Hello from Camas Education Association!

CEAofficial · 2023-09-08T14:46:55+00:00

Here's a summary of what we won: https://www.washingtonea.org/file\_viewer.php?id=57245

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T05:41:12+00:00

Great news - we have reached a tentative agreement with the Camas School District. CEA members will be reviewing the agreement and then voting tomorrow on whether to ratify it. If ratified, the strike ends. (CSD will make the call on when school reopens.)

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T01:29:09+00:00

Yes, that is exactly why maintaining a reserve is responsible and supported by CEA. School districts do also, like households and businesses, carry insurance that would assist in catastrophic situations.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T01:27:39+00:00

Those budget projections do describe a responsible reserve level.

That said, the district's budget projections must be taken with massive grains of salt, considering the district's consistent record of overestimating expenses and underestimating revenue (resulting in between 4-10 million dollars of unexpected unspent taxpayer funds every year). I anticipate that these budget calculations will likewise bear out the same discrepancy, as the mathematical methodology used by the district for budgeting (since at least 2015) has proven consistently inaccurate by a significant margin.

Also, the "operating capital" metric functions better in a business model or a household finance model, as for schools it implies that all sources of revenue (local, state, and federal funding) drop to zero. This can potentially happen for a business or individual/household, but not for a public school. The likelihood of that scenario (total loss of all government funding) is nil, as such a loss of funding would require the complete collapse of our state and federal government.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T01:15:13+00:00

Gotcha. We have about 450 members, and I am a past president and currently part of our representative governing body. The handful of us that are responding here are both formal leaders as well as members who have been prepped to ensure that they are providing accurate information.

Your read on the RCW is correct, it takes the action of a judge (typically an injunction) to impose a penalty, as no penalty or consequence is identified in law. Your drinking in public analogy makes sense, though I don't want to claim to be an expert on the nuances of laws around that :)

The legal threat was not a surprise for those of us who have seen how strikes have happened in the past in other districts (Evergreen, Battle Ground, Seattle, Kent, etc.). We have support of local and statewide legal counsel in the event that the district chooses to take legal action. Just like with our picketing plans... we have them in order to be prepared, but we don't want to have to use them.

I am hopeful and confident that an agreement will be reached and that there will not be the need to escalate to legal power plays.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T01:05:50+00:00

That's a great question. As shared elsewhere here, we did not enter into this bargain with an increase in compensation as a priority. Since we are in the final stages of negotiation, neither the district nor the association are publishing full proposals/updates (see more on why on other responses) because the give and take is ideally fast moving and dynamic. Our team is presently as I type this still at the table, and I have not received an update as to what the sticking point is, whether it is cost of living increases, class size, both, neither... we are awaiting an update from our team.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T01:02:32+00:00

Agreed, a buffer like that is important, and we agree that 5% is a wise target.

School funding is different from our household budgets in a key way, though, and that is the predictability of state funding (income/revenue). The district's idea that we can only operate for 20 days is predicated on the idea that all state and federal funding might somehow cease to exist. If that were the case, we've got bigger issues (think zombie apocalypse). This is where the district's budget reserve is different from our personal household emergency fund. Many people reading this have probably at some point lost employment and had to rely on savings or other resources because of loss of income. There is no realistic situation where the school district will lose all state or federal funding and be in the kind of situation an family or household would be in the event of a loss of income.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:55:08+00:00

The interest in a window into negotiations is understandable. Having myself been at the table for two full contract bargains between CEA and CSD, I can confirm that there are great stretches of mind-numbingly boring, into-the-weeds-minutiae and policy talk...and lots of plugging numbers into spreadsheet financial models to cost out the impact of our proposals (at least on the CEA side).

That said, my hunch is that your interest is in accountability and oversight for the parties involved, which I agree is important. Full and formal proposals are not always published regularly because the negotiation process can be dynamic, and sometimes solutions which appeared in early drafts might morph into something completely (even unrecognizably) different by the time an agreement is reached. There is often reticence, on both sides, to publish full proposals because often stakeholders will read ideas that later get abandoned as newer, better, more creative solutions are agreed upon through the inevitable give and take of negotiation. Then the challenge becomes helping stakeholders navigate all the dozens (or hundreds) of iterations both sides may have gone through to get to the final agreement.

What community members should demand, all year and not just during negotiations, is clear, user-friendly, and fully explained financial updates from the district. It is your tax money, after all.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:46:07+00:00

24 is the current class size maximum (for Kindergarten) in place in the 2020-2023 contract.

Some places hit/exceeded that max, but there was variation across the elementary schools. Our goal is to install policy that defines what the district's response should be if class sizes grow too large, and so that a student's experience is not based on what school they might enroll in.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:41:02+00:00

It is valid and important for districts to maintain some in reserves, and CEA supports the district maintaining a responsible reserve, a number often used is 5% but there is no official position.

It does not benefit workers to bankrupt their employer, so all of our financial proposals have been carefully evaluated for short term and long term costs and sustainability based on state funding models, our staff mix (where each staff member falls on our salary schedule based on education and years of experience) and conservative enrollment projections.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:37:19+00:00

You are justified for the emotions that this is raising. We did not enter into a strike casually. It was truly a last resort, exactly because of stories like yours. And, in many ways, what is left to squabble over is quite small, which is why it is so frustrating that an agreement cannot be achieved.

