While students in Seattle, Washington, have now returned to school and the district is picking up the pieces after an expensive week-long teachers' strike, teachers in Kelso, Washington, a city just 100 miles south of Seattle, continue to strike for their own demands despite a court order ruling otherwise.
"On Sunday, the strike in the southwest Washington town took a turn for the criminal as Kelso's public school teachers voted 221 to 20 to continue their work stoppage in defiance of a judge's explicit order that they must return to work," according to The 74.
The faculty of 300 teachers will continue the strike today as the district's student stay home for the seventh consecutive day.
Similar to the teachers in Seattle, Kelso teachers are demanding a salary increase to compensate for time spent in training as well as time spent preparing for the classroom.
The teachers are demanding a salary equivalent of 28 days of work to compensate for time spent training and preparing, refusing the last offering from district officials of 23 days of compensation.
Without a benefits package, teachers in Kelso have an average salary of $56,000, which The 74 notes is above the $35,381 menial annual household income in the town.
"Koss, the district court judge who ordered Kelso teachers back to work, warned that a failure to follow the order would result in penalties. He did not specify what the penalties would be," the article said.
The judge has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow morning to monitor the progress of the court order, and more information on potential penalties should be available then.
Read the full article here and comment with your thoughts below.
Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor
09/22/2015
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