PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Paraeducators in the Port Angeles School District walked the picket line for a third straight day Wednesday, demanding higher pay.
Schools in the district have been closed all week as teachers joined the 135 paraeducators in solidarity and refused to work.
Marcos Garcia said being a paraeducator is what he was meant to do.
"Just connecting with the kids, making relationships. I see myself in a lot of these kids. I love it," he said.
Paraeducators are the people who take care of students with special needs at school and keep kids on track, especially in crowded classrooms.
Garcia works two other jobs to pay the bills so he can serve those students. Without paraeducators to guide them, he says, "they struggle. They shut down. They close off. They don't love themselves. We are there to pick them up when they fall."
But the district is facing difficult times.
Declining enrollments and the state's inability to fully fund K-12 education meant that last year, Port Angeles had to cut 61 positions while facing a $5 million deficit.
This year, paraeducators are asking for a 3.7% cost of living raise.
The district argues it has to make sure this contract doesn't mean additional cuts in the future.
"We care about our staff. We want to be able to offer a fair and sustainable wage to all parties involved, but we have to be able to sustain that not just for this year but for five years from now," said Superintendent Martin Brewer. "We'll get there."
According to the district website, the current proposal from the PASD provides paraeducators with approximately $225,000 in salary and benefit increases for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.
Late Tuesday, a Clallam County judge signed an injunction ordering the staffers back to work, saying the strike is illegal and creates "actual, substantial, and irreparable injury or the threat thereof the Port Angeles School District, its students, employees, and community."
Union President Rebecca Winters said her membership will continue to defy the order and stay on the picket line as long as it takes.
"We are not going to be bullied," she said. "What we are doing is right. Our community knows what we're doing is right."
While technically illegal in Washington state, teachers' unions regularly go on strike with few, if any, repercussions.
"We just want to get back to our kids," said Winters, choking up. "I just keep thinking about our kids."
"I can't wait to see them again, give them a high five and just continue what we're supposed to be doing," Garcia added.
Meal programs and extracurricular activities are continuing across the district.
The Clallam County judge scheduled a hearing about the injunction for April 26.
Both sides are hopeful the hearing won't be necessary.