New Northshore Parent Group Seeks Voice in Collective Bargaining With Teachers

A small core group of parents calling themselves Northshore Families for Better Schools is trying to gain an equal voice in Northshore School District’s collective bargaining negotiations with the Northshore chapter of the Washington State Education Association (NSEA). While the group states that all it wants is more parental involvement with the district and teacher evaluations, the union questions the motives of the group and its membership.

The parent group, aligned with the League of Education Voters, started a little more than a month ago with six parents of Northshore School District students.

“We are parents and taxpayers we would like a voice in the new teachers contract,” said Nancy Chamberlain, co-founder of the group. “We just want to tell the school board what we want; if we don’t tell them what we want, they won’t know.”

What the group wants, she said, is more input and control over how their children are educated. The group wants parents to have more involvement in choosing educational materials and access to children’s grades.

“Right now the teachers have the option of posting grades where parents can access them online,” Chamberlain said. “But if they choose not to, it means a parent may not know their child is failing until the progress reports are sent home.”

The group also wants a say in collective bargaining with the teachers union, which is slated to begin with the school district in April. Chamberlain’s group wants better teacher evaluations and merit pay or other rewards for teachers deemed outstanding.

Therein lies the rub, according to local NSEA president Tim Brittell: There is no fair way to determine merit pay for teachers.

“No, there is no way to figure it out, there are too many variables,” he said. “Why won’t they [the families for better schools group] talk to us? I’m a parent in this school district and I tried to attend one of their meetings and they told me to my face teachers and union members were not welcome.”

He added that the union has been a leader in teacher evaluation reform, working closely with the state on SB 6696, which creates a four-tier evaluation process. It is slated to take effect in 2014. See the NSEA’s statement in the photo gallery section of this article.

Chamberlain said the group in no way wants to bust the union or create a situation like the one that erupted in Wisconsin when the governor proposed an end to collective bargaining rights for the union there.

“We don’t want to see the union go away, we just want the parents to have a voice,” she said.

Chamberlain said the group is now getting the word out through letters (see the full letter in the photo gallery with this article) to local media, a website, and Facebook. She said more than 75 people have emailed the group offering support.