By Mindy Ragan Wood, Staff Writer – The Piedmont Board of Education voted Monday to suspend school in the event of the pending teacher walkout and discussed how the district will continue to offer some services to students.
A stirring speech from a local teacher started off the board meeting with rounds of applause praising the movement that may force legislators to fund teacher and state employee raises.
Melissa Johnson, a first-grade teacher at Piedmont Elementary, opened her speech with the growing classroom sizes, education funding cuts for the last 10 years, and teachers leaving the state for better pay.
“I wish a teacher walkout wasn’t necessary, but the reality is that teachers have been walking out for 10 years. Something has to change. I am asking for your support. I am asking you to let us stand in solidarity with teachers around our state as we work to get teachers to stay in Oklahoma…. teachers are not walking out on their students, we are wanting to walk out for our students,” Johnson said.
Her speech was met with applause as was first grade teacher Jessica Phones from Stoneridge Elementary. Phones said she could be making $51,000 a year to start in another state if she chose.
“I shouldn’t have to leave where my family is and the community I love to be treated with respect and neither should any of you. That’s what we need your help with. Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands in times of trouble and controversy.’ This is painful.
It’s painful on all sides,” Phones said.
Superintendent James White and the board responded with a resolution to support a teacher walkout and prepare for a suspension of classes. The resolution passed 4-1 with new board member Greg Duffy voting no after he questioned why the resolution was not on the agenda.
The suspension of classes is listed on the agenda, but the language does not specify a resolution in support for the teacher walkout. The Open Meetings Act states any item voted on must be cited on the agenda.
Duffy said he was concerned that the agenda did not fully disclose the resolution on the agenda but that he also voted not to support a teacher walkout for “philosophical differences.”
“Piedmont is 24th for teacher pay. There’s no reason Piedmont cannot be number one in teacher pay,” he told fellow board members.”
After the meeting Duffy told the Piedmont-Surrey Gazette that being number one in teacher pay is “a lofty goal” but he firmly believed Piedmont teacher pay could reach the top 10 districts across the state with scrutiny of district funds.
“I’m completely in support of getting the funding to support our teachers and our classrooms. I don’t know that we can’t do a better job right now with the money that’s already there with looking at the budget critically and seeing if all our needs are being truly met,” he said.
White announced that sack lunches would be served at Stoneridge and Piedmont Intermediate School and that he is trying to network with area churches that may provide childcare for working parents if the walkout occurs.
Concurrent enrollment at area colleges will continue and the schools will be prepared to bus students to career tech classes. OSSAA sanctioned events have not been cancelled.
According to state law, schools must be in session for 1,080 instructional hours to be funded. White said if the teacher walkout goes beyond four built-in days, any remaining school days may be lengthened, or the school year could extend through the end of June when the fiscal year ends.
The high school prom on April 21 has not been cancelled but it will depend on prom sponsors to hold the event should the walkout last that long.
White did not say that all high school seniors would graduate, but that he and the board have some discretion in the matter.
“Graduation requirements and transcripts, fortunately college enrollment is based on the seventh semester transcript and if kids have those seven semesters in we do have some global flexibility when it comes to graduation requirements if this became a prolonged issue. We can make some decisions, you all as a board, going forward,” he said.
District administration offices will remain open. Hourly employees may continue to work but it was not clear whether they would need to also take personal leave. Teachers who do not participate in the walkout will not be able to open their classrooms for instruction.
The walkout is scheduled for April 2 when state testing begins. Juniors will be allowed to take the ACT test if there are enough staff members to administer the test. AP testing will be open in May, but White could not be certain that it would be available for students to take if the legislature has not passed a teacher pay raise bill.
