PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles teachers will join Sequim teachers in a one-day walkout May 18 to protest what they say is state legislative inaction on education funding.
Members of the Port Angeles Education Association met at Port Angeles High School on Thursday afternoon and voted by a 2-to-1 margin to join the Sequim teachers, said Barry Burnett, president of the union.
“We are trying to influence the state Legislature to take responsibility to fund education fully,” Burnett said.
Teachers also voted to work an additional day to complete the 180-day school year requirement June 15, a date designated by the district as a snow makeup day, he said.
The final arrangements for school closure and makeup day must be approved by the Port Angeles School Board.
The School Board did not take formal action Thursday night, but is expected to vote next Friday, May 15, on how it will handle the walkout.
“It’s expected school will be cancelled on May 18 in anticipation of the walkout,” said Superintendent Marc Jackson in a news release.
“The make-up day will be Monday, June 15 which originally was scheduled as a Snow Day and will then be the last day of school for students,” he added.
Scheduled after school extra-curricular activities on May 18 will be cancelled, he said.
Seniors will not be required to attend school June 15, and high school graduation will be held as scheduled on June 12.
The Sequim Education Association voted in April to join the state one-day walkout and on Tuesday voted to hold that walkout May 18.
Sequim schools will be closed that day, and it will be made up by teaches and students June 17, with a half-day schedule to complete the 180-day school year, the Sequim School Board has decided.
The first teacher walk-outs took place April 22 in Lakewood, Stanwood-Camano and Arlington school districts.
Sequim is among 24 public school districts out of 295 in the state to decide to join the “rolling walk-out,” in which not all districts walk out at once, according to the latest report of the Washington Education Association (WEA), the state’s largest teachers’ union.
Port Angeles has become the 25th district to join the walkout.
Sequim Superintendent Kelly Shea said the teachers’ association kept the district informed every step of the way.
Union officials have 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 that has its roots in Chimacum.
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 last week to consider education funding, among other actions.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
