VANCOUVER, Wash. — While a teachers strike in the Camas School District appeared resolved on Thursday, with classes expected to begin Friday, tensions only ratcheted up for a parallel strike impacting Vancouver's Evergreen Public Schools.
According to the Evergreen Education Association, Superintendent John Boyd threatened to withhold pay from striking educators and non-striking support staff, represented by separate unions, if they didn't return to work by Monday, September 11.
“This a scare tactic designed to divide us, because district management can see that we are strongly behind each other and that our community supports us,” said EEA President Kristie Peak in a statement.
They pointed to a strike FAQ published on the district's website says that schools are required to provide 180 days of instruction for students, regardless of the number of days canceled and for what, and “thus, a strike will not impact a teacher’s income over the school year or the number of working days.”
In a statement, the district denied that it would withhold any pay on a permanent basis, but did say that it would delay paychecks if they did not return.
"Teachers will be paid in full for their entire contractual school year. The work stoppage will not shorten the school year, it is just delayed. Based on the delay of employees reporting to work, paychecks will also be delayed," the district said in a statement.
Educators in Evergreen Public Schools get paid at the end of each month, with their salary pro-rated and spread out over the entire year. Ordinarily that would mean that they receive a paycheck at the end of September as the first of the school year, a district official explained, but the district is suggesting that they could wait until October to issue the first check if the strike continues.
The EEA said that such a thing would be a violation of both the collective bargaining agreement and of wage law. The strike began Aug. 30, on what would have been students' first day of school. But the union pointed out that educators had already been working for several days to prepare their classrooms or attend professional development sessions, so "failure to pay for that time already worked would violate federal wage law."
"Union members were filing grievances on behalf of all affected members, and some were concerned that the district’s reckless actions could incur large fines for those violations of law," the EEA said.
"During a strike, teachers are not performing their duties under their contract and therefore the district is not obligated to pay them until they return to work," the district countered. "Any days that staff worked in August will be paid in September."
The union and Evergreen Public Schools have been bargaining on a new contract since March 21, and negotiations continued on Thursday. The EEA said that educators want more supports for students with special needs, more planning and consultation time by addressing a shortage of substitutes, adequate staffing levels and a promised cost-of-living adjustment.
