Seattle's Teachers Were Put on Monthly Contracts—and Cut Off in a Fire or Epidemic
In June 1895, the Seattle school board approved next year's teaching staff but changed the terms of the job: no annual contracts, ten days' notice, and no pay if fire or disease closed a school. The same meeting also debated Queen Anne school plans and cost overruns.
The school board last evening received the report of the committee on education recommending a list of teachers for the coming year, and the report, with but few changes, was adopted. The committee also favored a resolution, which was adopted, that the teachers be employed hereafter only by the month instead of by the year, and that any teachers may be discharged upon ten days' notice; that in case of destruction of buildings by fire the pay and employment of teachers in such buildings shall immediately cease; that in case of contagious diseases, where the schools may be closed by order of the municipal authorities, the salaries shall stop; and that all teachers be notified of the action accordingly.
Some discussion arose on the classification of teachers. Miss Alice P. Millar, the teacher of German, having returned from California, Miss Becker, who had been temporarily filling her place, was again placed on the preferred list, and part of the work of Prof. M. Davidson, former teacher of Latin, will fall to Miss Millar.
The subject of plans for the proposed school building for Queen Anne hill was brought up, and ten minutes was allowed to each of five architects to explain their plans. The subject was referred to the committee on buildings and grounds to be called up at the next meeting. As the past experience of the board is that the buildings have invariably cost more than the architects' estimates, Mr. Cokert suggested that their percentage be based upon the estimate rather than the actual cost.
City Superintendent Frank J. Barnard was granted a leave of absence of one month upon his own request. The board also approved a long list of teachers and preferred candidates, most of them re-elected from the previous year.
“That the teachers be employed hereafter only by the month instead of by the year, and that any teachers may be discharged upon ten days' notice.”
The 1895 board treated teachers as contingent labor, with pay that could stop the moment a building closed. That logic has echoed in modern school-budget crises and pandemic closures, when educators' job security and emergency pay became civic fights. Seattle's public-school workforce now negotiates such terms through unions and contracts, but the underlying tension over cost and control remains familiar.
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