West Virginia teachers return to classroom after 9-day strike

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia teachers returned to work as schools reopened Wednesday after winning a 5 percent pay increase through a massive mobilization that continued without a hitch as teachers stood their ground when lawmakers didn’t give them what they wanted.

A nine-day strike was declared over Tuesday after the Legislature passed and Gov. Jim Justice signed the pay raise to end what’s believed to be the longest strike in state history. The last major strike, in 1990, lasted eight days.

The walkout shut 277,000 students out of classrooms, forced their parents to scramble for child care and cast a national spotlight on government dysfunction in West Virginia.

These 35,000 public school employees, some of the lowest-paid in the nation, had gone four years without a salary increase.

Justice has asked county superintendents to be flexible as they decide how to meet the requirement of having 180 days of school, saying students “have suffered enough.” He wants families to have time for summer vacation and doesn’t want summer feeding programs placed in jeopardy if classes go too far into June.

Some superintendents are mulling whether to cut short spring break.

At Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Charleston, students filed past a hallway sign that read “Welcome back, let’s roll.”

After the layoff, Stonewall Jackson student Angel Davis said she tried to persuade her sister that it’s good to be back in school.

“I was happy,” she said. “I said I want my education.”