Vancouver educators challenge ‘Secret’ staffing cuts

The following is from the Vancouver Education Association:

VEA files a grievance challenging Vancouver Public Schools’ reduction-in-force which violates provisions in educators’ CBA

VANCOUVER, WA (June 4, 2025) — On Tuesday, the Vancouver Education Association (VEA) took action aimed at ensuring that students don’t see even larger class sizes and reductions in other critical services when the 2025-26 school year begins. Vancouver Public Schools (VPS) has recently cut the number of certificated employees for the second year in a row, following a severe reduction-in-force during the 2023-2024 school year.

Union members filed a grievance Tuesday to challenge this move by VPS which violates the parties’ Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) by conducting a reduction-in-force “in secret.” The CBA requires the School Board to take certain formal actions by specified deadlines before reducing the number of certificated employees. Those actions have not been taken and the deadlines in question have passed. This portion of the CBA both protects educators from abrupt layoffs and protects students from losing the educators they rely on every day.

Photo: VEA

“Our schools are already struggling to do more for our students with fewer resources after last year’s cuts,” said Jamie Anderson, VEA President. “With this new round of cuts, teachers, principals, and other school employees are scrambling to figure out how to offer students of all ages and backgrounds the stability and supports they need to be successful.”

When the staff students rely on day in and day out are cut, the whole community is impacted. “It is the School Board’s responsibility to make these kinds of critical decisions, not the Superintendent’s or the Chief Financial Officer’s,” Ms. Anderson said. “Their job is to implement the program that our elected officials have established, not unilaterally change it.”

The staff reductions, if not reversed, would put VPS in violation of state laws. VPS currently lacks job placements for about 10 teachers, but these employees did not receive the legally-required notice that their contracts would be nonrenewed for next year by the May 15 deadline outlined in RCW 28A.405.210.

“We don’t need to repeat last year’s mistakes, where cuts were too deep and schools experienced total disruption as they tried to add positions back in the fall,” Ms. Anderson said. “Instead of leaving schools in chaos and scrambling to figure out what to do, they should give the schools the staff they need to provide the education all of our students deserve now.”