Education
(2009-09-03)
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SEATTLE, WA
(KPLU) -
A King County judge has ruled the Kent teacher's strike is illegal and has ordered them back to work.
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It was a ruling the district sought. The injunction requires teachers to return to work next Tuesday, more than a week after school was scheduled to begin.
Teacher's union spokesman Dale Folkerts says the issues that need resolution can't be solved by an injunction. Folkerts says the union doesn't believe its demands for reduced class sizes and meeting requirements have been taken seriously.
"If they were willing to sit down and look for creative solutions and work with their teachers, instead of shutting them down and taking them to court, we could find solutions that would get schools back in session, kids back in class," he said.
Folkerts says one of those solutions could be use of district reserves, which are well above a safety balance of 5 percent.
Calls for reaction from district leaders were not returned.
Earlier this week Superintendent Edward Vargas says the district has bargained in good faith on all issues. A mediator was called in two weeks ago. Kent teachers are meeting this afternoon, when they're expected to decide whether to obey the injunction and continue picketing.
After a week when it seemed many strikes were looming, Kent's is the only dispute still unresolved. Twenty-six-thousand students and their parents are wondering when school is going to start. Gary Davis, KPLU News.
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