CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County School Superintendent Dr. Ron Duerring says the county will have to see how the rest of the statewide teacher strike plays out before deciding what to do about missed school days.
“There’s two ways. You could tack it on to the end of the year or you could take a look at Spring Break,” Duerring said. “We haven’t decided that yet. We’re just waiting to see how many days we really have to make up.”
The county decided to close schools for a sixth day Thursday as teachers and school service workers from across the state continued to protest better pay and benefits.
“Looking at the service personnel who were willing not to come to work, we just felt that we couldn’t supervise kids properly and that we just couldn’t have school,” Duerring said.
The governor on Tuesday offered a 5 percent raise for teachers and 3 percent hike for all other state employees in the first year. He said Wednesday would be a “cooling off day” and that educators should return to school Thursday. That did not happen. Thousands of school employees returned to the state Capitol both days to urge lawmakers to pass the governor’s pay raise bill and, more importantly, to find a permanent funding solution to the Public Employees Insurance Agency.
Duerring said they’ll continue to follow the latest developments from the Capitol. He’s hopeful the strike will end Friday.
“We’re getting feedback from people that are there and just gathering all the information. We’re hoping that things will get settled today and everybody will be back to work tomorrow,” he said.
Teachers returned to the picket line Thursday morning at Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary in Charleston.
Leigh Poindexter, a 4th grade teacher, said they won’t return to the classroom unless they see “something serious to come back for.”
“They need to take us seriously. We’re not out here because we want to be. We all want to be in our classrooms right now,” she said.
Funding PEIA is long overdue, said 5th grade teacher Frank Davis.
“The costs keep going up and the coverage keeps going down. It needs to be taken care of like yesterday,” Davis said. “This can be taken care of. The issue is do our legislators want to take care of the hard working people of West Virginia?”