FAIRMONT — West Virginia teachers and school service personnel continued the work stoppage Thursday, and will again today, because of an issue with trust.þþ“When the Governor says ‘trust me’, it’s hard to trust him,” Fairmont Senior High School teacher Kathy Jacquez said. “He has made strides on the task force for PEIA definite with beginning and end dates for that task force. That was good. We just don’t trust him.”þþHouse Bill 4145 was passed Wednesday night, which would provide pay raises to state employees, and an executive order issued by Governor Jim Justice created a special task force to fix PEIA.þþThe legislative session is currently set to end on March 10. FSHS teachers said that don’t know how long they will continue the work stoppage, but it could be until then.þþ“The House passed the 5 percent, but the Senate isn’t even scheduled to consider it (on Thursday),” FSHS chair of fine arts Greg DeVito said. “The State Troopers are also going to get a 5 percent raise with their amendment that they added if it passes in the Senate, so it was moved into the Senate and it’s in Senate finance where it has to come out of to the floor.” þþAccording to a press release from the West Virginia Legislature, the House Bill 4145 was approved on Wednesday by a 98-1 vote. Teachers, service personnel and state police would receive an average 5 percent raise effective July 1. The bill affects state employees whose salaries are directly set by code; raises for other state employees will be addressed in the Fiscal Year 2019 budget bill, which will be considered in the coming days.þþUnder the bill, teachers will receive a $2,020 salary increase, service personnel will receive $1,100 and State Police will receive $2,160.þþ“With these actions, I hope our teachers and service personnel return to the classroom so our children can resume their education,” House Speaker Tim Armstead (R-Kanawha) said in a press release. “We are committed to demonstrating the same dedication and urgency shown today as we work with this PEIA task force. We have heard the message of our teachers and state employees loudly and clearly, and we plan to continue delivering results.”þþThe house bill has gone to the Senate for further consideration and has been moved to the finance committee.þþ“One of the things we want to get out to the community is that we don’t have anything yet. We have nothing,” DeVito said. “They hear the announcement of the 5 percent raise, but Gov. Justice can’t just snap his fingers and all of a sudden salaries go up. We are battling a Senate that is very anti-public education and very anti-teacher.”þþDeVito said that PEIA is still the main concern. He said that Thursday morning the chair of the Senate finance committee was suggesting the 5 percent raise go toward funding PEIA.þþ“That’s not the deal we agreed to,” DeVito said. “We agreed to the freeze, the task force and the raise.”þþJustice issued a letter to state employees on Thursday offering a list of several possibilities to look at for the revenue needed to solve the PEIA issues.þþ“The possibilities of additional severance taxes on oil and gas, gaming revenue from sports betting, tax dollars being generated from our roads projects, continuing growth in our economy and the possibility of putting the insurance out for competitive bids are just a few,” the letter stated. “Everything is going to be looked at.”þþFSHS teachers were very adamant about the need for pay raises for all state employees in addition to the funding of PEIA.þþ“It’s not just us,” Jacquez said. “We just have this nice little due process thing in our code that we can get out here and do stuff like this. They’d be fired immediately and no one would care if they filled those jobs. We’re out here for all public employees.”þþIn addition, FSHS teachers and service personnel stood with “Thank You” signs Thursday morning in appreciation toward the community support.þþ“We went around (Thursday) morning to places and left informational flyers,” FSHS teacher Hannah Martin said. “We wanted, if people were coming in and asking what’s going on, to have that information available. We don’t want them to think we are being greedy with this 5 percent raise.”þþAs they await to hear of the fate of the House bill by the Senate and the appointment of the task force, teachers and school service personnel will continue the work stoppage in support of future public education.þþEmail Kaitlyn Neff at kneff@timeswv.com and follow her on Twitter @kneffTWV.
Source: timeswv.com
