Wristbands used to Support Anchorage Teaching Negotiations

Union, district reach accord
contract: Marathon negotiating session yields one-year deal.

By KATIE PESZNECKER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 11, 2005
Last Modified: September 11, 2005 at 08:03 AM

Negotiating teams for the Anchorage School District and its teachers finally agreed early Saturday on a one-year contract. The deal was struck after two consecutive nights of marathon bargaining and nearly a year of often-rocky negotiations that spurred teachers to authorize a strike just two weeks ago. . .

At a joint press conference Saturday afternoon, teachers passed out purple rubber bracelets that bore the phrase “Good Teaching Matters.” School board members and Comeau slipped them on.

Karla Gallagher, a Hanshew Middle School math teacher on the union’s team, predicted support from her colleagues for the deal.

“Everybody wants a contract and doesn’t want to think about having to walk out,” said Gallagher, a 17-year district employee. “I do really think there will be relief.”

Just about 10 hours earlier, Gallagher and many others at the press conference had been upstairs, pressing toward a resolution.

“It was difficult because we teach all day, we’re up early, and it’s not exactly a sit-down-and-relax job,” Gallagher said. “And then we’d have these meetings. But we were really set on getting a contract, and that’s what kept us going.”

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