Bellevue teachers win gains from strike

BELLEVUE, Wash.--A successful strike of teachers at Bellevue School District ended in a three-year contract that raises salaries by 5 percent, in addition to the state-funded cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and gives teachers more flexibility in adapting standardized classroom lessons.

Bellevue Education Association (BEA) members voted September 14 to ratify the new contract.

In June 2008, 94 percent of members voted to authorize a strike for the first time in 30 years. Teachers' anger centered upon the district's Curriculum Web, a system of mandated, daily, scripted lessons. The requirements of the Curriculum Web created tensions between teachers and "curriculum cops"--district curriculum coaches, whose responsibility was to enforce lessons.

Despite the overwhelming rejection of the Curriculum Web among the 600 teachers that responded to a district survey at the end of the school year in 2008, the district continued to press for it to be included in the new contract.

In addition to the tough posture on the mandated, daily lessons, the district was also intractable on salary increases and contributing to increasing health costs. While the BEA eventually moved from its original demand of 11 percent over COLA to 5 percent, the district maintained that 1.5 percent each year of the two-year contract was all they could afford.

During the last contract negotiations in 2006, the district also cried poverty, and teachers settled for a meager 1.8 percent and .87 percent a year over COLA. Six months after the contract was ratified, Karen Clark, then finance director, "discovered" an excess of over a million dollars in the district's reserves and recommended spending it immediately.

Despite the good faith of Bellevue teachers, who worked two weeks without a contract, the district didn't give them this money, which could have easily covered 1.8 percent over COLA for the second year of the contract as well.

DURING THE nine-day strike, teachers organized visible, energetic picket lines at schools throughout the district. Parents and students came out to unite with teachers in opposition to the Curriculum Web. Over 200 students formed a support group called, "Students for Teachers' Rights."

BEA members demonstrated at Bellevue District headquarters, disrupting multiple school board meetings to make their demands. On September 8, 75 percent of teachers voted down a contract proposal that still included vague language around mandated daily lessons and a raise of 4.5 percent over COLA for a three-year contract, despite pressure from the media to return to the classroom.

Community support for teachers ran high. When the Bellevue School Board held a forum on September 9 to discuss seeking an injunction to force teachers back to work, nearly 1,000 parents and community members turned out. Over 100 people signed up to speak during the meeting. The board gave audience members' red and green cards to indicate support for the speaker's comments.

A clear majority of the community opposed the idea of an injunction, stating that it would create more division and resentment among teachers, and called the school board's tactics "draconian and Gestapo-like."

An overwhelming majority also spoke against the district's Curriculum Web. As one parent said, "The Curriculum Web should be an outline or a resource, not a straight jacket. I don't want my kids taught by robots. I want them taught by the most passionate, most committed and creative teachers we can possibly have. It's a no-brainer."

The school board reconvened an hour after the two-hour-long meeting and announced that it would not seek an injunction. Two days later, the district caved in to the issue that mattered most to the teachers--scrapping the requirement of the daily, scripted lessons and instead making the Curriculum Web an online resource for teachers.

In addition to a 5 percent salary increase over three years, the district is also increasing its contribution to health benefits, protecting Bellevue teachers from rising premiums.

Former BEA President Stephen Miller summed up the importance of striking against the strict curriculum requirements, "Once you start treating kids like numbers, it's a dangerous path. Developing a curriculum like they are all the same, denies that students are unique. Fortunately, today we defeated that."