Veteran, new teachers on the front lines in Clark County strikes

BATTLE GROUND — It’s 8:53 a.m. Thursday, and Casey Richard, a fourth-grade teacher, would normally be making her last-minute preparations for a day of teaching.

She’d be sprucing up her classroom, and figuring out her question of the day — a conversation starter for her students to start the morning. She’d answer emails and phone calls from parents. She’d take a restroom break, since she might not get another opportunity for hours.

“That’s the big one,” she said.

Instead, Richard and thousands of other school employees across Clark County are on the picket lines. Teachers and administrators remain at odds over salary agreements, as districts around Washington negotiate how to spend the additional money they’re slated to receive after two years of McCleary legislation.

Columbian reporters and photographers last week talked to dozens of teachers, heard their stories and reported their frustrations. It’s a diverse group of teachers, counselors, occupational therapists, nurses and other school staff. Some are new to their districts. Others have been teaching for decades.

But there are two things all these teachers want: to see higher wages in light of new school funding legislation, and to be back in the classroom with their students.

“I don’t teach because of state standards. I don’t teach because of the curriculum. I don’t teach to test scores,” said Stewart Demos, who has been teaching more than 20 years. “I teach because I care about people.”

The Columbian spent several hours last week with Richard and Demos, and offers their stories as an example of what draws teachers to the profession, and what keeps them doing it despite the frustrations reported by union members last week.

‘I was made for this job’

Richard, 26, had a strange, queasy feeling all week.

Her stomach aches. She’s not sleeping well.

“We just have headaches, and there’s not enough Advil,” Richard said.

That’s because Richard misses her students. She wants to be back in her classroom at Captain Strong Primary School, where her students would be entering their second week if not for ongoing teacher strikes in Battle Ground Public Schools.

“It’s hard,” she said. “It’s hard being here. I can’t even go on school property.”

Richard has been teaching in the school district for 3 1/2 years. She graduated from Washington State University’s main campus in Pullman in 2015 after completing her student teaching in the north Clark County district. Weeks later, she’d been hired in a third-grade classroom, taking over halfway through the school year for a departing teacher.

It was a tough transition, but her fellow teachers made up for that. She points at several of them, standing out with her on the picket lines.

“On my first day here, they welcomed me,” she said. “They put their arms around me.”

Richard wanted to be a teacher from the time she was 7. She always loved math, school and learning. As she grew up in Kalama, just north of Clark County, she realized she loved working with kids. She began her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2011, and now is working on her master’s degree in teaching from Concordia University in Portland.

But as a sophomore in Pullman, Richard had what she described as an “early life crisis.” She began considering living costs, and the salary she could expect as a first-year teacher. She worried she wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of living.

“I told my parents I can’t do this. I can’t be a teacher,” she said.

But her parents encouraged her, and what’s more, they helped her pay for school. Her parents paid her tuition, while she covered her living expenses. She said she knows she’s lucky. According to The Institute for College Access and Success, Washingtonians who graduated from in-state campuses carry an average of $24,609 in student loan debt when they graduate.

“If I didn’t have that support from my parents, I wouldn’t be here,” Richard said.

Still, at a salary of about $44,000 a year, according to data from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Richard said she struggles to make ends meet. She lives north of Longview; she says housing closer to work is unaffordable on that salary. Her commute is about 48 minutes each way. Still, about half her take-home pay every month goes toward rent.

“This is the fact: I can’t afford this life,” she said. “That’s gut wrenching.”

Richard took a video tour of her decorated classroom. A corkboard outside the room welcomes the “Mon-stars” of Ms. Richard’s classroom. Brightly colored, fuzzy-looking monsters surround the board. Baskets are filled with school supplies. Glue is a hot commodity for fourth-graders, she notes. Books are everywhere — that’s the biggest expense. Richard estimates she spent about $1,800 of her own money on her classroom last year.

“You want it to be a cozy environment,” she said.

Apart from a couple of more corkboards in her room, the walls are largely blank. She prefers to have students help her decorate throughout the year, she said. It gives them ownership of the classroom.

“It’s hard for me to justify working out here,” she said. “I could work at other places close to home that are making more money.”

