Welcome back!

Recently Mary and I were coordinating our September calendars. As we finished, she reminded me not to forget the meeting on Monday. “Right, on New Year’s,” I replied. She laughed. And I laughed at the slip of substituting New Year’s for Labor Day, and then the two of us agreed that September is the start of both our fiscal year, and the school year.

This incident stimulated some thinking back to my past school year starts. Getting your classroom (sometimes classrooms) ready. Planning the first several days. Incorporating improvements into lessons. Adjusting strategies. And when I was a council president, writing a Welcome Back article for the newsletter.

This is not a Welcome Back to School article. This is being read by more than our members, and so while my comments are mainly for our members, I am mindful of a wider audience. I have been thinking about the past year, my first as vice president. I’ve been evaluating how I did, and developing ideas on how I can use what I learned to be better this year. I know I won’t be perfect, because no one knows what situations I will face, but if I am well prepared, and flexible with the confidence to adapt to the circumstances that confront me, I will do the best I can.

It’s the same thing I expect from our public schools. As a citizen, as a parent, and as an educator, I want our youth to have a background of what past generations have learned, but I want them to be prepared and flexible enough to adjust to meet the unique challenges they will face in the coming years. I want them at their best when it really counts.

The greatest legacy we can leave our grandchildren is to prepare our children to make the world better than we have. And I think that is a fine way to start the year.

To strike or not to strike.

Recently a parent wrote to me asking if the Bellevue teachers were going to strike, and if so approximately how long it was going to last. It is a reasonable request. Parents care about their children and want the best for them. That takes planning. If children are not going to be in school, alternative arrangements need to be made.

I would love to be able to tell the Bellevue parents if there will be a strike, but the fact is I will probably find out at the same time they will. The Bellevue teachers have taken a strike vote pending the outcome of the current contract negotiations with the school district. The teachers in Snoqualmie have taken a similar vote. WEA only provides support to a local association. It is the local teachers who decide to strike.

No educator wants a strike. They want what is best for their students, which means working with the students to provide them with the best possible education. If teachers vote to strike it tells you that there are issues they feel will have a significant impact on the role they engage in as educators. The strike itself is a de facto push to get negotiations moving toward a mutually agreeable solution.

How long does that take? It depends on how willing the two teams are to talk to each other in an atmosphere of respect. Around the state this summer, several bargaining crises have been averted by two sides working together to come to an agreement. I congratulate both sides for their efforts on behalf of the students. I hope the Bellevue School District administration offers a fair contract settlement that our BEA members can ratify with pride, soon.