Issaquah schools to reopen; teachers vote to defy court
The Issaquah School District will open classrooms today without its striking teachers, who yesterday voted overwhelmingly to defy a judge's back-to-work order.
Despite the increasing bitterness in the 3-week-old walkout, the two sides met at the bargaining table last night. The main obstacle was still salaries.
District officials said they don't know how many, if any, teachers will show up to work this morning, but they have tried to reassure parents of the 14,000 students.
"We're not going to say it will be a typical day with every child in his or her classroom," said district spokeswoman Patty Kirk. "But we want students and parents to feel safe about their children being at school, and we would not keep school open if we deemed it to be unsafe."
Officials believe they must open school to give teachers the opportunity to comply with Monday's court order. District spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said, "We're obligated to provide a place for them to return to."
If few or no teachers report to schools, classrooms will be staffed with substitutes, administrators, support staff and parents, district officials said.
"It's not what I envisioned for his first day of school. I didn't even put film in the camera. It's not a happy time. It's surreal in a way," said Angie McBride, whose son Jacob is starting first grade.
Other unions' roles
It was unclear whether other unions in the district would cross the picket line today. Many are contractually required to work when students are present.
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"But we don't believe there will be many children on those buses," he said. "Many of the other unions are required to work, but we've had strong support from them."
Yesterday, after several hours meeting with members, union President Kathy Linderman emerged from a timber-frame hall at Vasa Park on Lake Sammamish, encircled by teachers. By a vote of 561-243, she said, union members decided to return to the picket lines, despite the temporary restraining order meant to force them back to work.
King County Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque, who issued the order, could not be reached for comment. But Monday she said, "The court issues this order with the understanding that it will be obeyed."
Although her order did not specifically outline penalties for ignoring it, the district will ask for steep fines, its lawyers said at Monday's hearing: $250 per day for each teacher, and $500 per day for the union.
The union is undeterred, Linderman said. "Teachers will be doing what they've been doing from the beginning: Standing up for quality education in Issaquah classrooms."
Asked about the possibility of some teachers obeying DuBuque's back-to-work order and crossing the picket line, Linderman said that after the vote she asked members if they were standing together. "They all stood."
As teachers left the meeting hall, some with tears in their eyes, they echoed her claim of solidarity.
"We're more unified than we've ever been," Skyline High School teacher Sally McNair said.
Inside the meeting
But many had questions about the consequences of defying the judge's order.
Kathy O'Toole, a Washington Education Association lawyer who represented the union in Monday's hearing, explained to members their due-process rights and the potential consequences of defying the orders.
"You control your own destiny," O'Toole said. "Are you going to obey or disobey (the judge's order)? That is your choice."
If teachers don't return to work, the court can order the payment of fines, or send teachers to jail, O'Toole said.
To do either of those things, she said, the court needs proof that individual teachers violated the back-to-work order.
"You can't be dragged into court and made to testify if you violate the injunction," O'Toole said. King County courts are overcrowded as is, she added.
"And the judge's calendar is not big enough to hold 850 contempt hearings," she said.
Moreover, O'Toole said, "No teacher has ever paid a fine in the 18 years I have been with the Washington Education Association."
Later, union spokesman Wood said no teacher has ever paid a fine in 30 teacher strikes in Washington history.
Jail should not be a concern because they are too crowded, O'Toole said, adding: "They are not going to put 850 of you away."
If anyone is jailed or ordered to testify for defying the order, O'Toole said, it would probably be "the ringleaders," in other words, union leaders. At that point, Linderman, the union president, stood and leaned into the microphone: "My mother said she would make me a cake with a file in it."
On whether teachers could lose their teaching certificates if they defy the order: "There's no law on that," O'Toole said.
On whether teachers could be fired for defying the order: "Not for misconduct," she said, "unless the district sends a notice stating the reasons for a discharge."
And the district would not take undertake 600 or so discharge hearings, O'Toole said, because such hearings can cost $50,000 to $80,000.
"If you decide to disobey," O'Toole said, "the court will set a time for sanctions to be imposed."
Then she paused.
"Your only strength is in doing things together," she said.
One teacher asked how fines, if imposed, would be collected: "Do they set up a payment plan?" she asked.
"The court cannot actually collect the money from you," O'Toole said, "unless there is a hearing to prove that you violated the court order, personally and individually."
Once that is done, the judgment can be collected in a number of ways — but not to worry, O'Toole said: "You can't get blood out of a stone. And you, my friends, are stones."
One teacher questioned the burden of proof, if teachers defy the order.
"If we don't show up, isn't that proof enough?" she asked.
Linderman said teachers could say they were sick, or that a parent was sick. The district can't prove otherwise.
A law professor at the University of Washington agreed with O'Toole's legal analysis.
"These people have due-process rights. If you decide to make an example of 10 teachers and you haul them into court, what if teacher No. 8 was legitimately at the doctor?" asked professor Lea Vaughn, who specializes in labor and education law.
The burden of proof rests with the district, she said.
"This doesn't solve the district's problems," Vaughn said of the order. "They still have to sit down and make a deal."
J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com.
Seattle Times staff members Colleen Pohlig and Nicole Brodeur contributed to this report.