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Friday, April 21, 2017

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Regional Superintendents Send White Paper to Legislature

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Regional Superintendents Send White Paper to Legislature:

Regional Superintendents Send White Paper to Legislature

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A letter of interest called "An Educational Funding Position Paper Submitted by the Superintendents of the NW Educational Service District 189 Region" was send to the Governor, State Superintendent Rykdal, and members of the Washington State Legislature on March 23, 2017.

I do not know if this kind of letter is being considered in the King County districts but I'll ask SPS. 

Ostensibly, it's about fully funding public education.  But one point - on collective bargaining - stands out.


We are unanimous in our stance that collective bargaining must be reformed. At a minimum, "guardrails" or "bumpers" must be in place that prohibit bargaining of local levy resources for basic education duties and responsibilities.  Without reform of collective bargaining - particularly around use of local levy resources - we are strongly concerned that a significant new investment of State resources will not produce the outcomes and program improvements the Legislature intends.  We are further concerned that absent a reform of collective bargaining as it currently exists, a regression to the current unconstitutional funding system at some point in the future is a certainty.
Indeed, much of the paper is about funding and teacher issues including TRI pay, state salary schedule, health benefits, salary increments, PD, cost of living, etc. 

To note,


We do not support bonus or merit systems and view them as both inherently unreliable to administer and destructive to building and sustaining a collaborative district and school culture that best serves all children.
But they do support "regionalization or poverty factors" to retain teachers. 

In addition:
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Regional Superintendents Send White Paper to Legislature: