SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle teachers striking over wages planned to put down their picket signs Friday and instead work on community service projects like food drives in commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The sides failed to reach a contract agreement Tuesday, delaying the start of school for some 53,000 students.
Seattle Public Schools spokesman Stacy Howard said Thursday afternoon that both sides are continuing to meet with mediators, but negotiations have not resumed. Teachers from the district’s 97 schools planned things like park cleanups or food drives on Friday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“We will not be picketing in front of the schools,” said Seattle Education Association spokesman Jonathan Knapp.
Washington state’s largest school district and the teachers union remain at an impasse over pay raises, teacher evaluations and other issues.