Kent Education Association President Lisa Brackin-Johnson responds to the school district Superior Court filing asking for the teachers’ strike to be halted.
After hearing both sides in the district’s request for an injunction to end the Kent Education Association’s week-long strike, King County Judge Andrea Darvas postponed the decision until 11 a.m. Thursday.
Kent School District files injunction in King County Superior Court to stop teachers’ strike.
I rarely have time to watch T.V. during the day, but on a recent visit to my parents, I caught a little of the Price is Right. At the end of each show, I remember Bob Barker reminding people to have their pets spayed or neutered. This gave me inspiration for this month’s article, the benefits of spaying and neutering your pets, going beyond the obvious benefits of decreasing the number of unwanted pets.
The recent record heat combined with very little rain is creating stress on landscape plants. July brought us the hottest day ever recorded in our area in the midst of the driest July on record. Here are some helpful summer time tips for providing adequate irrigation for your landscape beds.
While not a resident of Maple Valley, as the contractor of the Capstone Office Building, I feel it incumbent to bring to the public’s attention some issues regarding the recent city manager’s decision to pursue a different location for City Hall than the move to the Capstone Building, which had been previously negotiated before Mr. Johnston arrived on the scene.
The Kent School District filed a complaint in King County Court at 1 p.m. today (Tuesday) seeking to force teachers to end their strike and go back to their classrooms.
The district is requesting an injunction directing teachers to go back to their classrooms.
The Cedarcreek Covenant Church will hosts a free community family night 6:30-8 p.m. Sept. 11 in the parking lot of Glacier Park Elementary .
The scheduled first day of school in Kent came and went Monday with still no contract agreement between the district and the striking Kent Education Association.
Negotiators from both sides met with the state-appointed mediator Saturday and Sunday to work toward reaching a settlement and getting schools back open, but the two sides still appear to be far apart.
“The district is still refusing to deal with the main issues,” KEA spokesman Dale Folkerts said Monday, citing time and workload.
The major sticking point on the union side appears to be class size, with the union requesting a “hard cap” on the number of students in any class.
“They don’t want to put a hard cap on class sizes,” Folkerts said. “What’s overcrowded if there’s no number that says it’s overcrowded?”
The latest proposal from the union, dated Aug. 29, sets the limits at 24 students for kindergarten through grade three and 29 students for grades four though six. The union wants middle school teachers to be capped at 145 students per day (average of 29 per period) while high school teachers would be capped at 155 per day (average of 31 per period).
The union proposal, dated Aug. 30, also states that should those numbers be exceeded, the district will either add classes, reassign students to different rooms or schools, or provide a payment of $2 per student per day over the limit.
Caseload caps for special-education teachers also is included.
“We’re trying to find a creative solution but the district doesn’t want to solve the problem,” Folkerts said.
The district has proposed additional instructional support for fifth- and sixth-grade teachers beginning at the 29th student instead of the 32nd, where it is now. They’re also proposing the creation of a committee to study the issue, which communications director Becky Hanks called “expensive and complex.”
“The challenge in the Kent School District is on multiple levels: one is funding; two is facilities,” she said, adding the district last year received an audit finding about using too many portable classrooms.
The committee to look at class size would include administration, teachers and community stakeholders, such as members of the citizens’ budget review committee.
“It’s not just a matter of ‘let’s pull two kids from every class,'” she added.
Hanks also disputed the union statement that the district is not addressing their concerns. She cited three district proposals to address meetings – a top concern among the union – as evidence they are addressing time.
The district has proposed reducing the number of meetings at the middle school level from three 25-minute meetings to one 50-minute meeting, a 25-minute difference each week. Hanks said the district also has proposed reducing the number of staff-training sessions and has proposed adding two early-dismissal/late-arrival days to allow for teacher collaboration.
Both sides said they would continue to negotiate, but neither offered an estimate as to when the strike would end. Negotiations between the two sides, assisted by a state mediator, are expected to continue daily, at a local hotel.
Until the two sides reach an agreement, schools in the Kent district will remain closed.
Sunday began with negotiations between the Kent Education Association and the school district, which failed to resolve the teachers’ strike.
At about noon the association released a statement that a contract settlement had not been reached with the Kent School District and there would be no school Monday.
The Kent Education Association released a statement that a contract settlement has not been reached with the Kent School District…
A group of volunteers gathered in the rain Saturday morning for some fun and hard work with a shovel at Soos Creek Park.
Members of the Sierra Club’s South King County Group and Friends of Soos Creek met about 9 a.m. at the park along 148th Avenue South and Souteast 266th Street East to clear blackberry vines, English ivy, Scotch broom and other non-native plants.
VIDEO: Kent teachers on strike
VIDEO: Kent Education Association announces the strike
The city of Maple Valley has closed the Lake Wilderness beach area because of a toxic blue-green algae identified as Anabaena flos-aquae.
A city press release stated the algae may threaten the health of people and pets if ingested.
A fundraiser to support the Black Diamond Police Department’s K-9 unit is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Eagles Hall, 32618 Railroad Ave., in Black Diamond.
Instead of preparing for the first day of school on Monday, Kent School District teachers were picketing Thursday after their union, the Kent Education Association, voted Wednesday night at Kentlake to go on strike.
The Kent Education Association, the teachers’ union for the Kent School District, has voted tonight (Wednesday) overwhelmingly to strike.
After more than two hours of verbal wrangling and five roll-call votes at the Monday meeting, the Maple Valley City Council voted 6-1 to move City Hall.
The decision means City Hall will make the move from its current location at Hagen Plaza, 22035 S.E. Wax Rd, to the Dynamic Computer Services Organization/Windermere building at 22017 S.E.Wax Rd. next to the Post Office.
The last day of negotiations before the Kent Education Association’s member meeting ended without an agreement on the major issues,…
