School Notes

News outlets are reporting that Kent teachers voted Wednesday night to strike for smaller class sizes and more time to prepare course work. Several other districts still in negotiations could see strikes in the next few weeks as well.

Snoqualmie Valley and nearby school districts won’t see any strikes, though, said Stephen Miller, head of the Washington Education Association’s Sammamish Council, which includes Snoqualmie Valley to Mercer Island.

Snoqualmie teachers are going into the second year of a three-year contract and cannot strike, except over very specific items such as health care, which is renegotiated with the state every year. Mercer Island teachers settled with their district. Issaquah teachers will negotiate their contract next year. Bellevue teachers went on strike last year, but were able to negotiate a contract.

But class size is not an issue that is going away, Miller said.

“All our class sizes went way up. It just so happens Kent is in the middle of negotiations and could do something about it,” he said. “It’ll b a big issue next year.”

The WEA and local teacher unions will lobby the state legislature to increase tax money for public schools, he said.

“We’re going to go after them hard,” Miller said.