HomeMy WebLinkAboutBack to school: West Virginia teachers return to classroom - Metro - 03/06/2018 - Metro - 03/06/20183/7/2018
Back to school: West Virginia teachers return to classroom
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By: John Raby The Associated Press, Published on Tue IMair 06 2018
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It's back to school in West Virginia. Teachers across this poor
Appalachian mountain state are reopening classrooms Wednesday, jubilant after their governor
signed a 5 per cent pay raise ending their nine -day walkout.
Teachers expressed relief and exhilaration by breaking out into song Tuesday after legislators
approved the pay raise bill, which Gov. Jim Justice swiftly signed.
Now the state's 35,000 public school employees can get back to work — and 277,000 students
back to their books.
"I'm so thrilled that it's over, and that I get to go back to my special ed kids, back to our regular
routine, and that we're going to get some great work done the rest of the school year," said
Melinda Monks, a special education teacher at Bridgeview Elementary in South Charleston.
Expressions of delight poured from thousands of teachers who packed the Capitol after
Tuesday's settlement. They jumped up and down, chanted "We love our kids!" and sang John
Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The deal ended a paralyzing strike that shut students
out of classrooms statewide, forced parents to scramble for child care and cast a national
spotlight on government dysfunction in West Virginia.
Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, formally declared the "work
action was over" Tuesday evening after a consultation among local organizers. That group is the
largest teacher organization in West Virginia and Lee said all 55 West Virginia counties had
stood together in solidarity.
"Without them, today's agreement would not have happened," Lee's statement said.
The West Virginia teachers, some of the lowest -paid in the country, had gone without a salary
increase for four years. They appeared to have strong public support throughout their walkout.
"We overcame. We overcame!" teacher Danielle Harris exclaimed, calling it a victory for students
as well.
Teachers walked off the job Feb. 22, balking at an initial bill Justice signed that would have
bumped up pay 2 per cent in the first year as they also complained about rising health insurance
costs.
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3/7/2018
Back to school: West Virginia teachers return to classroom
Justice responded last week with an offer to raise teacher pay 5 per cent — a proposal the state
House approved swiftly but that senators weren't so eager to sign off on. Instead the Senate
countered with an offer of 4 per cent on Saturday.
Leaders of all three unions representing the state's teachers held firm, announcing that the
walkout would continue, and the lawmakers gave in. The vote for 5 per cent raises for teachers,
school service personnel and state troopers in the House of Delegates was 99-0. The Senate
followed, voting 34-0.
Jennifer Brown, a reading specialist at Sissonville Elementary School, showed up two hours
early to see Justice sign the bill "and know that it's real."
Flanked by education leaders, the governor called it a "new day for education in West Virginia,"
and said there's "no more looking back!"
"We really have to move away from the idea that education is some necessary evil that's just got
to be funded," he said, and look at "our children and our teachers and education process as an
investment ... That's all there is to it."
Missed school days will be made up, either at the end of the school year or by shortening spring
break, depending on decisions by individual counties. Justice said that would not mean families
would go without their summer vacations, however.
Senate Finance Chairman Craig Blair said lawmakers will seek to cut state spending by $20
million to pay for the raises, taking funds from general government services and Medicaid. Other
state workers who also would get 5 per cent raises under the deal will have to wait for a budget
bill to pass.
Justice said additional budget cuts by his staff will fund the raises, but he insisted in response to
a question at the news conference that there would be no damaging cuts to Medicaid or
programs that help the poor.
Some students also were eager to return to school after the long layoff.
"I felt like my brain was rotting," said middle school student Emma Patterson. "And I'm just like
excited to see a book again."
Associated Press writers Robert Ray in Charleston and Michael Virtanen in Morgantown, West
Virginia, contributed to this report.
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