DARRINGTON — Teachers in the Darrington School District are the latest to join a string of protests happening around the state.
Walkouts are being organized by local teachers unions to urge lawmakers to increase education funding and shrink class sizes.
Most of the protests are walkouts that have canceled a day of classes for thousands of students over the last month. However, Darrington teachers voted to protest after school hours on Wednesday, May 27, said Teri Bauman, assessment coordinator for Darrington Elementary School and copresident of the Darrington Education Association.
The protest is scheduled for 2:50 p.m. Teachers plan to march from the school campus to the IGA grocery store downtown. They’ll be wearing red shirts and carrying signs and fliers. Parents and students are invited to join the march.
“We may be a small school and small community but we have big hearts and want the best education possible for our students,” Bauman said in an email.
For districts that do cancel school, an extra day is being tacked on to the end of the year.
Teachers in the Everett School District plan to walk out Friday. Mukilteo teachers protested Wednesday. Teachers in the Monroe, Marysville, Sultan, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Snohomish, Lakewood, Arlington and Stanwood-Camano school districts also have held walkouts during the last month.
Local teachers union members in 60 Washington school districts have voted to walk out in protest of education funding, according to the Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers union. Darrington’s protest is after school and is not actually a walkout, so it is not on the list, association spokesman Rich Wood said.
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