Kent teachers strike ends as union ratifies contract; students head to class

After a strike forced more than a week’s delay to the start of classes in the Kent School District, the Kent Education Association ratified a contract late Wednesday. Most students will begin heading to school Thursday.

Details of the contract were not made immediately available Wednesday night.

Classes for most of the district’s roughly 25,0000 students will begin Thursday, but not all. This is the schedule released Wednesday:

• Grades 1-12 begin Thursday.
• Kindergarten begins Tuesday.
• Meridian Preschool, Park Orchard Preschool, and Early Childhood Special Education Preschool begin Tuesday.

Parents with children in the following programs should contact the school beginning Thursday for schedule updates:

• Kentridge High School daycare
• Kentwood High School daycare
• Kent Youth and Family Services Head Start Program
• DCYF Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program

Middle school athletics will begin Friday. 

The Kent school year was to begin Aug. 25, but as is happening with the Seattle Public Schools strike that began Wednesday, kids had to wait.

The district said it will need to make up the nine missed days throughout the school year and a revised calendar will be published once it is finalized.

The Kent deal reached late Wednesday followed bargaining sessions Labor Day and Tuesday, with a tentative agreement announced Wednesday morning. The union’s vote Wednesday night to ratify means the School Board will now get the package for formal approval.

Ahead of the Kent Education Association meeting Wednesday evening, union Vice President Layla Jones said she had “full faith” in the collective bargaining team that worked to find common ground with the district. “I really do trust that what comes back with the bargaining team is going to be something that is beneficial for our membership,” she said.

Last weekend, the American Federation of Teachers Union of Washington, representing the district’s custodians, maintenance workers and other employees, voted to strike if the terms of its contract cannot be met, according to the Kent Reporter.