| 2/2/2018 -
CHARLESTON - â Debate over teacher pay raises now moves to the House of Delegates.
The Senate passed a bill on Friday giving teachers a 1 percent raise each year for five years.
The Senate's 33-0 vote came as dozens of teachers packed the gallery. Many more gathered and chanted in the Rotunda.
Teachers have said the raise is not enough. But much of their focus also is on aspects of the Public Employees Insurance Agency healthcare plan, particularly calculating total family income for premiums.
2/2/2018 - While some WV county teachers voted to participate in a one-day walkout and picket at the WV Legislature Friday, while others are considering other efforts to get a pay raise, Calhoun-Gilmer teachers and state employees decided to support the decisions of the state unions.
The current governor's bill gives teacher and all state employees, a 1% annual raise for the next five years.
Over 100 attended a meeting Thursday evening at the Calhoun-Gilmer Career Center.
The group asked community members as well as state employees to call and email legislators in support of funding PEIA, to help lower rates and call about seniority for state employees as well.
The group will meet again in two weeks.
2/01/2018 - Angry teachers and school personnel are meeting around the Mountain State, contemplating a walk-out or strike related to wages and diminishing benefits.
Calhoun and Gilmer school personnel are having a meeting Thursday at 4:30 pm, at Calhoun Gilmer Career Center.
AFT, WVEA, and service personal unions will attend to discuss the current issue.
West Virginia teachers are among the lowest paid in the USA.
Approved changes in the PEIA plan covering teachers for the next fiscal year include basing premiums on total family income. That would mean premium increases for teachers.
The State Senate is scheduled to take a final vote Wednesday on the pay raise bill that would increase teachers' pay by 1 percent each of the next five years, but school employees say it's not enough to offset the additional insurance costs.
House of Delegates member Robert Thompson, who also works as a social studies teacher at Wayne High School said, "This pay raise they're wanting to give is just slight of hand."
Leah Clay Stone, a Logan High teacher and vice president of Logan County's arm of the WVEA, said
"We're notoriously underpaid, our benefits are just ebbing away, and we're paying more and more for those benefits."
A walk-out means a no show for the work day.
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