Highline School District administrators and teachers are continuing to negotiate a return to live classes.
District officials had proposed bringing back some live classes on March 1 and then on March 11. The district’s teachers, however, thought that was too soon. They voted on Tuesday, March 2, to offer to return on April 19.
A district spokesperson said negotiations with the teachers would continue, through the weekend if necessary, to find a date both sides can agree on.
The news that reopening would be postponed was announced March 3 by district Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield. This followed a general membership meeting of the Highline Education Association, the local teachers union, the night before.
“This is an incredibly painful message for me to share,” Dr. Enfield said. “The proposal to begin in-person instruction on March 11 was not ratified by members of our teachers union last night.”
While union members did not vote to resume in-person instruction this month, they offered to return to classrooms on April 19, said Julie Popper, who is a spokesperson for the Washington Education Association, which represents teachers across the state.
This decision came after weeks of bargaining between the union and district officials.
On Jan. 13, the district shared its first plan for phasing students and teachers back into classrooms on March 1.
The plan was met with opposition from teachers, many of whom were not comfortable resuming in-person instruction before they’d received their COVID-19 vaccinations, said Sandy Hunt, who is president of the Highline teachers union.
A recent survey of district teachers revealed that “the vast majority” would rather wait for the vaccine before returning to their classrooms, Hunt said.
Up until recently, both the district and the federal government had deemed vaccines unnecessary for a safe learning environment, encouraging schools to move forward with in-person instruction without vaccinating teachers.
This changed on March 2, when President Joe Biden announced he would use his authority to require states to move educators ahead in line for the vaccine. Biden said this change will go into effect next week.
After this announcement, Gov. Jay Inslee quickly changed the state guidelines to reflect Biden’s order.
“Educators and licensed child care workers can schedule with providers right away,” Inslee said in a statement on March 2. This is a major change, as most teachers have been ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine up until now.
At a meeting on Feb. 23, members of the local union shared their concerns regarding the district’s first proposed plan to reopen classrooms. The morning after the meeting, the district said hybrid learning would be postponed indefinitely until an agreement with the union could be reached.
Two days later, the district said hybrid learning would tentatively begin on March 11, nearly two weeks after the plan was initially intended to start.
This news came with a caveat: The new start date had not yet been approved by the union and would be voted on at another general membership meeting on March 2.
The day before this meeting, Dr. Enfield said she was confident that the plan would be able to move forward.
“We’re hoping to hear tomorrow night that we can begin welcoming our kids back into schools,” she said.
However, the union ultimately voted not to approve the plan, instead offering to return to the classroom on April 19.
Dr. Enfield expressed some disappointment in the teachers’ decision in a message to district residents.
“I share the frustration and disappointment of our families and students who are counting on returning to in-person learning,” she said. “I am deeply sorry you are once again on an emotional rollercoaster that I wish I had the power to prevent.”
The Highline School District is not affiliated with Highline College. The district serves 18,858 students in 33 schools from Des Moines to White Center.
