - career learning

Dear Chairman Hunter and committee members,

Cheat sheet on K-12 finance and budgeting

Beyond  class size: Other essential funding

When it comes to basic education, many in the media talk about salaries and class sizes. That's because salaries and benefits make up about 80 percent of school costs, and the number and size of classes drive staffing levels.

But for years, Washington State PTA has been calling attention to other necessary costs. That's because if the state doesn't fund it, local communities need to pass an excess levy, and PTAs tend to run the levy campaigns. And if the local levy doesn't cover it, then neighborhoods need to fund-raise, and PTAs tend to do the fund-raising. And finally (this is a big one that "think groups" and academics usually overlook), when the money doesn't come through, PTAs find volunteers to work for free.