CHARLESTON — School officials across West Virginia announced Tuesday school closures following the Monday evening announcement of a statewide strike by teachers and service personnel.þþUnion leaders from the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the West Virginia Education Association and the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association announced the strike during a press conference held in front of the Senate chamber in the state Capitol.þþThe strike was called after the proposal of a controversial amendment to an education reform bill in the Senate. The amendment to the House-passed version of the bill called for increasing the number of charter schools and reimplementing a provision on education savings accounts that would allow 1,000 such accounts for students with special needs.þþSenators voted, 18-16, in favor of the amendment later Monday evening.þþUnion leaders said teachers and service personnel have not had enough say in drafting the legislation.þþ“It appears that they are more interested in listening to the outside interests than they are the educators across West Virginia,” said West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee.þþLogan County was the first to officially announce school closures, doing so within the hour following the union representatives’ announcement.þþWithin the next two hours, most of the state’s 55 counties had canceled school.þþThe school closing announcement for Harrison County came just after 8 p.m.þþThe decision to cancel school was made following conversations with county union leaders, said Harrison Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchinþþ“After my conversation with them ... I determined that the consensus was that the buses would not be traveling in the morning and teachers would not be in the classrooms. And I thought, in the best interest of our children, the community and all involved, that canceling school tomorrow was the prudent thing to do,” Manchin said Monday evening.þþPreston County Schools Superintendent Steve Wotring said the determination was made that the school system “cannot provide services and ensure the safety of our students without adequate supervision.”þþFollowing the announcement of closures in Upshur County, Superintendent Dr. Sara Stankus said future actions will be determined on a day-to-day basis.þþ“Our students and our staff want to be back in the classrooms and we hope that the decision makers in Charleston will make decisions that are reflective of the value of public education,” she said.þþExtracurricular activities for Upshur County students will continue during the strike, she said.þþIn Marion County, days missed for a strike will have to be made up, according to Superintendent Gary Price.þþ“We’re not going to use any of our free snow days that are left. Any day we have to close for strike, we’ll make that day up,” Price said.þþHarrison County Education Association President Lillie Junkins said the strike call came more quickly than anticipated, “but with the way things went today, state leadership felt it was necessary to do this.”þþMost teachers and school service personnel in Harrison County will be on picket lines from the time they would arrive for a typical school day — about 7:15 a.m. — until 3 p.m., Junkins said.þþThe other teachers and school personnel will carpool to Charleston to join picket efforts at the Capitol, she said.þþTeachers and school personnel voted earlier this month to grant state union leadership the authority to call for a strike if they deemed it necessary to send a message to the Legislature.þþLocal union leaders expressed support for the decision made by state union leadership.þþ“I feel the Senate keeps reverting back to the original bill, and it’s not in the interest of the children,” said Renee McLean, president of the Harrison County chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.þþJunkins said he sudden call for a strike was necessary because of the speed at which the Senate has worked to make revisions to the education omnibus bill.þþ“Teachers don’t want this. We feel under attack and like our hands are tied, and this is really our only option to fight for public education in West Virginia,” Junkins said.þþ“It just seems like (the Senate is) pulling every political scheme you could possibly pull out of the hat on this bill. We’re just not willing to wait and then have no recourse. We followed state leadership. What state leadership suggested, we followed,” she said.þþHarrison County school administrators will meet at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to determine the next course of action, including whether to cancel extracurricular activities, Manchin said.þþ“We’re going to take it slow, one day at a time,” he said. “On behalf of the Harrison County Board of Education and all our employees, we truly care about our children. We’re making these decisions based on what we believe is in the best interest of our communities and our children. Unfortunately, this is one of the only ways that gets results.”þþTuesday’s strike will come just three days before the one-year anniversary of the longest teacher’s strike in state history.þþOn Feb. 22, 2018, public school teachers and service personnel in all 55 West Virginia counties went on strike to protest low wages and rising health-care costs. That strike, which involved more than 20,000 teachers and public employees, shut down schools until March 7.þþThe strikers agreed to return to work after the Legislature reached a last-minute compromise to provide a 5 percent pay increase and Gov. Jim Justice ordered the establishment of a task force to investigate long-term solutions for the Public Employees Insurance Agency.þþWest Virginia’s teachers inspired similar actions across the country in 2018, as teachers in Virginia, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado and Arizona also went on strike.þþ
Source: www.wvnews.com
