Central Administration Building
601 South 8th Street
Interact with the School Board
Tacoma Public Schools is committed to an environment where people feel safe, welcomed, and respected. The Board respects our community members' right to freedom of speech while balancing the Board's responsibilities.
School board members encourage public participation. Your civil input is appreciated. If you would like to interact with the school board, you may do so in the following ways:
Email or Phone
Find contact information for each Director, email address and telephone number, or you can send them all an email at once. Please allow at least two (2) business days for a response.
Public Comment at Regular Business Meetings
The Board accepts verbal or written public comment at regular business meetings as provided in Policy 1430, Public Comment. Regular business meetings are public, broadcast, and recorded. Instead of providing public comment, you may also email the Board at board@tacoma.k12.wa.us (see above).
If a person wants to provide verbal comment and has difficulty attending a business meeting by reason of disability, limited mobility, or for any other reason that makes physical attendance at a meeting difficult, they may contact the board assistant's office at least three (3) days before the meeting so that feasible accommodations may be offered.
Public Comment Guidelines and Options
Board of Directors' statement on pending Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with labor partners
The purpose of this statement is to provide context for why the Board has a strict policy against making substantive comments regarding pending Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with our labor partners.
Each of the 12 Unions at Tacoma Public Schools is the exclusive bargaining representative of the employees who are members of the bargaining unit. In turn, TPS designates an official bargaining team to be its exclusive bargaining representative. If a Board member made comments about a mandatory subject of bargaining (wages, hours or working conditions) it could be considered direct negotiations TPS could be found to have committed an “unfair labor practice” (ULP) in violation of Washington State law.
Further, all parties to a CBA are obligated under the law to maintain the “status quo” as to mandatory subjects of bargaining – unless and until changes to the CBA are made in compliance with the parties’ legal obligations. If we, as a Board, were to engage in substantive commentary on the status of on-going labor negotiations, we could give the unintended impression that we seeking to unilaterally change the status quo or circumvent the required bargaining process by dealing with the bargaining unit members directly rather than their chosen Union representative. This could also constitute a ULP.
Along these same lines, as a Board, it is our duty to exercise great discretion to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in regard to our valued labor relations partners. This is for many reasons – not least of which is - it is simply the right thing to do. Our employees are entitled to fully and freely exercise their right to engage in union organizational activity – and we must be ever mindful not to give even the appearance of interfering in any way with those rights.
Our practice as a Board is to forward any comments received about pending Collective Bargains to the Director of Labor Relations, Forrest Griek, who will share with the bargaining team.