Summer break has been extended for San Juan Island School District students.

Just a day after the first day of the new school year, on Friday, Sept. 1, the districts teachers went on strike and school was closed.

We are at an impasse with the district negotiating team, said Amy Hull, president of the districts teachers union, called the San Juan Education Association. We need to attract and retain quality teachers mainly because the students are so important to us.

At 8 a.m., Sept. 1, roughly 20 SJISD teachers marched from the Friday Harbor Elementary School to Spring Street. They carried signs asking for fair wages and intermittently chanted What do we want? A fair contract. When do we want it? Now. According to Hull, this is the first teachers strike in district history.

The teachers contracts ended on the first day of the new school year, Thursday, Aug. 31. The union convened after school, said Hull, and 97 percent of the 55 union teachers voted to strike. According to a press release, posted to the associations Facebook page that evening, 97 percent also voted no confidence in School Superintendent Danna Diaz, who is the chief negotiator between the district and board.

Diaz doesnt trust or respect us as education professionals, said Hull in the press release, which also stated that educators feel [Diaz] treats teachers like they are replaceable.

The district was notified of the strike at roughly 6 p.m., Aug. 31, according to SJISD Business Manager Jose Domenech. District officials posted a message on the website and notified parents and students of the closure for the day.

Domenech previously told the Journal that staff is the largest expenditure in the district, and last year, about 80 percent of funds was spent on them.

This is a very difficult situation for our entire community, said SJISD Superintendent Danna Diaz in the SJISD message. The District is committed to resolving this situation as quickly as possible. Strikes do end, and at that time we will work together again on our shared mission of educating students.

According to Hull, the San Juan Education Association met with the districts negotiating team six times since June. Specifics of negotiations cant be discussed, she explained, but teachers are requesting a salary raise and additional training to increase personal development. They are also requesting the inclusion of special education needs in contracts to alleviate those educators caseloads.

Micheal Biggers, a Friday Harbor Elementary teacher for 14 years, said teachers, from the similarly sized district of Coupeville on Fidalgo Island, recently received a 5 percent salary increase. He added that the SJISD board once used Coupeville as an example to limit wages when those teachers made less than SJISD educators.

Now, were using them as the example, said Biggers.

The SJISD Board will hold a closed meeting about the strike at 1 p.m., with a public meeting to discuss their decisions at 2 p.m. at the Friday Harbor High School library. Check the Journal for updates.

Staff photo/Hayley Day San Juan Island School District teachers march up Argyle Avenue to Spring Street on Sept. 1.

Staff photo/Hayley Day Teachers picket in front of Wells Fargo on the corner of Spring Street and Argyle Avenue on Sept. 1.

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San Juan Island School District teachers strike - Journal of the San Juan Islands