EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- Striking teachers in Marysville voted to obey a judge's order and go back to work, ending the longest teachers' strike in state history.þþThe vote Monday night was 420-181 to begin teaching classes Wednesday, the first of this school year for the district's 11,000 students, said Rich Wood, a Washington Education Association spokesman.þþ``It is time for all the adults to grow up and start looking at their obligations to these children,'' Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda C. Krese said earlier Monday, upset that four days of court-ordered negotiations failed to yield a contract.þþHad teachers decided to violate the order, they could have faced fines of $250 a day.þþ``Marysville teachers will return to the classrooms and our students,'' said Elaine Hanson, president of the Marysville Education Association, ``but our fight doesn't end tonight.''þþHanson said teachers support a change in school board membership, and will continue to seek ``a fair and reasonable contract'' through negotiations.þþTwo weeks ago, a group of parents filed a lawsuit seeking to force teachers back to work; the school district joined a week later.þþMonday was the 49th day of the strike in the district about 30 miles north of Seattle. Teachers took to the picket lines Sept. 2, on what was supposed to be the first day of school.þþTeachers have asked for 7.5 percent in raises over three years, but the district said it can't afford that. Beginning teachers in Marysville make about $33,000 a year. Teachers at the top of the salary scale make $66,000 a year.þþþþ
Source: NY Times
