As St. Paul educators vote Thursday on a possible strike, they’ll be thinking about far more than salaries and benefits.
For a fifth straight contract cycle, the St. Paul Federation of Educators is “bargaining for the common good,” adopting the Chicago Teachers Union’s strategy of negotiating a wide range of topics, some of which fall outside the usual compensation and working conditions.
Since 2012, the union has negotiated class size limits, paid teacher visits to their students’ homes, a new approach to school climate, and the hiring of more counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists, among other commitments.
This time, the union’s top stated priorities are mental health teams for each school, more multilingual staff and lighter workloads for special education staff.
TENSE NEGOTIATIONS
The union’s expansive approach to bargaining has made for tense negotiations. Even with a school board packed with union-endorsed electees, mediation is the norm now and strike threats routine.
In December, the union called in state mediators after the school district refused to engage on a long list of proposals unrelated to compensation.
After union leaders earlier this month set a strike vote date for the third time since 2014, Superintendent Joe Gothard said he hoped to “narrow the number of priorities so we can collectively focus on what is of greatest concern.”
In 2018, the parties reached a contract agreement one day before a planned strike. The deal included a promise to work together on a property tax referendum that November, which boosted annual funding by around $18 million.
But greater than expected enrollment losses this year cost the district $4.4 million in revenue.
The school district has offered the teachers union $9.6 million in new spending over their next two-year contract — enough for a 1.5 percent pay increase this year and 2 percent next year.
The union has called that amount “arbitrary” and less than the district should be able to afford given the tax increase.
The union’s salary proposal alone — increases of 3.4 percent and 2 percent — would cost more than the district’s target amount.
At $75,199, average teacher pay in St. Paul Public Schools last year ranked second among the state’s public school districts.
Union leaders are recommending members vote in favor of a strike. Results are expected to be announced late Thursday or early Friday.
Here’s a look at some other proposals:
MENTAL HEALTH TEAMS
The union wants at least one full-time social worker, counselor, nurse and behavior intervention specialist at every school, as well as an increase in the number of psychologists working in the district and mental health training for staff. Larger schools would be guaranteed additional staff.
Gothard said Monday that students need more support but “equal staffing maintained by guaranteed ratios is not a fiscal reality.”
However, during mediation Wednesday, the district offered $1.2 million for a districtwide mental health team, according to updates from both sides; that’s in addition to the pay increases.
SPECIAL EDUCATION
Teachers are calling for special education class size limits determined by a new weighting system that would establish smaller classes for students with greater needs.
They also want to ensure teachers have prep time that’s not taken up by student evaluations and other tasks unrelated to teaching.
ENGLISH LEARNERS
Under fire from teachers, a parent lawsuit and the state Department of Education, the district in 2017 and 2018 hired more teachers and made other changes to the way it teaches English language learners.
The union now wants a firm limit on English learner class sizes rather than a target.
A separate proposal calls for the hiring of 50 new multilingual staffers and extra pay for current employees who speak multiple languages as part of their jobs.
RESTORATIVE PRACTICES
A union proposal seeks to make restorative practices a permanent fixture in the district following a pilot project that began with the 2016 contract agreement.
Restorative practices employs circle discussions, emphasizing relationship building and harm reparation over punishment and exclusion. Teachers think it can improve the culture of their schools, reduce student suspensions and improve attendance.
Their proposal would continue funding restorative practices coordinators in established schools and pay for the addition of up to six more schools each year.
Gothard has said he supports restorative practices and plans to spend more on it than the contract requires next school year.
ADVOCACY HELP
The union wants the district’s help in advocating for a variety of ideas. They include lobbying for a moratorium on charter schools; recruiting more students; and soliciting donations from private colleges and nonprofit health systems in St. Paul, which pay no property taxes.
The district and teachers did team up on a recruitment campaign in 2018, and some school board members anxious about enrollment losses have said they’d like to prevent new charter schools from opening.
INTEGRATION
Having participated in a school integration task force in 2017, the union wants the district to set a timeline and start implementing the recommendations.
Under the report’s criteria, seven district schools at the time were segregated, either because more than 90 percent or fewer than 35 percent of its enrollees were low-income or students of color.
District leaders said at Tuesday’s board meeting that the integration report will inform efforts to better align the district’s schools and programs to community interest. That two-year project is expected to result in some schools closing and programs expanding or changing locations.
