The Evergreen Public Schools administrative building in Vancouver, Wash., on Aug. 22, 2025.
Erik Neumann / OPB
The start to the 2025-26 school year at a district in Southwest Washington will be pushed back by one week, as pressure mounts around a potential strike of classified employees.
Leaders of the Evergreen Public Schools employees union announced they had failed to reach a new contract agreement with the district on Thursday night.
The two groups have been in contract negotiations since March. Classes were planned to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 26, but the district announced they would be pushed back to Sept. 2 to give the two sides more time to bargain.
“The Board and I realize that delaying school is a major inconvenience, but we cannot conduct school safely without the staff represented by the union,” Evergreen School District Superintendent Christine Moloney wrote in an announcement about the delay on Friday afternoon.
The union includes paraeducators, bus drivers, campus security, maintenance staff and mechanics. It is demanding higher compensation for the approximately 1,400 classified staff in its membership.
The district includes 38 elementary, middle, high and specialty schools in east Vancouver, with a total enrollment of more than 20,000 students.
Starting the year with a strike would be a familiar feeling for many Evergreen parents. Two years ago, Evergreen delayed the start of school as teachers took to picket lines and union leaders continued contract negotiations with administrators.
“We have such a turnover in this district, it’s terrible,” said Mindy Troffer-Cooper, a parent in the district and the president of the Evergreen Chapter of the Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948.
Troffer-Cooper said the union wants higher wages so that paraeducators in middle and high schools can be paid for the entire day students are at school. The union also wants 12-month employees to be able to work from home when buildings are closed, and for relief time to do union work, among other things.
“We have paraeducators, bus drivers, different classifications that are not being able to meet their basic necessities and are having to work two and three jobs to survive,” Troffer-Cooper said. “They’re using food banks and public services because our jobs don’t pay enough to have a living wage.”
A spokesperson for Evergreen Public Schools declined an interview request.
Related: Teachers in east Vancouver’s Evergreen district set to strike Wednesday
According to the district’s website, progress has been made on a number of issues in the school employees’ contract.
The district says the two sides have reached tentative agreements on increased personal leave days for certain employees who work less than 12 months per year, wage increases for mechanics with certain certifications, and stipends for campus security and mechanics who are on call after hours.
Records published on the district’s bargaining website show that paraeducators would receive a more than 31% salary increase dating back to 2020, when taking into account its proposed salary boost. That pay increase has risen disproportionately to funding from the state, according to the district.
Records also show that proposed hourly wage increases for paraeducators and bus drivers with at least 10 years of experience would be comparable to other neighboring districts. Wages would come in slightly above hourly staff pay in the Camas School District and slightly below employees in the Vancouver Public Schools.
Troffer-Cooper declined to provide the union’s salary requests, citing ongoing bargaining.
The proposed strike could begin just over a year into the tenure of Superintendent Moloney. She began in July 2024 as interim superintendent and was hired into the position permanently in March 2025.
“By delaying the start of school, we are giving bargaining teams from the district and the union an opportunity to reach a contract that is fair to both sides and sustainable under our current budget constraints,” Moloney wrote.
