New Teachers contracts in Southwest Washington State: Update Sept 22, 2023

It’s Friday morning September 22, 2023. We just got off the phone with the Evergreen School District HR; Evergreen Teachers Association Union office; Camas School District HR and Battle Ground HR.

We contacted Evergreen and Camas to get copies of the newly approved teachers contracts. Neither contract is published and there is no target date for publication. Both districts said that once the teachers have approved the contract the district must then go through a review process to correct any wording and formatting. The proposed final document then goes back to the Union with any revisions and then back to the district, rinse and repeat until it’s approved by both parties. In the case of Camas School District the school board hasn’t approved yet. The next school board meeting is September 25th but the agenda isn’t out yet so it’s not clear if the contract is on the agenda or not. If not then they meet once a month so late October would be the next chance.

The Evergreen Teachers Association (Union) said they don’t even have a copy of the contract to give to teachers much less the public. They said release of the final contract document is in the hands of the school district and could take a month (or more).

We also noticed that the Battle Ground Shool District posted a notice that the district and teachers union had come to a tentative agreement. They will meet on Tuesday Sept 26th to discuss what may be final terms. Contacting the Battle Ground HR department there are no details on terms or timing estimates for approval. The BG school board won’t see a proposed agreement until their meeting in October.

Based on past experiences with publication of school district contacts it has frequently taken 2 to 4 months to release a copy of agreements to the public. Be assured that when released we’ll go through the old/new agreements and call out the changes we find.

In the meantime if you come across information or confirmed details on terms please drop us a note so we can share with the public.

Based on what little information has been shared it appears increases of 7-11% in the first year with smaller increases for year 2 or 3. Total packages for 3 year agreements may approach 16%+. Where does the money come from? Higher taxes?

Here are links to recent articles on those three school district historical compensation data:

Evergreen: Evergreen School District – Compensation history 2016 to 2022 (swweducation.org)

Camas: Camas School District compensation data for teachers + admin + superintendent (swweducation.org) 

Battle Ground: Battle Ground School District – compensation history 2016-2022 (swweducation.org) 

How have your earnings done since 2016? Are your increases as much or more than the teachers? If not what do you need to cut to pay the higher taxes to support the increases?

Note: Evergreen and Camas teachers went on strike but everyone still gets paid. Not a single legal action for the illegal strike. The school boards chose not to pursue legal remedies…why?

Editor