Judge orders Kent teachers back to classrooms on Sept. 8

King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas this morning declared the Kent teachers' strike illegal and ordered teachers to report to classrooms on Tuesday, Sept. 8, with classes to resume the next day.

Darvas urged both sides to resume bargaining in the meantime.

Jim Gasper, attorney for the teachers, had argued that while teachers were public employees they were not like police and fire fighters, subject to binding arbitration and unable to legally strike. He said there's a body of law to support teachers' right to strike.

But Darvas disagreed. "No Washington court has ever held that teachers have the right to strike," she told a courtroom filled with teachers and a few students.

She added that her personal belief is that labor strikes should be resolved through bargaining and not in the court and that the "right to strike is a basic civil liberty." But as a trial judge, Darvas said she must put her personal belief aside and rule simply on the law, which in this case says the strike is illegal.

The strike began Aug. 27, delaying Monday's scheduled start of the new school year. A key question now is whether the district's 1,700 teachers will obey the judge's order.

The teachers, represented by the Kent Education Association, planned to assemble at 2:30 in Auburn this afternoon to consider their options, including whether to continue picketing and whether to resume bargaining.

Charles Lind, attorney for the Kent School District, had asked the judge to restrain teachers from picketing and distributing literature. Darvas refused those requests but did agree with the district that irreparable harm was being done to students, parents and some 1,100 other workers — from bus drivers to cafeteria workers — who lose wages when teachers strike.

The ruling brought tears to the eyes of many teachers.

"It's frustrating," said Connie Compton, a special education teacher at Jenkins Creek Elementary. Last year she had some classroom help, but won't this year, even though her resource room usually has more than 30 students who range in age from kindergarten to sixth grade. "It's an impossible job."

Over the past few decades, injunctions to stop teacher strikes have been sought in school districts throughout the state in at least 30 cases and granted in most of them. But in nearly all cases, teachers ignored the ruling and continued to strike, regarding the court intervention as a strong-arm tactic, according to Washington Education Association spokesman Rich Wood.

The teachers had begun negotiating what is now a two-year contract with the district in April, and in mid-August began using a mediator.

At 4 p.m. this past Sunday, just a few days into the strike, the teachers gave the district a proposal and waited for a response. But rather than answer it, the district on Tuesday filed for the injunction, which infuriated teachers, who say the district is not bargaining fairly.

"We do respect and we do value our teachers — they do incredible work," District Superintendent Ed Vargas said at a news conference Tuesday.

Both sides have maintained they are acting on behalf of the district's 26,000 students. The primary areas of contention are class size and mandatory before- and after-school staff meetings which, teachers say, keep them from being able to meet with students who need help.

The district said reducing class size would cost $2.7 million and was out of reach of the district's budget. But teachers counter that it's essential to maintain the quality of education in a district that has many students for whom English is a second language.

Classes in first grade and kindergarten sometimes range from 26 to 31 students. At East Hill Elementary, which has a high percentage of special-needs students, it's typical for 75 percent of students in a class to be learning English, one teacher said.

The district did propose to make changes to its staff meeting policy but the teachers said the proposal came with so many loopholes it made it moot.

At this point, the two sides agree on salary, with the district proposing between a 2.7 to 3 percent salary increase the first year, depending on where one is on the salary grid, and 1.5 percent the second year.