CHIMACUM— The Chimacum School Board approved tonight closing school on Friday in response to a planned teacher walkout of protest over legislative inaction on school funding.
The five-member School Board unanimously approved the closure, which will require seniors to attend school on June 8, two days after their scheduled graduation on June 6.
For the remainder of students, the last day of school will be Monday, June 15 instead of Friday, June 12.
The 75-member association voted May 7 to join unions in other public school districts in the state, including Sequim and Port Angeles, in the job action urged by the Washington Education Association (WEA), a statewide teachers union, to protest inaction on court-ordered education funding.
So far, teachers’ union in 51 public school district statewide have joined the “rolling walkouts,” each for one day, according to WEA.
Rich Stewart, the district superintendent, said the board agreed with the teacher’s issue of school funding but differed on the action they had decided to take.
“The board was not happy but closing school was their only recourse,” Stewart said.
“It seems like nothing is being done in the Legislature and the board has the same frustration but wish the teachers had found some other way to express this,” he added.
Stewart said closing the school was “a safety issue,” and that the district did not have access to enough substitute teachers to staff all of the classes.
Teachers union in Port Angeles and Sequim plan walkouts Monday. Port Angeles teachers number 217 while Sequim teachers number 175.
Classes have been canceled in both districts on that day.
Port Angeles’ makeup day will be June 15 and Sequim’s will be June 18.
Chimacum teachers will rally at 8 a.m. Friday at the corner of West Valley Road and Rhody Drive, Todd Miller, president of the Chimacum teachers union, said.
The public is invited, he said, suggesting people “wear red for public ed.”
Steve Miller, WEA vice president, is expected to speak and the teachers’ union will provide signs, he added.
The rally will end at noon.
Miller noted last week after the union vote that Stephanie McCleary, an administrative aide at Chimacum School District, was the lead plaintiff in the suit that resulted in the Supreme Court decision that bears her name — the 2012 McCleary decision in which the court said the state must pay for basic education.
McCleary is a native of Sequim.
“Stephanie really stuck her neck out for public education, and we want to stand in support of her,” Miller said then.
The state Supreme Court ordered full funding of kindergarten-through-12th-grade education in the state’s public schools by 2018 in the McCleary ruling.
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.
Legislators are now in a special 30-day session that Gov. Jay Inslee called after legislators failed to fund education — or to pass budgets for capital projects, transportation or operations — after their initial 105 days.
