This morning, staff and parents from Salmon Bay and Olympic View showed their solidarity by greeting the SEA Team with posters, flowers and breakfast treats as they arrived at negotiations. The Team clearly felt the support.
On Tuesday, August 24, 90 Site Coordinators met to prepare for activities to support our bargaining team. Below is the information they are circulating at trainings and schools this week.
We Are Ready for Change.
On Tuesday, Aug. 31, wear blue for our brighter future, and as a united symbol of what we can achieve for our schools and students through collaboration and innovation. SEA members are ready!
As educators, we dedicate our careers to doing the best we can for our students …. and we bristle when outsiders to our district suggest teachers should be blamed for every problem that interferes with a child’s education today. That’s why our union, the Seattle Education Association, is seeking a new path. It’s a path that recognizes the most important factor in a child’s schooling is a great teacher in every classroom, but also recognizes that great teachers are not the only factor that shapes a child’s education.
As educators, we know learning is more than simply teaching the answers to a standardized test. We know that education is facts, figures and formulas, but it is so much more: It’s attitude, curiosity and a student’s internal drive to do better. It’s instilling a desire for lifelong learning, not merely the ability to skate through next week’s test. As educators, we understand that children are not treated equally by the world. Some have access to travel, books, performances and information. Some don’t. Some families face a multitude of challenges. Some don’t.
As educators, we are not afraid to own our role in teaching our students. And as a profession, we must stand against being the sole source of blame for every factor that influences the upbringing of every child.
That’s why Seattle’s educators worked jointly with the district to develop the Professional Growth and Evaluation model. It creates a framework to identify great teachers based on clear standards, not simply guesswork or favoritism. It provides the support to help struggling teachers improve, so that every Seattle educator truly is proficient or innovative. It reflects and helps educators address the cultural differences of our students. And it deals head-on with an isolated but incendiary issue that has risked the credibility of our entire profession: teacher quality.
That’s the historic change we seek: fighting for the professionalism we – and our students – deserve, but finding meaningful solutions that still ensure fairness to our members. If we are successful, SEA could provide a beacon to other districts struggling with these same difficult issues. If no contract agreement is reached, SEA could find itself in a protracted battle with those who don’t recognize the educational damage created by their simplistic mandate for test-driven teaching.
For now, let’s remain upbeat and positive in our hope that our district is ready to move forward with historic change.
It’s our future. We’re ready for change: That’s why we need your voice.
