Area schools back in session today, must make up lost time

Students in the Gadsden, Somerton, Yuma Elementary District One and Yuma Union High School districts will be back in session Friday after a six-day statewide walkout to sway the state Legislature to earmark more dollars for education.

Teachers will be back in classrooms Friday to focus on their students, said a liaison for Arizona Educators United, Ana Amaya

Ortega.

“Today’s passing of the (education budget) bill is the first giant step toward attaining our demands for a better educational system to better serve our students,” Amaya said. “Yuma County Teachers are extremely grateful for the tremendous support and patience the last few days as we worked through this process.”

Amaya said the RedForEd movement will continue to support more funding for education, as the current legislation did not restore funding to 2008 levels, which was one of the movement’s demands.

The next steps for the movement will be local and state elections in August and November.

“Our ongoing goal for the next phase in our movement is an outreach to our community so that people vote to elect candidates that will support public education and ensure that our educational system receives the sustainability of funds to enhance the availability of resources for our students,” Amaya wrote in an email to the Yuma Sun. “Our mission (right now) is to return to our classrooms and finish the year doing what we do best: teach and make a difference one student at a time.”

Students in District One, Somerton, Gadsden and the Yuma Union High School District have now missed six days of instruction. Students at Ronald Reagan Elementary School in the Crane School District missed two days of instruction.

The Crane board met Tuesday and voted to extend Reagan’s calendar into June, with the last day of classes for Ronald Reagan being Monday, June 4. Crane’s next regular board meeting is set for Tuesday, May 8, at 5 p.m. at the Crane District Services Center, 930 Avenue C.

District One’s governing board held a study session on the issue Wednesday morning. Superintendent Jamie Sheldahl said more information would be released once the district knew exactly how much time it would need to makeup. The District One board

is next set to meet on Monday, May 14, at 5:30 in the district’s boardroom, 450 W. 6th St.

“We will be communicating this information to all of our stakeholders very soon,” the district said on its website. “We are appreciative of our community for their patience and continued support throughout this process.”