Bellevue teachers, district far apart

After a frustrating day of talks in which little progress was made, the Bellevue School District and its striking teachers union remain far apart on pay and have significant differences over the district's standardized curriculum.

Another negotiating session is scheduled for 11 a.m. today.

Hundreds of striking teachers surrounded district headquarters in Bellevue on Tuesday evening chanting, "We are not robots" and "Hey, hey, ho, ho, scripted lessons have got to go."

Inside, Bellevue School Board members expressed frustration that they would not be able to offer teachers more money without increasing class size, reducing programs, or laying off about 60 teachers. Bellevue has already cut nearly $5 million from its 2008-09 budget.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna said that while teacher strikes are illegal in Washington, it is up to the School Board to enforce the law. In the early days of a strike, McKenna said, "the best course is to try to resolve it through negotiations."

Teachers say Bellevue is an expensive place to live and that salaries need to keep up with rising costs. "Because of the cost of living here, we have to be one of the top in pay and compensation," said Barry Roberts, a band teacher at Odle Middle School.

The district has offered a 3 percent pay raise over the three-year contract. Combined with a 5.1 percent cost-of-living raise from the state, teachers' salaries would rise 8.1 percent.

The Bellevue Education Association wants a 9 percent pay increase in addition to the state cost-of living-adjustment — or a 14.1 percent raise over the three-year contract.

The district's common curriculum, which mandates what is taught in class from day to day, and the pace at which it is taught, remains the most contentious issue to striking teachers. The district on Monday dropped a proposal requiring that lesson plans that deviate from the common curriculum be submitted in advance for approval.

Teachers, particularly those at the secondary level, with five classes a day and 150 students, said it wasn't realistic for teachers to develop and submit such alternative lesson plans for that many classes in advance.

The district is now proposing that the alternative lessons be submitted after they've been implemented so other teachers can use them. But teachers say they've been reprimanded for making changes to the common curriculum, and they fear such reprimands would continue under the district's current proposal.

The common curriculum was developed and implemented over the past five years with a $2 million Gates Foundation grant. Former Bellevue Superintendent Mike Riley, a strong advocate, argued that it would provide quality and consistency from classroom to classroom and school to school.

"They don't miss key concepts, and they don't repeat them unnecessarily, something that occurred when every teacher was developing lessons alone," said school district spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder. She said the strategy is especially useful for new teachers who don't have to invent a year's worth of lessons from scratch.

Bellevue teachers on the picket lines Tuesday said the common curriculum ignores the experience and expertise of veteran teachers who have developed lesson plans over the years and continually adjust their teaching to meet the needs of individual students.

Michele Miller, president of the Bellevue Education Association, said that the district remains "very strident that there needs to be a common curriculum."

Hope Isitt, a math teacher at Odle Middle School, said she reads students a Roald Dahl story as an introduction to probability and large numbers. But a supervisor told her she was straying too far from the district's pacing guide, which dictates how long should be spent on each lesson.

"They're missing the things teachers do to engage students," Isitt said. "Sometimes you need that hook."

But some parents support the common approach to instruction, saying it promotes consistency among schools.

"I think it's good that all kids in all classes are on the same page," said Betsy Johnson, former PTSA president at Medina Elementary. "If they move within the district, or move up to middle school or high school, they don't have to start over. Everybody is getting the same education."

Higher medical costs have also emerged as a concern for the teachers union.

On Monday, the district added $1 million in health-care benefits to the proposed contract. The offer would mean no additional out-of-pocket costs for 420 of the district's 1,200 teachers. Others would pay between $6 and $62 more per month, but Oxrieder said the high end is only for part-time employees with full-family benefits.

Students were among those disappointed to not be going back to school Tuesday. Gabrielle Cozzolino, 8, was dropped off for day care at Stevenson Elementary School Tuesday. She said she'd been excited about school.

"It's kind of sad," she said. "I hope it gets over soon."

Lynn Thompson: 206-464-8305

Information in this article, originally published September 3, 2008, was corrected September 5, 2008. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that teachers would pay only $6 to $64 a month in out-of-pocket medical costs.