| 2/18/2019 - All schools in Calhoun County will be closed on Tue. Feb. 19, 2019 due to work stoppage.
Calhoun County Schools will be operating on a Code Blue. Code Blue employees report at their regular time, according to Superintendent Kelli Whytsell.
2/18/2019 - Groups representing West Virginia school employees have announced that a strike will begin Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Officials said there is no timetable for how long a strike might last.
With the West Virginia Senate considering possible amendments to the education bill passed by the House of Delegates, the strike was announced Monday evening.
The Omnibus Education Bill has contained dozens of proposals, with a few popular sections including a number of proposals written by ALEC, a right-wing lobbying group. So far it has been hit by dozens of amendments.
Previously, leaders of the group said school employees across the state voted to give them authorization for a statewide labor action if necessary.
The Senate's proposed amendments included expanding private charter schools provision expand them to a total of seven. Charter schools would be funded by taxpayer money.
There is a new amendment that would create an allowance for education savings accounts sufficient to pay for 1,000 students for the private schools.
The Senate bill is providing public money for private, online- and home-schooling and tutoring through vouchers called "education savings accounts."
In the House bill, the number of public charter schools are capped at two, and provided for no education savings accounts.
Ir was not clear Monday of there is still support in the Senate to provide a police officer in every West Virginia school and to create a 1400 student enrollment cap to create funding from the school funding formula.
About a dozen counties are struggling with finances, several like Calhoun whose enrollment has dropped below 1,000.
It appeared last week that the House eliminated several of the amendments that de-neutered the state's school unions.
Last year, school employees across the state conducted a nine-day strike.
More to follow ... | 
