Camas teachers walk the picket line on first day of school

CAMAS, Wash. (KOIN) -- The 450 teachers in the Camas Education Association are walking the picket line instead of welcoming students to the first day of classes for the 2023-24 school year.

Negotiations stalled late Sunday, prompting the call to walkout. The CEA said the school district has a $15 million stockpile but "refused to make commitments to reasonable class sizes or equitable funding for music, PE, and libraries."

On Sunday, CEA Vice President Michael Sanchez told KOIN 6 News striking was clearly not the teachers' first choice.

"I want to reiterate, this is not something we want to have happen. We know the unrest that can cause in the community, the uncertainty, the fear," he said. "What we really want to have happen is for us to be at our schools Monday morning, welcoming all our kids back from a great summer and getting to the work that we need to do.”

That didn't happen, so Camas became the first of 3 Southwest Washington districts to go on strike. The others, Battle Ground and Evergreen, have negotiating sessions scheduled for Monday in an effort to be in the classrooms when school is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.