Seattle Education Association records, 1958-1985

The Seattle Teachers' Association, or STA, was established in 1958 with the merger of the Seattle Association of Classroom Teachers and the Seattle Grade Teachers' Club.¹ In 1985, the STA changed its name to the Seattle Education Association, that which appears in the title of this collection.² Yet throughout the era spanned by this collection, the organization was still called the STA.³ At its inception, the STA became the largest organization of schoolteachers in Seattle, with around 2,500 members. ⁴ The STA was formed to represent the collective bargaining rights of teachers in Seattle Public School District No. 1., with the objective of developing "public understanding of the objective of education, promote its goal, and encourage the professional growth of association members."⁵ Over the years, the organization began to focus to a greater degree on the welfare of its members and became more strident in its advocacy efforts.

The STA was affiliated with the Washington Education Association (WEA) and the National Education Association (NEA), although this affiliation was stronger in the first decade of the STA than in the period covered by this collection.⁶ The STA also collaborated with the Local 609 and the Operating Engineers Union, two unions associated with building maintenance in Seattle Schools.⁷

The STA worked with the WEA to pass the Professional Negotiations Act, or State of Washington Chapter 143 Law of 1965 (amended in 1969). ⁸ This law furthered the impact of genuine educator input in district policy by granting certificated Seattle School District employees a representative body for the purpose of negotiating with the superintendent and school board.⁹ This legislation had a broader scope than wages, hours, and conditions of employment, as it allowed for educator input on such features as curriculum and textbook selection. ¹⁰According to the Professional Negotiations Act, the body that communicated with the school board was required to represent not solely teachers, but all certified personnel within the district except the superintendent. ¹¹Therefore, the STA created the Seattle Alliance of Educators, or SAE, an umbrella organization that advocated on behalf of the Seattle Teachers' Association, the Seattle Principals' Association, the Seattle Administrative and Supervisory League. ¹² Membership was indirect, via enrollment in one of these constituent organizations.¹³ The requisite involvement of administrators and principals placed many of these employees into difficult positions, straddling the fence between their administrative roles and their positions as employees and SAE members.¹⁴ By the mid-1970s, the administrators and principals had disbanded their constituent organizations, and the SAE had very little actual administrative participation.¹⁵ In 1976, the SAE merged back into the STA, and an STA Bargaining Commission was formed to perform the duties of the SAE. ¹⁶

The STA united with the Seattle Federation of Teachers (SFT) on several strikes and protests. However, much of the time the STA and SFT competed, and the amicability of these relations fluctuated over the years. The SFT often took a more aggressive position when bargaining, perhaps putting pressure on the STA to increase its own activity.¹⁷ Additionally, as the SAE was granted exclusive bargaining rights for Seattle School District Teachers, the SFT was not permitted to negotiate with the School District, which contributed to the tension between the organizations.¹⁸

Over the years covered by this collection, the STA was consistently concerned with issues of members' salaries, rights, employment, district funding, school curriculum, and the de-facto racial segregation of schools. ¹⁹ The STA primarily sought to ensure the rights of its members, including the rights to collective representation, nondiscrimination, academic freedom, and legal contracts.²⁰The STA also tried to help members with workplace needs like their salary schedule, seniority hiring, school day length, insurance, workload, transfer procedures, and layoffs due to reductions in force.²¹ To meet these needs, the STA supported any upcoming school levies, but simultaneously argued against the levy system as a whole, regarding it as too much of a band-aid.²² Additionally, the STA tried to meet its members' needs electorally, by lobbying certain lawmakers and by exhorting members to support candidates. The STA also sought to influence school curriculum regarding topics such as textbook selection or the implementation of Junior High Schools. At this time, underlying racial concerns permeated many debates, as the STA set up a Human Rights Committee to support The Seattle Plan, an effort to remedy the de-facto segregation of many Central Area schools. Other concerns covered within this collection revolve around the upkeep of the organization itself, including its budget, membership, dues, and public relations. Overall, the STA in this period was concerned largely with educator rights, but also with many related topics.

For a history of the organization between 1958 and 1970, see the finding aid for the Seattle Teachers' Association Records, Mss. Coll. No. 1402

The 1970s was a time of increased grassroots teacher involvement in the STA. The organization became more assertive and staged several strikes. ²³ Much of this increased activism may have been influenced by larger national trends such as the valorization of education under President Lyndon B. Johnson, increased dissent in the 1960s, greater participation of women in protests movements which meant more participation in an organization with a large female component, and the activist model set by the United Federation of Teachers and other teachers' unions on the East Coast. ²⁴ The creation of the SAE had also given many in the organization hope for greater leverage when dealing with the school board. ²⁵While these hopes were increasing, in the 1970s the Seattle School District faced mounting difficulties. Enrollment dropped from around 99,000 students in 1969 to around 55,000 in 1976 OR IS IT 1978 – DOUBLE CHECK?.²⁶ As a result, state funding dropped, so the Seattle School District faced a budget crisis.²⁷ Increasingly, the district's reliance on levies to balance its budget became more and more problematic and funding seemed consistently uncertain.²⁸ When higher teacher expectations were confronted with these setbacks, the resulting frustration led to increased STA activity. In 1975, a levy failure would have meant layoffs for around 1,000 teachers, had the STA not negotiated a deal in which teachers rolled back an 8%25 salary increase and used the money to rehire the laid off teachers, with the promise that the school district would make up for these losses in the next year.²⁹ Yet in 1976, the losses were not recouped, and teachers, secretaries, paraprofessionals, and football and cross-country coaches went on strike from September 7 to 20, eventually winning a 20%25 salary increase.³⁰ Teachers again went on strike from September 5 through 27, 1978, asking for an increase in wages and benefits. ³¹ This time, the school board obtained a preliminary injunction that pressured the teachers to return to work, and demands were not met.³² In the era covered by this collection, the STA and SEA took a more strident, active tone than they had in the preceding decade.

With the 1980s, the STA faced new difficulties. House Bill 166 passed in 1981 and limited the ability for the STA to negotiate teacher salaries, as it mandated that Seattle educators could not attempt to negotiate a higher pay schedule than their counterparts in other regions of the state. ³³ In 1985, teachers again went on strike over the issues of reductions in force (RIF), and TRI, or time, responsibility, and incentive for teachers and classified employees.³⁴ Many members argued that the reductions in force were excessive, that layoffs were not based on seniority, and that teachers that kept their jobs lacked sufficient resources to execute them. ³⁵ This strike, which lasted twenty-five days, ultimately alleviated the problems to some extent with an $8.4 million contract offer.³⁶ These records end in 1985, the year of this strike.