By Romy Carver & Don Backman
About 80 people braved the rain Monday evening Ocotober 14, 2024 in front of East Elementary School to “call on the (Tillamook) school board to agree to a fair contract.” While the board met in executive session inside the building, classified teaching assistants, secretaries, bus drivers, and cooks marched on the sidewalks, held signs calling for a fair contract, and chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, Justin (Aufdermauer, Board Vice Chair) and Matt (Ellis, Superintendent) have got to go!” The picketers were joined by other district staff, parents, students, community members, and even a few people from neighboring districts, while passersby honked in support.
According to Kaui Meriwether-Woolfolk, local Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) President, the district is acting in bad faith. Two unfair labor practices complaints have been filed against the district to the Employee Relations Board (ERB) by OSEA and they are prepared to file a third one if the district does not follow the law and come to the bargaining table for mediation. She states that Tillamook School District and their team made a tentative verbal agreement on the financial package, though there was still some language to work on, but the district has now pulled back from that.
“We just want the district to follow the laws.” The mediation was scheduled, and the school district canceled and has not responded when OSEA has tried to reschedule. The ERB can require the district to meet with OSEA and can fine them if they don’t.
Meriwether-Woolfolk states that the school district asserted that OSEA had to go to the members for input, and has been trying to bypass the negotiators, which is a labor violation. OSEA has talked to members district-wide about their needs and concerns. For instance, this year, the district has a new food vendor. This company’s products require more work to prepare, but the staff report that the cafeterias aren’t adequately staffed to do the additional work required.
Right now the district is still operating under the old contract, and with the loss of Esser Funds (which were dispersed during COVID and are now ending), classified wages have been cut by 4%. According to OSEA, 83% of classified staff in Tillamook School District qualify for food stamps (SNAP) as a one-person household.
Rally participants described having to work 2nd and 3rd jobs to make ends meet, which has made it difficult to continue in a career that they love. Some described the wages as being comparable to working in a fast food restaurant. Some complain that the district is making unilateral decisions about shifting duties and workloads without caring about or involving the people who are doing the work. They would like to be asked about new ideas, to help determine if it is a good idea, or whether it’s going to create hardships for staff and students, and cost taxpayers more money. Others mentioned that they were picketing because the district isn’t following its own rules.
After the rally, about 140 people packed the East School gym for the school board meeting. Long-time Board Chair Kris Lachenmeier commented on the attendance, “This might be a record.” The board decided to limit public comment to a total of about 15 minutes and asked people who were all speaking about the same issue to pick one or two spokespersons. Each speaker shared concerns about the contract not being settled, and some read collections of statements gathered from a variety of district staff, some anonymous. Local resident Stephen Mintie expressed a plea for unity, and stated, “The public school system cannot be a source of division.” Many speakers shared their concerns about the impact on staff and students of the contract not being settled, along with the TEA and OSEA representatives.
Board Chair Kris Lachenmeier spoke about the old contract being settled in the spring of 2020 and COVID and other issues such as virtual meetings prevented many people from being heard. She apologized for the wages at that time but said she did not want to apologize for wages going forward as it’s “something we can all live with.”
There was also a brief mention of the book, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, which was recently banned from the curriculum of the 10th grade Honors English class. A civil rights discrimination complaint was filed by a patron, who requested a review of District policies on Complaints on Curriculum about Instructional Materials, policies on students’ right to study complex and controversial issues, and the curriculum director’s report of the review process. The suggested resolution was to reverse the removal of the book from the curriculum, require DEI and policy training for board members, and provide a rich and complex curriculum for Talented and Gifted students. The board voted unanimously not to hold a hearing on the complaint after stating they didn’t see the discrimination.
Several people expressed concerns about not having the chance to be heard in the board meeting. Any classified staff who would like to share their story, anonymously or otherwise, can reach out to Romy Carver at romycarver@gmail.com, as we will be compiling statements by our school community about the impact this situation has had on them.
