By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association continued contract negotiations Tuesday in an effort to avert a teacher strike that could delay Wednesday’s first day of school for tens of thousands of students.
The two sides face an 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement. If no deal is reached, union members are expected to begin picketing Wednesday morning, delaying the start of classes across the district.
Speaking to reporters at the John Stanford Center as the deadline approached, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner said district officials remained focused on reaching an agreement and opening schools as scheduled. He also outlined the district’s latest contract proposal, financial constraints and contingency plans if teachers strike.
“This community cares deeply, deeply about its public education, and that’s why it’s just so important that we do everything we can to open up schools on Wednesday,” Shuldiner said. “At the end of the day, that’s it. This is the only thing I care about, is making sure that our children are supported and loved and nurtured and educated within our schools.”
The Seattle Education Association represents approximately 6,000 teachers, instructional assistants, office professionals and other support staff across the district. According to SPS, unresolved issues in negotiations include compensation, special education staffing and services, class sizes and employee workloads, with negotiations taking place as the district confronts significant financial challenges.
Shuldiner said the district’s financial condition has limited what SPS can offer employees despite what he characterized as productive negotiations with the union.
“I have to really thank SEA for being a really thoughtful partner within this difficult time,” Shuldiner said. “And why is it difficult? It’s difficult because we’re broke. If we had money, I would love to give it to everybody. But the problem is, we don’t. And so when we don’t have the money, it makes these kinds of discussions and decisions very, very difficult.”
On Aug. 28, SPS released details of what it described as a comprehensive contract offer. The district proposed salary increases of 2.6% for the 2026-27 school year, 3.6% in 2027-28 and 2.6% in 2028-29, totaling nearly 9% over three years. According to SPS, those increases would be in addition to annual salary-step increases for eligible employees.
The district’s proposal also includes changes to special education staffing and services, additional behavioral support positions and expanded access to school psychologists, counselors and social workers. SPS says its proposal would improve staff-to-student ratios for nearly 70% of students
with Individualized Education Programs while establishing a base level of special education staffing at every school.
Special education has emerged as one of the significant issues in negotiations. Shuldiner said the district wants more students with disabilities to receive services at their neighborhood schools rather than having special education defined primarily by particular programs or locations.
“Special education has become a place, and not a service, and that’s not the way to think about it,” Shuldiner said. “One of the things that we’ve heard from the community over and over again, can we have more students stay in their neighborhood school? That’s something we were trying to work on. We want to make sure that we’re trying to really do this, and what we certainly ask from our SEA partners is, what is it that we can do together?”
SPS also says its proposal would create 40 new paraprofessional and certificated positions for a districtwide behavioral support program and 70 additional positions for regional support teams. The proposal includes six additional school psychologist positions and funding intended to ensure elementary schools with more than 350 students have either a full-time counselor or social worker.
As part of its proposals addressing employee workload, SPS also proposed reducing mandatory staff meetings from weekly to three times a month to provide additional planning time.
The district reported that tentative agreements have been reached on several other issues, including guidelines for artificial intelligence use, support for American Sign Language educational interpreters, laptops for paraprofessionals and expanded “right to return” provisions for displaced employees.
A state mediator from the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission is working with the district and union as negotiations continue. Shuldiner said the parties were actively bargaining at the John Stanford Center while he was speaking to reporters.
“Right now, as we speak, there is a mediator in the building, there’s a union, there is a district. We’re all continuing to meet,” Shuldiner said. “I’m an eternal optimist… I really believe that SEA, SPS, the community, the city, care deeply about getting schools open.”
If teachers strike, Shuldiner said the district is preparing to continue providing some services to students even if regular classroom instruction cannot begin. Those preparations include meal service and continued access to some nonprofit organizations that operate within district schools.
“At the end of the day, 50,000 children under Seattle Public Schools are my responsibility,” Shuldiner said. “So, if there is a strike, we will have food and meals planned for our children. If there are non-profits or other folks that work within our schools, we’re gonna continue to have those organizations there and opened. My job is to make sure that the schools are open as much as they can be, no matter what happens.”