Woodland Public Schools, for example, settled at 12.6 percent raises with a salary range of $46,599 to $87,832, according to the Washington Education Association. That’s a starting salary about $2,000 more than Richard’s making now. The Castle Rock School District has also settled. Its teachers will be making between $45,539 and $84,062.

For a moment, Richard considered pursuing a different career. Last summer, she looked into nursing school. But she was reminded, on returning to school, why she loves this career: she loves the look on students’ faces when they figure something out. She loves being a constant for children who have experienced trauma, and supporting them where they need it. She loves the sense of humor of fourth-graders, who are just old enough to start laughing at themselves.

“I was made for this job,” she said.

‘You live that story’

Before he was a teacher, Demos was an investment broker. The money was good, he said, but it was mean, tiring work.

In any case, the 58-year-old Summit View High School teacher said, that’s ancient history. He’s a teacher now, and what matters are his students.

Two decades ago, Demos was considering a job that would give him more time with his son.

“I had a school counselor go, ‘Dude, try teaching,’ ” he said. ” ‘You’re so good at math it’s freaky; you get along with teenagers,’ so I decided heck, I’d give it a try.”

Demos earned his master’s degree at Concordia University, and began teaching math at Hudson’s Bay High School. His son was one of his students, and one day, leaving the classroom, he turned to his father.

” ‘You know dad, as a teacher, you don’t suck,’ ” Demos remembers his son saying.

Demos thought he’d teach until his son graduated from high school — but that was nearly a decade ago, and he’s still here. Five years ago, looking for a reinvigorating experience, Demos moved to Summit View High School. That’s because it’s Battle Ground Public Schools’ alternative school, which provides one-on-one classes to students who, for whatever reason, don’t fit in a comprehensive high school. About a third are behind in their classes, Demos said, and at risk of aging out at 21.

“You get a kid who is 20, they’re a year behind in school already, they’re looking at the clock going, ‘I’m running out of time,’ ” he said.

Then there are others who are pushing to graduate early. Many come from families of immigrants or non-English speakers, making the already overwhelming high school experience even tougher.

And nearly all of them have experienced some sort of trauma. Demos can’t go into specifics, but it’s a widely expressed sentiment by teachers across Clark County — children are exhibiting more symptoms of trauma at home, be it the fallout of unaffordable housing, abuse in the home or family members with drug addictions. A report on youth mental health by Clark County Public Health shows that, by the time they reach high school, more students are depressed now than they were a decade ago. According to 2016 data, 34.6 percent of Clark County sophomores reported feeling depressed, up from 32.1 percent in 2004. For seniors, the jump was from 31.9 percent to 36.8 percent.

Many of Demos’ students have a parent who died, leaving them one of the primary caretakers for their younger siblings. They’re probably not missing school right now, he said.

“They’re saying, ‘Hey, a few more days of work,’ ” he said.

Here, Demos teaches a bit of everything — math, civics, world history, psychology and business. You have to at a school like Summit View, he said. There’s only about a dozen teachers, and their students’ course loads vary widely.

But because of the one-on-one instruction, Demos said he’s able to see the results of his work much quicker than he would in a traditional classroom, be it students finally completing their last few credits to graduate, or understanding a concept they struggled with at a traditional campus.

Years ago, he had a student in class, a boy named Marcus, who had “tons and tons of problems,” in school. He had a criminal record, and a parole officer helping oversee his education.

“He wanted to fight me,” he said.

Six years later, he was working with another student who had a parole officer. Before that student left one day, he turned to Demos.

“He looks at me and says, ‘Marcus says to say hi,’ ” Demos said. Marcus was the parole officer.

“You won’t believe the power of one person who just believes in you,” he said. “One person who just doesn’t throw you down.”

As a longtime teacher, Demos is among the highest-paid teachers in the district with a final salary of about $90,000 last year, according to the OSPI. Still, he said these negotiations are about the principle of the matter. He accused the district of not being transparent in its process, and said there are things on district websites that are “clearly” misleading.

“It’s just shady, and it’s happening in all seven districts at the same time,” he said, referencing strikes across Clark County, plus Camas Public Schools’ pending strike this week.

Demos said he hopes his students see this strike as a learning opportunity. He hopes they see it as proof of what can happen when people stand up for themselves.

“When confrontation occurs you need to have the resolution and fortitude to stand through it and not just buckle down,” Demos said.

Read more strike coverage at www.columbian.com/news/schools.