Update 10pm Tuesday
According to the Seattle Education Assocation, highlights of the agreement include:

• Recess: Guaranteed 30 minutes of recess for all elementary students.
• Reasonable testing: New policies to reduce the over-testing of our students.
• Professional pay: Base salary increases of 3 percent, 2 percent and 4.5 percent, plus the state COLA of 4.8 percent
• Fair teacher and staff evaluations: Test scores will no longer be tied to teacher evaluations, plus there is new contract language that supports teachers' professional growth.
• Educator workload relief: Additional staff to reduce workloads and provide student services.
• Student equity around discipline and the opportunity gap: Creating race and equity teams at 30 of the district’s schools.
• The administration’s proposal to lengthen the school day: Teachers will be compensated for additional work.

A vote Sunday by the membership is expected to ratify the agreement.

Update 8:00am Tuesday
The negotiating team for Seattle Public Schools led by Geoff Miller met with the Seattle Education Association from 11am to 7am in an overnight bargaining session the two sides have reached an agreement.

The details cannot be released at this time since the agreement must still be reviewed and approved by SEA membership.

School will presumably restart on Thursday due to logistical reasons.

“in the end we found common ground”, said Miller.

“My sincere thanks to both of the bargaining teams and our mediators for working through the night to reach an agreement," said Superintendent Larry Nyland. "This is great news for our 53,000 students. We are eager to open schools, welcome students and begin learning.”

Update 4:18pm Sunday
The Seattle Publics schools will be closed for a fourth day Monday as a strike by teachers continues.

The strike which is being mediated between SPS and the teachers union began at the start of the school year for district's 53,000 students. While negotiations are continuing no resolution has yet been reached.

The district's last offer was for a 14.8% increase over three years but the two sides at last report were still more than $50 million apart.

For more information from the SEA visit their site
http://www.seattlewea.org
For more information from SPS visit their site
http://www.seattleschools.org

Update Friday Sept. 10 3:40pm
No progress yet was the word from Seattle Public Schools who said that while they have been meeting with mediators, they are not aware that representatives from the Seattle Education Association have been. They stated at a press conference on Friday that it's costing the district $100,000 a day and that adjustments to the length of the school year would likely have to be made, even factoring in "snow days".

That works out to $55,000 in school staff, $25,000 in food staff, $15,000 for school security, and $5000 for contracted support.

They said they are asking teachers for an additional 20 minutes per day in the third year of their contract. "Seattle Elementary students have one of the shortest days in the state with 6 hours and 10 minutes. The state average is 6 hours 30 minutes."

They said the two sides are still far apart on numbers.

"While we did receive 37.2 million in new million from the state (the result of the McCleary Decision), 28.2 million of that revenue brought with it mandated expense leaving the district with just 9 million in unallocated revenue to fund new initiatives such as textbook adoptions and opportunity gap closing initiatives. There's not much money left. The District contract offer is $62 million over the three year contract and SEA is asking for a combined total of nearly $172 million.

The ACT exams scheduled this weekend will go ahead at Franklin and Nathan Hale High Schools.

Talks are set to resume on Saturday.

Update 3.45pm Thursday Sept. 10
In a press confernce held at Seattle Public Schools John Stanford Center SPS offiicals said no agreement has yet been reached and that school was again cancelled. They announced that a recorded hotline for the public was now set up allowing people to record questions. The answers would be added to the districts FAQ page online. The number is 206-252-0207.

Update 5:10pm Wedneday Sept. 9
The Seattle School Board today said that due to the strike school was cancelled for Thursday Sept 10 and while they "hope for a quick resolution" acknowledged that the two sides are roughly $55 million apart.
Zone 1 Coordinator Jannike Johnsen said, "There was $40 million given to the state legislature (the McCleary Decision), plus the district had a balance at the end of the school year in addition they only need to put 3% to 5% into reserves. Our district puts in 8%. That's money they don't need to put in reserves. In fact there is money to fund what SEA is asking for."

