On Thursday evening, the Executive Board of the Saint Paul Federation of Educators unanimously voted to authorize a strike vote. This decision was made with the overwhelming support of SPFE’s membership through petition. The vote will be Thursday, February 17, 2022.
After two years of teaching and supporting students and families during a pandemic, we did not make this decision lightly. Our goal is to protect the future of public education in St. Paul for our students, families and community and we are certain that a strike vote is necessary if we hope to reach a settlement with the district that respects our students’ needs and honors our educators. After months of negotiations and eight mediation sessions, the District has engaged in minimal discussions on issues that are important to educators and has proposed to remove key provisions from our contracts such as class size limits, guaranteed student mental health supports, and building substitutes.
We’re fighting for lowering class sizes, fully staffed mental health teams in every building, additional educators supporting students with disabilities, and a living wage for educational assistants. The district is only offering 1.5% wage increases at a time when surrounding districts are settling contracts with significantly higher increases for educators, which will impede our ability to attract and retain teachers and support staff.
SPFE is dedicated to building the schools that Saint Paul students deserve, and the profession that Saint Paul educators deserve. We will continue to fight for those principles.