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Bainbridge teachers hold one-day walkout Strike intended to light fire under state lawmakers BY SERAINE PAGE
Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island teachers taught the Legislature a lesson this week: Ignoring the needs of the education system is not the way to get an A for effort. On Thursday, island teachers abandoned their classrooms and lesson plans for a one-day strike to protest the state’s chronic underfunding of schools. Island teachers joined a massive statewide effort to bring the underfunding into the spotlight through walking off the job. Educators in other school districts have already held walkouts or have strikes planned in the coming weeks. As far as funding basic education goes, Bainbridge teachers think the Legislature gets a big, fat F. “In teaching, we always struggle with having to do so many things and it has gotten progressively worse,” said Keri Schmit, a Woodward eighth-grade teacher. “Every year the Legislature puts new mandates on us, and they’re unfunded mandates.” Schmit said it pained her to see school canceled due
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
Teachers and supporters gather at the intersection of Highway 305 and Winslow Way Thursday with signs and slogans during the early morning commuter-heavy sailings to Seattle.
to the protest, but felt — like many of her colleagues — that it was the only way teachers’ voices would be
heard. Over the past 24 years of her career, she’s watched fellow teachers leave the field
and confers with current teachers who are looking at other professions — a prospect that bothers her.
Many have become “disappointed, frustrated and overwhelmed,” she said, by the fact that basic education
is grossly underfunded by nearly $3,000 per student annually. For her, the simple fact that lawmakers are disconnected from the everyday realities of the classroom has been proven time and time again by the state’s inability to fund education properly. They aren’t listening, she said, as phone calls, pleas and letters from teachers have been ignored when they demanded the state Constitution’s mandate for adequate funding of public education be followed. “I feel like I had a lot more freedom to do what things I thought was best for students. Now, I have politicians telling me — who are not even educators — what is the best for my students,” Schmit said. The walkout was approved by union members earlier this week, and by no small measure — 99 percent of teachers were for the strike. All public schools on the island were closed because of the walkout, and some after-school activities were canceled as well. Originally, the strike was planned for May 1, but a large school carnival fund-raiser may have been impacted by that date, said David Layton, TURN TO STRIKE | A14
Dialing up community: Senior Center now taking Collect Calls BY SERAINE PAGE
Bainbridge Island Review
Seraine Page | Bainbridge Island Review
Sue Barrington, Waterfront Park Community Center program manager, tests out the new Collect Call Phone Booth at the senior center.
Everyone has a story to tell. Now, there’s one special place on Bainbridge Island to share those tales. Starting May 1, anyone can stop by the Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center to record a personal story in a handcrafted Collect Call Phone Booth. The StoryShare project is a way to gather and share memories of those who reside on Bainbridge Island. “It collects the calls that you place inside of it,” said Sue Barrington, Waterfront Park Community Center program manager. “We will have a repository for all sorts of Bainbridge Island stories — whether those took place 50 years ago or last week.”
Standing over 7-feet tall and made of red oak, the old-school phone booth sits in the center’s lobby waiting for someone to open its door and record a memory on a circa 1900s vintage phone. Inside the mouthpiece is a voice-activated recording device that will capture any spoken words. “I hope that people will feel like when they’re in this booth, they feel really safe and speak their truth,” said Barrington, who spearheaded the project. “I expect it to be pretty moving stuff along the way.” Phone booth visitors can choose to remain anonymous. The five-year project is a way to record history as experienced by the islanders, along with personal stories,
Barrington said. Tapes will reviewed weekly, and the most interesting ones will be archived at the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum and possibly included in a Bainbridge Community Broadcast. Those who stop in are asked to record their name and phone number for follow-up purposes. “I think the nature of an island, being that it is so self-contained in a lot of ways, can really create a unique sense of community,” Barrington said. “There’s a real pride on Bainbridge Island about its history and being from here.” Each week, those who step into TURN TO CALLS | A19