Tacoma Public Schools families heading into the 2026-27 school year will have new advocates at the bargaining table: Michael Williams and Ra'Shawn Read have taken over as president and vice president of the Tacoma Education Association, the roughly 2,000-member union representing teachers, counselors, office professionals and other district staff.

Their top priority, both told The News Tribune in an Aug. 1 report, is keeping budget cuts away from classrooms.

The district was working to make $30 million in cuts during the 2025-26 school year, and has said it expects continued deficits until the state changes how it funds education.

Williams, 50, a history teacher who has worked in the area for decades, won the TEA presidency with about 80% of the vote over Steve Shamblin, an art teacher at Hunt Middle School.

Read, 37, ran unopposed for vice president. Both have taken paid leaves of absence from their teaching positions to serve full-time in their union roles. Under the current TEA collective bargaining agreement, which runs through August 2028, the union reimburses the district for their full salary and benefits.

The transition marks TEA's first leadership change in roughly a decade. Angel Morton, a kindergarten teacher who served as president for about 10 years, retired this summer.

Williams previously served as TEA vice president during the 2025-26 school year. He has two children enrolled in Tacoma Public Schools and a third who recently graduated.

Read previously served as the union's Minority at Large representative on its board of directors. She said she sought leadership because she noticed a lack of representation for Black teachers in TEA's leadership ranks.

Beyond the budget fight, Williams and Read said they plan to increase member participation and bolster transparency about how district, state and federal dollars are spent.

Williams said the union lacks the capacity for its own forensic budget analysis but sees its role as advocating for cuts to fall on areas other than classrooms.

Read said she expects the same transparency from district leaders that she intends to practice within the union, making sure members feel heard.

The district's bargaining page shows the current teacher salary range at $75,058 to $149,996, with a 93% retention rate for 2024-25.

The new leaders take office as the 2026-27 school year begins under the first year of the 2025-2028 collective bargaining agreement. No specific board meeting date has been announced for the next round of budget discussions.