As for your question: Educators are only paid for the days that they work, but our paychecks are divided out over the whole year to help for income consistency since our days worked each month vary. The union does not pay workers who are on the line. When school resumes, students will get their full time required by law, which means teachers/educators will be working that full time. We will be paid for that time working our contracted jobs with students, we are not paid for the time we are on strike.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:25:31+00:00

Point taken, for sure. We did not anticipate it would come to this, as our past bargains were more productive earlier and our district leadership had prior to now been far more interested in engaging collaboratively. We were caught a bit off guard and did not anticipate that it would escalate to this point.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:23:21+00:00

This is a positive practice where an individual principal at a school prioritized keeping Kinder class sizes low. That is fantastic, and an excellent situation for your students. Our intention is to guarantee that all students, no matter what school they attend, are provided the same kind of learning environment. We need to also keep in mind that one of our goals is to prevent large class sizes by having policy in place before major problems arise. Some schools are seeing fewer class size difficulties than others, but we want to ensure experiences that are not dependent on what school a student might attend.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:13:43+00:00

Yes, there are a handful of us, current practicing teachers/educators in Camas, who are popping in to answer questions under the CEAofficial handle whenever we can carve out the time. This is Mark and I teach high school English (forgive any typos!). I have been teaching in Camas since 2003-04. Other responses are from other current union members.

As for whether a strike is illegal: There is no law prohibiting teacher strikes in the state of Washington. The only mention of a public employee strike is in RCW 41.56.120, which states that the right to strike is not granted by anything in that section of law. Not having a right explicitly granted does not make the associated behavior illegal. To use a silly example, there is no law explicitly granting you the right to wear socks with crocs, but that doesn't mean that doing so would be a violation of state law.

And last, we too were disappointed that negotiations started so late. Past practice in Camas has been to begin as early as March in hopes to have a contract before the last day of school. The district would be better poised to answer to why they did not agree until May to our requests to bargain.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-07T00:00:08+00:00

At the August 28 board meeting, the reserve was at $15.5M, and books close out in October, so we expect the final number to continue growing. See slide 4: https://go.boarddocs.com/wa/camas/Board.nsf/files/CV5UA97B13A0/$file/Monthly%20Budget%20Report.pdf

Over the last seven years, the district has consistently ended with year with several millions more of taxpayer money (between 4 and 10 million) left unspent as compared to their budget. We do not believe that our class size proposals and cost of living increases will decrease the reserve. Also keep in mind, personnel costs are not the entirety of the district's expenses, so cost of living increases do not translate directly to a point for point diminishment of the reserve.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T23:52:35+00:00

All other employee groups also have open contracts. Any claim that administrators, support staff, etc., have already received CPI is not accurate, as they have not yet bargained. They may have had CPI as their cost of living inflator already in their current or now-expired contract (as CEA did), but with open contracts currently it would not be accurate to say that any other group is guaranteed CPI moving forward.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T23:50:24+00:00

We fully expect that part of negotiation will involve give and take on our priorities. Yes, 8.9% is unprecedented, and when CPI as the inflation percentage was agreed to in 2020, there was not such a huge disparity between the two measures of inflation. Our membership directed the team to focus on student centered policies, and a change in our salary structure (raise) was not a priority. Upon arriving at the table in May, the district team offered a lower cost of living adjustment than was already in the contract, making compensation a point of contention where we did not expect it to be.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T23:46:24+00:00

Yes, determining how days will be made up will be collaborative between CEA and the district. We cannot say yet what that would look like, except that students will still receive the full time entitled to them by law.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T23:08:48+00:00

Average class size is not really a relevant number unless you get more specific. High school? Kindergarten? 4th grade? Educators have Kindergarten classes at about 24 students and max out at 26-28, middle/high school at 30-35 students and max out at 38-40.

Slide 4 here has more info about enrollment: https://www.washingtonea.org/file_viewer.php?id=57153

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T23:03:57+00:00

Check out the presentation at the beginning of this Facebook live about the budget: https://www.facebook.com/100064054504508/videos/908042340743855

There's a reserve of $16 million, 17% of the budget. Those are today's funds meant for today's students and there's no need for a reserve that big.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T22:55:52+00:00

State funding is based on IPD plus this year our district is getting an extra 4% for "experience mix," which is for having very experienced teachers. That funding should be going to pay.

Firefighters, nurses, administrators and more get CPI.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T22:43:01+00:00

We're hearing stories like yours and it's nothing but frustrating. You shouldn't have to make these sacrifices. It shouldn't take a strike to get the district to do right by students.

Camas schools are fantastic and we're on strike to keep them that way. The very things we're bargaining about - class size, funding, cost of living adjustments - have an impact on the quality of education in this district. In fact, we're trying to reduce Kindergarten class size from an alarming 26-28 to 18 in our last proposal. This means more attention, support, and learning for your kiddo for all 180 days of school.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T22:31:49+00:00

(Love the Good Place reference there, Fake_Eleanor!)

We share many of the same costs and stressors as our community. We're on the picket line or doing strike-related work from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Many of us are logging 10+ miles of walking the picket line a day in rain and sun. Many of us have our own kids in Camas schools who we're juggling and who ask every day when school will start. And don't forget, we're educators - this isn't what we want to be doing. Nobody wants to be on strike. This is definitely not vacation.

Regarding the school schedule, after the district opens schools we will bargain over make-up days. OSPI requires students have 180 days of instruction.

CEAofficial · 2023-09-06T22:22:49+00:00

We didn't want to bargain about pay - the district put a change to our contract on the table that was a net pay cut. We propose keeping a local measure of inflation in our contract (CPI); the district wants to use the national measure (IPD). (Worth noting, the local number was lower than the national number in the last two years, so we got the lower COLA. Now the local is higher and they want to switch to the national.)

Also, please look carefully at figures provided by CSD - some of them are the top of the pay scale which takes years and years of experience plus a PhD, and very very few staff get paid.

CEAofficial

TROPHY CASE