In a press conference today the Seattle Public Schools Board said a state mediator would be in place Thursday morning to help negotiate the matter.

Original Post
The Seattle Education Association authorized a strike for their 5000 members for Sept. 9 which was to be the first day of school. Dozens of teachers formed picket lines outside Sealth, and West Seattle High Schools as well as Denny and Madison Middle schools and others.

Negotiations center on professional pay, guarantee of student recess, staff evaluations, standardized testing time and workload relief.

Another major issue is that the district has proposed to increase the current school day by 30 minutes for more instruction time. However, the district did not include paying teachers for the added time in their proposal..

Negotiations began in May, but the district and SEA were unable come to an agreement before the deadline of August 24.

In a statement, SEA President Jonathan Knapp said, “Seattle teachers and support staff are unified and resolute in working for a fair contract, and we’re willing to do what it takes to get one. The Seattle School Board must get down to work and move on these crucial issues so our students can start school on time."

SEA represents about 5,000 educators and professionals in the Seattle School District, and Seattle is the largest school district in Washington State with 53,000 students.

The strike is the first one relating to teacher contracts since 1985.

Mayor Ed Murray issued a statement on the ongoing negotiations between the district and SEA.

“Over the weekend, I spoke with Superintendent Nyland, School Board President Sherry Carr and Seattle Education Association President Jonathan Knapp,” said the mayor. “I encouraged all parties to come together to reach an agreement as quickly as possible so that kids can begin their school year. During those conversations, I offered to help and assist in any way I could.”

The mayor also announced that the City would extend city-sponsored youth programs at several community centers and camps to help with childcare while teachers strike but Hiawatha and other centers were already at capacity, leaving many people without a solution as to where their children would go.

Meanwhile, Washington State is being fined $100,000 a day for what the Supreme Court says is the State's inability to fund education for its 1 million K-12 students. The sanctioned money is going into a fund devoted to education.

The teachers and staff at Sealth issued a letter to the parents and the community.

Dear Chief Sealth Parents and Community,
We the staff and Chief Sealth are on strike on behalf of excellence in public education for Seattle students and families.

We are on strike to establish best-practices education. Teacher compensation is part of that. Educators in the Seattle Schools have fallen far behind the cost of living the last six years - in the city with the highest-rising housing costs in the nation. Competitive compensation is about recurring and retaining the best and the brightest teachers and staff. The survival of top public schools depends on fair pay.

Our assistant teachers and secretaries do no make a living wage. It's as simple as that. These professionals are essential to the function of our school; Their work directly supports teachers and students every minute of every school day.

School psychologists. physical therapists, speech language pathologists, nurses and other essential professionals in our schools must serve unlimited case loads and are grossly overworked. They cannot adequately serve the number of students who need their professional help to succeed in school. Our students need more.

The high-stakes standardized testing system is bad educational practice. The tests are neither valld nor reliable nor fair. We are striking to establish best-practice student assessment methods - demonstrations of learning, skills, assessments, critical thinking. The standardized testing craze distorts the purpose of education and targets minorities, second language and special education students.

This strike is about justice. We are striking to establish equity teams at every Seattle school. These teams would identify and solve systemic issues at schools that victimize minority students an fuel the school-to-prison pipeline.

We are on strike to shatter the myth that standardized test scores can be validly used to evaluate teachers.

We are on strike to ensure that every elementary school student gets the recess time necessary to learn successfully.

We are on strike to redefine public education in Seattle. We want the best schools in the nation, with world languages, music, the arts, sciences, humanities, mathematics, language arts, physical education and more. We want the money spent on kids and classrooms, not on bureaucrats at the Stanford Center. We want our students to be fully ready for the 21st century world - not just to be test-taking robots.

We ask for your support as we put our careers and ourselves on the line these values. Your support is necessary for this cause to succeed.

Very sincerely,

The Staff of Chief Sealth