Teachers in the Las Lomitas Elementary School District have been on strike since Wednesday, Oct. 23 after the district refused to negotiate a 10% pay increase for educators part of the Las Lomitas Education Association.
While the district’s two schools—Las Lomitas Elementary School and La Entrada Middle School—have remained open even without most teachers, many students and parents have stayed home. Some families have joined teachers in picketing, walking nearly 11 miles around district neighborhoods on Tuesday.
Other families chose to send their students to school, where substitutes led activities like mock escape rooms, art projects, and a magic show with a hired magician. Students traveled with their grade level, rather than an individual class, to different stations. Many were frustrated by the unusual activities.
“The whole day could have been better. I would’ve liked to have been in an actual classroom,” seventh grader Grace Wingo said. “I’d never seen any of the subs in my whole life, which was weird.”
“During recess, all of these kids were lining up in the front chanting, ‘Pay our teachers! Let us leave!’ in front of all the substitutes,” seventh grader Annabelle Saab said.
Uninterested with the school activities, Saab and many of her peers called their parents to pick them up early.
“When I picked her up, there were six boys in the office begging somebody’s parent to sign them out,” Saab’s mother, Myle Sagorsky, said. “When I signed her out, there were zero adults in the office. I literally just put her name on a piece of paper and took her.”
Many students have stayed home from school since the strike began. Several students and parents joined teachers in protest, holding signs and chanting in solidarity near each school’s campus.
“We have an immense amount of support from students and parents. Parents are very involved in being informed and are absolutely on our side,” eighth grade English teacher Tanya Rianda said.
“The teachers work really hard every day and they definitely deserve more money, especially to live here, because it’s a very expensive area. It’s chaotic because I’m not sure when we will get to continue our education,” eighth grader Hadley Collins said as she walked in a protest on Tuesday morning.
“The board needs to make a decision and put the students first and this community first. This is ridiculous,” fifth grade teacher Caryn Carlson said.
While a deal may be on the horizon, teachers remain on strike. Read more about the strike here.
