Toby Doolittle: Safe classrooms for Mead students, that’s our bargain

By Toby Doolittle

Mead is a great place to work, one defined by students full of promise, caring families and passionate educators. We serve wonderful families who entrust us with their children. Our students inspire us daily with their curiosity, resilience and potential. Mead educators consistently demonstrate unwavering commitment to our students.

However, in the past few years the needs of our students have changed, while the district’s systems have not adjusted to those challenges. Contrary to the district narrative, the current contract bargain is not about money or teacher salaries. It’s about making real investments where they’re needed most: in the classroom.

Historically, our Mead Education Association has shown responsible stewardship of the district’s finances, which is why we’ve never faced a financial crisis. MEA approaches negotiations with fairness and honesty, always seeking equitable, long-term solutions that support students and the great work our educators do. This year we are advocating for supports that make education effective and safe: investments in classrooms so students feel secure in their learning environment, teachers have the supports and time they need to meet diverse students’ needs, and that address bullying and harassment at school.

The school board’s consistent indifference to these issues makes it painfully clear that their priorities lie elsewhere, not with the more than 10,000 students we serve. While classrooms continue to require support and safety measures, the board appears increasingly preoccupied with its own agenda. This shift creates a noticeable neglect of the day-to-day needs in our classrooms. Such priorities raise questions about the Board’s commitment to the trust our community places in them. Despite public statements, the persistent issues of student challenges and classroom safety remain inadequately addressed, undermining the foundation of a healthy, productive learning environment.

Equally concerning is the board’s unwavering confidence in district leadership, which has yet to demonstrate a comprehensive, systemic approach to ensuring classroom safety. The board’s blind faith in the district persists despite mounting evidence that current strategies are insufficient and often reactive. By continuing to endorse leadership that fails to implement effective safety measures, the board compounds the challenges facing our schools, leaving educators and students to navigate an environment that is neither secure nor conducive to learning.

The school board and district leaders want the community to think this is about salaries. It is not. It is about our students’ safety and success.

We remain devoted to every student’s success, but that can’t happen in our current environment. It is not possible for a fifth-grade teacher to meet the needs of every student with 30 children in a classroom. It is not possible to ensure a safe environment when students quickly return to classrooms after disrupting the learning space of the other students.

Instead of developing systems of support that include administrators, counselors and other caring adults in the building and lowering class sizes, the district places responsibility for addressing every student need on the teacher in an overcrowded classroom.

The district’s outdated and unresponsive processes are unsustainable and unfair to teachers and building principals, who alone must navigate multiple disruptions at the same time. We are committed to our students, but the district must step up, too.

Today will mark our 16th bargaining session with the district, and still, the district has not provided a tangible plan for meeting students’ changing needs. For 16 sessions the district approach has been to ignore our concerns. We are not shy about standing up for our students and we will continue proposing solutions focused on student achievement, classroom safety and equitable learning opportunities.

Our commitment is unwavering: We aim to make classrooms safe, welcoming and fully equipped for all learners. We will not be ignored. The district needs to share in our commitment because our students, and Mead, deserve better.

Toby Doolittle, of Spokane, is president of the Mead Education Association, the union representing Mead district teachers and educational staff associates.

Mead school district: guest opinions