SALEM, Ore. — The Salem-Keizer School District and the Salem-Keizer Education Association declared an impasse last week after 10 months of contract bargaining, and union leaders said Thursday that they've submitted their "best and final" offer before the two sides head into mediation sessions starting next week.
"We need the district to come to the table with real solutions on how to address the key issues, so we can settle this contract and keep our students in schools," said teachers union president Tyler Scialo-Lakeberg.
The union's proposal rejects the school district's language on teacher workloads, which the union argued could allow administrators to switch educators' schedules suddenly.
"They could make us work 12 (pm to) 8 (pm) one day, 8 (am) to 4 (pm) the next," Scialo-Lakeberg said.
She added that the district proposal could also decrease some educators' full-time roles to part-time by starting their day right before students arrive and ending it right when class is dismissed.
"It's essentially making people paid part-time for full-time work," she said.
The district did not respond to requests for an interview, but superintendent Andrea Castañeda recently told KGW that the district doesn't want to make teachers part-time employees.
The district can't accept the union's proposal for stringent schedules because educator schedules need to be somewhat flexible to accommodate events like parent-teacher conferences, she said.
"And when we shared that offer, we were clear. We said, 'This is all we can do. Anything more will do lasting harm to our schools,'" she said.
Castañeda said the district also shares the union's goal of smaller class sizes but can't afford it at the moment.
"We would love to pay our staff even more," she said. "To hire even more teachers, to have smaller class sizes. But the reality in this district, like districts around us, is that we have to close a budget gap — and ours is over $30 million."
The union said its final offer includes a proposal to create a joint district-wide committee that would tackle the class size issue and explore possible solutions.
As the back-and-forth continues, the possibility of a strike that could shut down schools continues to loom on the horizon. If a strike does happen, union leaders said it would likely be in April.
"We are still preparing," Scialo-Lakeberg said. "If we have to, we will strike."
