SEQUIM — Teachers in the Sequim School District have voted to stage a one-day walkout, although the date is still in doubt, while Port Angeles School District teachers are considering a similar one-day strike to protest state legislative inaction on education funding.
Teachers in the Chimacum School District, where the state education funding battle started, have no apparent plans to stage a strike, said Superintendent Rich Stewart.
“All of them [North Olympic Peninsula teachers’ associations] have at least considered it,” Stewart said.
The date for the walkout of 175 teachers in Sequim will be selected by vote May 6 after the vote to strike was taken Monday, said Linsay Porter Rapelje, acting president of the Sequim Education Association.
The walkout would be before the end of the school year, she said.
Sequim is the 18th public school district out of 295 in the state to decide on a one-day strike in the “rolling walkout,” in which not all districts walk out at once, according to the Washington Education Association (WEA), the state’s largest teachers’ union.
The Sequim vote will be taken after teachers coordinate plans with administrators and other school districts to avoid disruption of testing or long-planned field trips that would cause severe impacts to the students, Rapelje said.
“It’s totally about the state. And ultimately, it’s about the students,” Rapelje said Wednesday afternoon.
“There is a long list [of complaints against the Legislature]. It’s so overwhelming, we have to keep a clear focus.”
Rapelje said teachers are increasingly frustrated by legislative inaction on meeting the state Supreme Court’s deadlines for increasing funding for education.
The court ordered full funding of kindergarten-through-12th-grade education in the state’s public schools by 2018 in its 2012 McCleary ruling.
The lead plaintiff in the suit was Stephanie McCleary, an administrative secretary at the Chimacum School District and a native of Sequim.
The court cited legislators in September for contempt for making no progress toward the goal and gave them until the end of the legislative session this year to show progress or risk sanctions.
The Legislature began a special session Wednesday to consider education funding, among other actions.
Rapelje said Sequim teachers would work an additional day with students to make up for instruction they had missed.
Sequim Superintendent Kelly Shea said he has been informed by the teachers’ association every step of the way and is working on speculation to make plans for the eventuality.
There are not enough substitutes to cover the teachers’ absence, so schools would probably have to be closed — a decision that would be up to the Sequim School Board, Shea said.
Shea said that as soon as the school district knows the date of the walkout, all parents will be notified so they can make alternate plans for their students.
“I believe our teachers will give us as much advance notice as possible,” he said.
The Port Angeles Education Association plans to vote within days as to whether the organization’s members will join the walkout.
“We’re considering participating in the rolling walkout. We will be meeting with district and building administration today [Wednesday],” said Barry Burnett, president of the Port Angeles Education Association.
“It would be a strike against the Legislature,” he said.
The one-day walkout would include all teachers at all schools, he said.
Burnett said it was not yet known when teachers would vote on the walkout or what day they would choose to make their stand.
No other districts in the area have reached the level of consideration of the two largest Peninsula districts.
In the Chimacum School District, where McCleary led the suit against the state for underfunding schools, the teachers’ union has not made any indication of joining the walkout.
The district’s teachers’ association has been in communications with the other teachers’ associations in the area.
Chimacum teachers have been open about what was under consideration, and at this time, there is no apparent plan to join the walkout, Stewart said.
“But if they did, they would come to me and have a conversation about it,” he said.
Stewart said it has been made clear to him that the teachers’ displeasure was with the state Legislature, not with the district.
Teachers at the Port Townsend School District have not communicated any intention of joining the walkout at this time, Port Townsend Superintendent David Engle said Wednesday.
The WEA has coordinated efforts among between districts, which began the rolling walkout April 22 in Lakewood, followed by Stanwood-Camano, Arlington, Bellingham, Blaine, Conway, Ferndale, Mount Vernon and Anacortes.
On Wednesday, Sedro-Woolley was the latest district to be shut down for a day.
Walkouts are scheduled for today at Bainbridge Island and Burlington-Edison and Friday at Marysville and Oak Harbor, with additional teacher walkouts in May at Lake Washington, South Whidbey and Evergreen/Clark County school districts.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
