Walkout extends into 4th day
Four school districts will be closed again today
Four school districts in Yuma County will again close today as education supporters enter a fourth day of a statewide walkout.
Yuma District One, Somerton, Gadsden and the Yuma Union High School District all announced Monday that their campuses would close today.
District One, Gadsden and Somerton will again be offering breakfast and lunch at their campuses. Somerton School District issued a bus schedule for students at Orange Grove Elementary and Valle Del Encanto. Breakfast will be from 7 to 10 a.m. and lunch will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. District One breakfast will be from 7:30 to 8 and lunch from 11:30 to 12:30. Gadsden meals will be from 8 to 9 a.m. for breakfast and lunch will be from 11 a.m. to noon.
Yuma Union Communications Director Eric Patten said that parents would be notified by noon Tuesday if school campuses will be closed Wednesday.
Patten also issued a
statement from Superintendent Gina Thompson on rumors overheard at a walkout event that seniors would have their diplomas withheld in order to make up missed time in the classroom due to the walkout.
“We are not withholding diplomas or issuing blank diplomas,” she said. “We are taking the situation one day at time and evaluating as information becomes available.”
Thompson said parents and community members should carefully evaluate information that they overhear in the community.
“It is important for parents and the community to rely on sources of information outside of the Facebook comments section. We regularly provide updates through our website, social media channels and Blackboard messenger system, including a lengthy FAQ online.”
All districts said that they would update parents on school closures as soon as possible. Crane schools called parents Monday afternoon to reiterate that their schools would be open as per normal.
A group of Yuma educators met in Phoenix with Rep. Tim Dunn to discuss the situation.
Teacher Ana Amaya Ortega said she had hoped that the outcome of a proposal from the governor would be known Monday.
“We’re hoping that today we know what the outcomes of this proposal will be. We want to make sure it’s signed before we go back into the classrooms,” she
said. “We want to go back in but we feel that if we go back in, then the walking out the last few days would be not worthwhile. So we want to make sure that we go back in once it’s signed.”
Amaya said that supporters of the walkout would be meeting at 7:30 a.m. today in the parking lot near Sears at the Southgate mall.
“We will be available to the public with information on #RedforEd,” she noted. “We will also be standing by the big curve until about noon.”