Many Guthrie school teachers and community members packed the administration building at Monday night’s school board meeting to voice their anger, concerns and the potential of teachers walking out of their classroom next month. School board members spoke and are standing behind their teachers.
Guthrie Public Schools becomes one of several school districts across the state to show support for teachers and support staff.
View the Guthrie News Page video following this article.
Last week, the Oklahoma Education Association said that teachers would walk out of classrooms on April 2 unless lawmakers approved a plan to provide teachers with a $10,000 pay raise over the next three years, including $6,000 this year.
“This board of education supports the teachers,” school board member Terry Pennington said.
“I’m kinda surprised you have not walked out before,” Pennington said while collecting some laughs.
Lawmakers are now on the clock and have less than three weeks until teachers walk off the job.
“I want to very clear that I support additional funding for education,” Superintendent Dr. Mike Simpson said.
School board member showed their support by each offering comments.
“I assure you that every member of this board will ensure (you) there will be no retaliation, or recourse taken on any teacher that decides for their family, or themselves or their children that they need to make a stand,” Pennington said.
Cheers and applause followed after each teacher, school board member and the superintendent’s speech.
“I hope it does not come down to a teacher’s walk out,” Junior High history teacher Bryan Dearing said from a prepared statement. “But Oklahoman’s, make no mistake, a teacher walk out has been happening for the last 10 years,” Dearing said while pointing to the crowd with his index finger.
Guthrie High School history teacher Kim Barrett said her classrooms are overcrowded and text books are not current to cover all parts of the state test.
“Please be confident in knowing that if I take a sick day on April 2nd it’s not about me, or about my contract with Guthrie Public Schools,” Barrett said. “If I take a sick day it will be for my kids. My kids deserve much, much better than what the State of Oklahoma is giving to them.”
Michelle Redus, who has been teaching at the high school since 1997, says teachers and students have been ignored too long.
“What I have seen over the last several years is our children and schools have been abandoned and ignored across the state for way too long.”
Simpson has scheduled a meeting with local church leaders (Guthrie Ministerial Alliance) to discuss plans on how to offer a child nutrition meal program if school is canceled for any length of time.
“My first concern will always be for our students and my next concern will be for our staff,” Simpson said.
He finished his statement by saying, “Teachers – let’s put education first.”
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