VANCOUVER, WA – Families and leaders of Evergreen Public Schools in southwest Washington hope students will return to school on Tuesday after a week-long delay due to a classified workers strike.

But officials of the 22,000-student district in Vancouver have yet to come to an agreement with over a thousand union members demanding that the district address critical understaffing and adequately compensate paraeducators.

Union leaders say members will not return to work without a contract.

Members of Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948 began their strike Aug. 26 following months of failed contract negotiations. The union represents 1,400 paraeducators, bus drivers, security officers, maintenance workers and other classified staff at Evergreen Public Schools,

This is the first strike in its 57-year history.

The Evergreen Education Association, which represents about 1,500 teachers in the district, conducted a seven-day strike in 2023 over wages, special education staff support and planning time.

Members of the teachers union are supporting their colleagues by not crossing the picket line.

Evergreen Public Schools delayed the start of the school year from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2 in response to the classified workers walkout.

“The district will continue to bargain with the union in good faith in order to reach a fair agreement that is affordable and sustainable under our current budget conditions,” Superintendent Christine Moloney said Thursday in a written statement on behalf of the district.

The district hopes to reach an agreement with the union before the new start date, Moloney said.

The district has been understaffed for many years, which has resulted in classified employees being stretched thinner than is safe for them and the students in their care, said Mindy Troffer-Cooper, president of the Evergreen chapter of the union.

Paraeducators at the middle and high school level have been donating their time to help their colleagues with school bus pickups and drop offs and other situations where understaffing would cause danger to students and staff.

The union tried to negotiate a fix into last year’s contract, which resulted in classified staff working without a contract for five months before they ultimately agreed to sign one that didn’t address their concerns.

On its website, the district states that it would like to see negotiations continue while school is in session.

Union members also want to return to work, Troffer-Cooper said, but not at the expense of a bad contract or a repeat of last year’s bargaining experience.

“We decided that we were not going to go that route this time,” Troffer-Cooper said. “It was not fair to the membership to work that long without a contract and work for an employer that didn’t value their employees.”

Negotiations began in March.

The district presented an offer to the union on Wednesday that Troffer-Cooper said was “regressive in nature.”

The Clark College Association for Higher Education has scheduled a solidarity rally on Labor Day, where Troffer-Cooper will speak alongside state Rep. Monica Stonier, an instructional coach in Evergreen Public Schools, and state Sen. Adrian Cortes, a special education teacher in the Camas School District.

Contract talks at other districts

Vancouver Public Schools also have yet to reach an agreement with its classified employees, but bargaining is continuing while school is in session.

Students returned to class on Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The Vancouver Education Association held a bargaining support rally on Thursday.

The La Center School District and its teacher’s union are in a similar arrangement, with contract negotiations continuing after students returned to school on Tuesday. The latest round of proposals was exchanged Thursday.

In the Spokane area, educators in the Mead School District are approaching the start of the school year on Sept. 2 without a contract.

Members of the Mead Education Association voted Thursday to authorize a strike if an agreement isn’t reached by Aug. 31.

“While we all want to be back in our classrooms with our students, we must have the supports we need to effectively teach them,” the union said in a social media post after Thursday night’s vote.

The 625-member association represents all non-administrative school employees with certificates, including teachers, nurses, therapists and speech language pathologists.

Union supporters held rallies on Aug. 11 and Aug. 20.

Educators want the district to reduce class sizes, provide more classroom support and address student safety concerns.

The district and the union have been negotiating since May.

“We’ve been at the table with the Mead Education Association for a considerable period of time, and we remain committed to good faith bargaining until we reach an agreement,” Superintendent Travis Hanson said Thursday afternoon, adding that the district looks forward to welcoming students back next week.

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