Camas teachers’ union, school district continue to bargain for new contract

The Camas School District and the Camas Education Association (CEA), a union representing around 450 Camas educators, will continue bargaining for a new teachers’ contract this weekend — the last weekend before school is set to begin in the Camas district Monday, Aug. 28. 

“Today, both our district and CEA negotiation teams fine-tuned several items,” Camas School District Superintendent John Anzalone stated in a letter sent to school district families Friday night. “This afternoon, CEA presented its first comprehensive proposal since Aug. 16. Our district team is reviewing and will respond this evening.”

Anzalone said the bargaining teams are “still actively working together” and will meet again at 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26. 

The district said both sides have agreed to several items over the past three months, including providing: 

• “lowered class size and caseloads to special education staff; 

• teachers additional authority over student discipline, restorative conference, and reentry meetings;

• elementary teachers an additional 80 minutes of planning time per week;
• CEA more consistency around start and end times for their workday;
• secondary teachers continuous planning time during the school day;
• teachers additional monetary stipends and overload support when they have more special education students;
• co-teachers (special education/general education classes) additional monetary stipends and planning time support; and
• school psychologists and speech-language pathologists with lower caseloads.”

Anzalone told families the district and teachers’ union “have a handful of items left on the table, including: salary, substitute rate of pay; special education stipends; class size; and professional development stipends.” 

On Thursday, Aug. 24,  Camas teacher Michael Sanchez, vice president of the CEA and a member of the union’s contract bargaining team, said CEA members voted Tuesday, Aug. 22, to authorize a potential strike  if the teachers’ union and Camas School District cannot reach agreement on a new contract by Monday, Aug. 28, the scheduled start of the 2023-24 school year in Camas. 

“Unfortunately, the district is still refusing to agree to the basic things our students and members need,” Sanchez said. ““The district has chosen this path and the district can fix it. They can agree to meeting our students’ needs and we can avoid all of this. If they don’t agree, we are forced to strike.” 

“The focus of the proposals from the CEA and the district are radically different,” Sanchez added in a recorded statement posted Thursday to the CEA’s website. 

According to the union, the CEA’s proposal calls for “smaller class size, increased staffing and resources for vulnerable students, equitable funding to library, music and (physical education) programs, and more.”

“Conversely, the district has proposed taking away certain due process rights from our members, using more teacher planning time for meetings and making it easier for the district to arbitrarily discipline staff,” Sanchez said. 

Sanchez added that the teachers’ union’s proposal is “student-focused” while characterizing the district’s proposal as “management-focused.” 

“It was never CEA’s intention for this to be a bargain about money,” Sanchez said. “The association had planned on the district keeping its previous commitments in terms of the inflation measure we bargained for in our previous contract. Unfortunately, the district’s desire to make this about money has hindered our bargaining efforts.”
Sanchez said teachers do not want to go on strike, but that the district has forced the union to take action. 

Anzalone told families Friday night that he was impressed by both teams, calling the negotiators “consummate professionals working diligently” to reach agreement on a new three-year teachers’ contract. 

“We are hopeful we can reach an agreement before school begins on Monday,” Anzalone said.