New deal may settle Bellevue teachers strike

Bellevue teachers will get a look at proposed contract with the Bellevue School District that could end their two-week strike. Teachers will meet at 5 p.m. Sunday for a briefing on the tentative agreement between the Bellevue Education Association and the district.

The meeting will be at Sammamish High School. A “yes” vote could end the strike and put teachers back into the classrooms on Monday morning.

Teachers went on strike on Sept. 2, the opening day of the school year when the union and district did not reach an agreement on a new contract. Since then, teachers have picketed the schools and the district has closed all its campuses.

The tentative agreement apparently allows the teachers to change the district’s mandated daily lesson plans without prior approval. The issue had been a main sticking point with the teachers.

The district also increased its supplemental pay offer to a five percent increase over three years.

More than 800 people attended a school board meeting Wednesday night, many of them telling the board not to seek an injunction forcing the teachers back into the classroom, but instead wanting the teachers and district to negotiate “around the clock” if necessary to settle the strike.