Shoreline educators to strike on Sept. 27

Teachers and education support professionals in the Shoreline School District will stage a one-day strike next week to protest the Shoreline School Board’s decision to over-load classrooms and relocate students from their existing classes and teachers.

Members of the Shoreline Education Association (SEA) will strike Thursday, Sept. 27. Members of the Shoreline Education Support Professionals Association (SESPA) will join them in support.

On Sept. 4, after months of contentious negotiations, SEA members voted to approve a new two-year contract, narrowly avoiding a strike deadline. But since then, school district administrators have unilaterally implemented dramatic, unwarranted revisions in classroom staffing, changes that district administrators misrepresented at the bargaining table and in the final collective bargaining agreement.

Instead of distributing students equally across classrooms and providing appropriate assistance for large class sizes, Superintendent Sue Walker and the Shoreline School Board plan to cuts costs by dramatically overcrowding certain classes, to the detriment of both students and teachers. On Monday, district administrators plan to move possibly hundreds of students from their existing classrooms and teachers, disrupting student-teacher relationships and student learning.

During the previous contract negotiations, SEA members highlighted the poor financial decisions made by the Shoreline School Board and administration and the impact on students and the quality of education in Shoreline. SEA Co-President Elizabeth Beck said that by striking for one day, educators hope to focus the community’s attention on the misguided and harmful actions of the board and top administrators.

Beck said Shoreline educators are calling on the board and administration to drop their misguided plans to move students. “We’re fighting for the future of Shoreline schools,” Beck said.