By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Teachers at the St. Louis Public Schools will decide whether to authorize a strike on Wednesday.
Members of the St. Louis teachers' union are not satisfied with the latest pay and benefits package offered by the school board.
Among other things it would put the city teachers' pay on par with districts in the county. But in exchange they'd have to work longer hours.
Billie Morrison, a first grade teacher at Ashland Elementary, says the so-called "pay parity plan" is not popular among her colleagues: "Maybe to someone who works eight hours a day they don't understand, but as a teacher, I take papers home to check at night. I take tests home. I take lesson plans.
"They don't bring the car factory home with them, so you're going to be adding to time I'm already using, and that's wrong."
After Tuesday night's meeting, School Board President Darnetta Clinkscale said the plan is fair, and she expects teachers will approve it. "I think they'll be happy about what their pay will be when they find that out this week, and I think they'll vote vote stay in the classroom." But Clinkscale did not specify what the board would do in the event of a strike.
It is against the law in Missouri for public school teachers to walk off the job. But St. Louis teachers have done so several times in the past.