For many Whatcom County families, back-to-school preparations start in August, with shopping trips for clothes and supplies and creating schedules for extracurricular activities.
But for teachers, preparing for the next school year starts a couple months earlier than that, on the last day of the previous school year. And they aren't paid for most of that work.
In past school years, teacher contracts included state-funded Learning Improvement Days. Those days could be used for teachers to attend workshops and trainings across the district, and even work on preparing for lessons. Much of the time, one or two of those days would happen before students returned to school, with another day or two scattered throughout the school year.
But as the state legislature has cut the budget, Learning Improvement Days were removed from state funding, leaving it up to school districts and teacher unions to negotiate how much preparation and professional development time teachers would be paid for before school starts.
Across Whatcom County this year, the amount of paid time teachers had varied from several days to less than a full day.
Meridian School District teachers had some of the most time in the county -three days before the start of school to work in their classrooms. Plus, a fourth day was contracted for trainings and meetings.
For Meridian High teacher Webster Kurz, those few days were crucial to setting up his classroom. For the first time in six years, Kurz isn't teaching special education and instead is teaching history and human development.
On his last paid preparation day, he had gotten his classroom arranged and his first week of lessons planned, but he was still sifting through piles of teaching materials, some his own and some left behind by teachers who had taught the subjects in the past.
"It's really busy," said Kurz, who is also one of the school's football coaches. "But it's exciting, too. I love the start of school, meeting new students."
For fellow high school teacher Steve Lawrence, there are fewer physical classroom preparations because he's been teaching in the same room for the last 18 years.
Over the summer, he spent a few hours each day working through his lessons, revamping areas that didn't work as well the year before. He also spent time working on how to incorporate formative assessments into his lessons, which is a teaching tool that encourages students to figure out how to "get it right" on their own, instead of just getting an answer wrong and moving on.
"It's very relaxed over the summer," he said. "It's a great time to focus on what I want to change next year."
In the neighboring Bellingham School District, people across the district were taking part in workshops and other professional development, in addition to preparing lessons and classrooms. But that time wasn't considered planning time; a scheduled teacher workday will be Tuesday, Sept. 6. It had been set for Friday but was delayed because of the one-day teachers' strike.
One of the largest workshops focused on the Bellingham district's new elementary literacy curriculum, the first literacy curriculum adoption in 19 years. About 50 teachers attended the two-day workshop, learning techniques for matching students to texts that are the proper level and for working with them on vocabulary, reading comprehension and more.
Lynden School District teachers had some of the shortest prep time, with only had half a day paid. As part of an agreement between the Lynden Education Association and the school district to cover some of the salary reductions imposed by the state, contracts were reduced by 11 hours. Some of those hours came from the day before school started.
Even though it's frustrating, longtime Lynden Middle School science teacher Sue Brooks said she didn't hear teachers complaining about not getting paid for their preparation time.
"My colleagues here, I have not heard a disparaging word, other than maybe a little sarcasm," she said. "I heard many people grateful about having jobs, a new principal and vice principal with energy, and it's contagious."
For sixth-grade teacher Jim Taubenheim, who has been at the school for 30 years, "tweaking" his classroom and lessons generally happens over the summer and doesn't take too much time. For him, teacher work days before the start of the school year are great for amping up his excitement, something he then instills in his students as soon as they arrive.
"The first day of school is the most important day of the school year," he said, adding later, "It's not quite like the day before Christmas, but it's close."
START DATES
The following schools start this week:
Tuesday, Sept. 6: Meridian School District, Montessori at Samish Woods, Pioneer Meadows Montessori School, Bellingham Christian School, Explorations Academy.
Wednesday, Sept. 7: Bellingham School District, Ferndale School District, Lummi Nation Schools, Bridgeway Christian Academy, Whatcom Hills Waldorf School, Cedar Tree Montessori School (the first day for individual students will vary depending on age).
