Teacher Negotiations Scuttle Student Open Houses

The Wapato School District announced Tuesday morning that the usual evening open-houses that take place at the beginning of the school year will be cancelled because teachers have chosen not to participate.

There have apparently already been open houses at Camas and Satus Elementary schools, but no word if teachers participated in those events.

The teachers are currently still in negotiations over salary issues with the District. District officials learned that due to those negotiations the teachers have chosen not to participate in upcoming events that were scheduled for August 28-31. The affected schools will include:

• Simcoe and Adams Elementary
• Wapato Middle School
• Wapato High School

Also affected will be the Wapato High School freshman orientation scheduled for Friday evening.

The following statement was released by the District:

"Open houses are meant for the purposes of welcoming families to the start of the new school year.  They give families the opportunity to visit their child’s school prior to the first day.  Families are able to learn the lay-out of the building, but more importantly meet the staff, meet their child’s teacher and begin building a family to school relationship or continue to build on the relationship already established in previous years.  Without teacher participation it greatly inhibits those intentions. "

The first day of school in the District is scheduled for September 4th, school officials say they are looking forward to seeing their students and their families again this year.