SESPA and Shoreline School District settle contract in November

After a lot of arduous work, the negotiating teams for SESPA (Shoreline Education Support Professionals Association) and the School District worked out the details of a contract that both sides could agree on. The members of the SESPA union voted to accept the new contract at their meeting on October 28 and the School Board ratified it at their first November meeting.

SESPA is a part of the WEA (Washington Education Association) but has separate leadership, contracts, and bargains separately from the WEA. The union covers most of the workers at a school who are not teachers or administrators.

The Union and the School District had failed to agree on a contract during the summer. Negotiations went into the school year, as a State mediator was called in to assist with the bargaining.

That bargaining resulted in a two-year contract which spells out the number of work days and compensation for Security, Nurses, Behavior Techs, and Elementary Library Techs.

These positions will have up to two optional days for prep time as long as there are 175 student days or less. They'll have a half percent salary increase, retro to the beginning of this school year, and a 1.5% in the second year.

The union and the district agreed to a market survey of hourly rates of pay of districts in King and Snohomish counties, to assess where Shoreline employees fall in comparison to the other districts.

Members will be eligible for benefits at 17.5 hours per week instead of 20. Professional development days were reduced to one. Members who do not use the allocated three personal leave days may cash them out. Vacation carry-over may not exceed fifteen days.

David Wilson, President of the Shoreline School Board, said, “We are pleased with the agreement and subsequent ratification of the new two-year contact between the District and SESPA. We believe the contract meets the mutual interests of both parties where possible while allowing the District to sustain financial stability, focusing compensation packages at or near the midpoint of the surrounding 30 King and Snohomish County districts.”