The Lake Washington School District (LWSD) and the Lake Washington Education Association (LWEA) agreed to postpone teacher contract negotiations until next year.

Both sides said the uncertainty of the state economy triggered the decision to extend the current three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), through the 2011-12 school year. In addition, both sides agreed to a revised 2011-12 school district calendar, which will include date changes for elementary school parent/teacher conferences.

The seven-member LWSD Board of Directors unanimously approved the extension at its Feb. 7 meeting after the LWEA, which has approximately 1,500 members, voted to continue the current CBA by a 96 percent majority.

Legislators are currently hammering out a state budget with many changes — and cuts — to education funding looming large.

With the district facing “many unknowns” as far as state funding for next school year, both sides felt now was not the time for bargaining talks, according to LWSD Superintendent Dr. Chip Kimball.

“This situation does not provide a productive environment for negotiating a new multi-year agreement,” Kimball said. “Both the district and the teachers association understand that much of our ability to compensate teachers is dependent on the state budget. Budget predictions for one year let alone three years are very difficult at this time.”

LWEA President Kevin Teeley said the CBA extension will provide “a level of stability for staff members and parents.”

“We’re hoping that a year from now the economy will be less volatile than it is now and the district and teachers will be able to productively negotiate a contract,” he said.

The extension, which includes minor changes to next year’s school calendar, comes early enough where parents can plan ahead for things such as vacations, Teeley said. It also assures there will be no teachers’ strike next fall, which was never a concern for the LWEA, Teeley said.

“We haven’t had a strike since 1990,” he said. “We weren’t concerned with that.”

The main concern was trying to negotiate a multi-year deal when the amount of state funding, which dictates the base of the contract, was unknown, according to LWSD communications director Kathryn Reith.

“Basically both sides said things are really crazy right now and now is not the time to make three-year commitments,” she said. “As a district, we are not in a position to promise anything. We don’t know yet what we’re going to get with the state budget.”

While funding remains a question, the 2011-12 school calendar has been agreed upon by both sides.

The changes to the 2011-12 school calendar will be “really positive improvements,” Teeley said.

Before this extension agreement, both sides agreed to move spring break from the last week in March to the first week in April to more closely align with neighboring school districts, according to Reith.

The newly adopted school-calendar changes include moving the dates for the elementary school conferences from Oct. 20, 21 and 24 to Oct. 3, 4 and 6 to better facilitate the student goal-setting portion of these parent/teacher conferences, Reith said.

During that conference, students, teachers and parents establish goal setting for the whole school year, so moving the date to earlier in the school year made sense, Reith said.

In addition, the dates for the elementary school mid-year conferences were changed from Jan. 26 and 27 to Jan. 31, Feb. 2 and 3, giving teachers an extra day to work with parents, according to Reith.

A calendar for the 2012-13 school year was also developed so that families and staff could make plans. All calendars are subject to change.

As for next year’s teacher negotiations, both sides are “being hopeful the economy will turn around,” Reith said.

Both sides will return to the bargaining table next January to negotiate the next three-year CBA, which will start in 2012-13.