Mercer Island Education Association (MIEA) members voted unanimously for a “no contract, no work” vote on June 13, saying that they will not work beginning Sept. 1 without a fair and equitable new contract.
“Our members showed strong support for our bargaining team. We are deeply invested in our students’ success and we want the district to invest in the educators who work with our kids,” said MIEA President Mike Radow. “The district has the resources but they’ve shifted financial priorities away from our students and classrooms and more toward administration.”
The priorities in the negotiations include providing educators the time and resources needed in today’s demanding, high-paced schools; competitive pay and benefits to attract and keep the great educators students and their families expect; a culture of trust and respect; and the ability to focus on the work that professional educators know meets the diverse needs of Mercer Island students, according to a press release from MIEA.
MIEA members gathered at West Mercer Elementary School last week for a general membership meeting, where they listened to an update from the bargaining team and discussed next steps.
Several negotiations sessions are scheduled between now and Aug. 16. Radow says members are hopeful that a contract agreement can be reached by then, but teachers want to be clear that they will not be working after the contract expires at midnight Aug. 31. MIEA represents some 460 teachers and other educators in Mercer Island’s public schools.
“We want to start school smoothly and focus on teaching, learning and kids,” Radow told the Reporter. “We don’t want to come back to school with this question mark.”
When asked about the bargaining process in an interview with the Reporter on June 9, Mercer Island School District Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano said that the district believes it is in the top tier regionally for teacher pay, and that one of the School Board’s priorities is to remain competitive in that respect. Radow said that Mercer Island ranks near the bottom, and noted that teachers in Lake Washington School District received a pay bump in their new contract.
The unanimous vote showed a unity behind the bargaining team to get fair and equitable contract, Radow said. He said that the current bargain is being impacted by the uncertainty regarding school funding on the state level, and speculated that the teams are “unlikely to come to agreement without knowing what the Legislature will do.”
Plano and Radow both said that the bargaining groups have a respectful relationship and cordial discussions. Radow said it is unusual for the negotiations to go this late. Plano, who is not involved in the bargain, is retiring on June 30.
“I’m hopeful that the bargaining teams will reach a resolution well before the school year begins that will help set the new superintendent up for something that he or she doesn’t have to worry about as the summer unfolds,” Plano said.
Plano did express concerns about the impacts of mobility and affordability on the district’s efforts to attract and retain teachers.
“We are so blessed with having extremely talented and gifted staff who come here, who fight the traffic, whose commutes have increased by a third or a half or more,” he said. “If we can’t pay them the wages that we believe they deserve, they may not come.”
