Teachers rally for schools
Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2015
A serious issue brought Snoqualmie Valley teachers, students, staff and parents to the Snoqualmie Parkway Friday afternoon, but participants couldn’t help but make it a fun event.
As video drones circled overhead and traffic backed up for construction, making the road more of a sidewalk, participants in the rally for education cheered with every honk of support from passing trucks and buses. They played Red Rover, and waved signs with sayings about education and the need for state funding.
“Fund my teachers” was written on one youngster’s sign. “We need cash,” read another. Language arts teachers Brian McCormick and Susan Holihan just advertised their strengths, “Pathos” for McCormick, and “Logos” for Holihan.
Lisa Radmer, North Bend Elementary school librarian and president of the Snoqualmie Valley Education Association, leads the groups in chants outside of the YMCA.
They teach about Ethos, too, at Mount Si High School, they just didn’t make a sign for it.
Some of teacher Amanda Adcox’s students from Chief Kanim Middle School were waving signs, and held still just barely long enough for her to get a photo of the boys.
“I didn’t know they were coming,” she said. The boys had asked her about the issue – the state legislature’s recent conclusion of a legislative session without a budget that addressed its fully-funded education mandate – in class, she said, and she’d told them a little about it, but was surprised to see them.
Asher Crosby holds a sign asking for help with his learning. In “mental classes” like math he says, it’s easier to learn when the classes are smaller.
Asher Crosby put some thought into his sign, asking for help to get him out of “mental classes.” “It means if you’re in a mental class, you can learn more with smaller classes,” he explained.
From the Parkway, the rally marched to the Snoqualmie Valley YMCA for speeches from the Snoqualmie Valley Education Association president Lisa Radmer, school superintendent Joel Aune and school board president Geoff Doy.
Mount Si language arts teachers Brian McCormick and Susan Holihan took part in the rally.
