Kent School District Strike
Out of 1500 members of the Kent Education Association 86.4 percent members approved this strike, this voting was held on Wednesday. The major reason from the teachers for the strike was extra pay, smaller class sizes and more time to prepare their course work.
According to Lisa Brackin Johnson, the president of Education Association of Kent, she explained that Kent has one of the higher class averages in the Puget Sound area.
But district spokeswoman Becky Hanks said for them it is not possible to decrease the class size due to the given budget of the district.
If we reduce the class by only one student across the district it means you are talking about $2.7 million and if we do so it will directly affect the salary of every teacher in the area, she said.
She also explained that last year we took some measurements to get better budget, so we can renegotiate with teachers.
Another major point in the talks is that in most districts they have weekly or monthly teacher meetings but Kent Education Association has three or four meetings every week and it is obligatory for all the teachers to attend all meetings every week.
An English teacher Annie Kirking said that for the teacher it is very hard to give time to every student separately after teaching, writing and grading papers, attending meetings and planning for other tasks of the class.
The district explained that we pay teachers to work for seven-hours a day and they get 30 minutes lunch break. Teachers spend 5 hours in the classroom and 2 hours for other tasks.
It looks like that Kent teachers are looking something more than just a raise, but on the other hand concerned department officials say that it can affect the district’s financial stability badly if they have to reduce class size even I child per class.
Kent School District Strike
Kent School District Strike
Kent School District Strike
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