Dale Lee Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Education Unions Announce Planned Merger

Two of the state’s largest education unions are planning to merge.

The West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and the American Federation of Teachers – West Virginia (AFT-WV) announced Wednesday that they have unanimously approved a values statement for a new, unified organization

Dale Lee, president of the WVEA, said the merger will help ensure educators’ voices are heard and strengthened together.

“We saw in 2018-2019 that united and standing together, we were a stronger voice,” he said. “And with that, we’ve also seen a target on our backs in the legislature the last few years. So this gives us an opportunity to expand on the strength that we saw in 2018, 2019. And to really build something that members want and are going to be proud of.”

Lee said the proposal has received significant feedback from members of both organizations via special delegate assembly and a special convention to approve the value statement.

“We’ve gone to several counties across the state talking about this and answering questions so our members really know what’s going on,” he said.

Lee said the governing bodies of both organizations must approve the merger, but the goal is to have everything in place and have a new organization in place by September 2025.

In a press release, Fred Albert, AFT-WV president said, “one merged unified voice for education employees is an exciting vision for the future of education in WV.”

“By definition, a union is a merging of people coming together to use their collective talents and knowledge to improve the working conditions and circumstances for the whole,” he said. “While there is much work still to be done, I look forward to continuing to work with Dale and the leadership of both organizations to make this vision a reality.”

Burnout, Dissatisfaction Among Educators In Latest WVEA Survey

West Virginia teachers have become increasingly more likely to leave the profession, according to the latest survey of West Virginia Education Association members.

Dale Lee, president of the WVEA, shared results Tuesday and said the survey was conducted to gauge levels of frustration amongst association members. He said the survey showed low pay and a lack of respect for the profession are leading to higher stress and burnout.

“More than half of our members, 62 percent, reported experiencing higher levels of stress and burnout than in previous years, with 26 percent saying that their level of burnout is at its highest level ever,” Lee said.

The higher levels of burnout and stress are leading to more educators to consider leaving the profession. Lee said while more than half of respondents are confident they will continue working in education, “nearly half of them say that they are much more likely to retire or leave education earlier than planned.” The results were broken down by tenure, and newer educators were more likely to consider leaving.

“We already have a problem with attracting and retaining education employees,” Lee said. “And this poll indicates that without changes, the problem will only get worse without significant action.”

Lee raised concern about the ongoing teacher shortage, citing the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to say there has been a 14 percent reduction in the number of students entering the education programs, as well as a lack of students seeing education as a career.

“You can see the staffing issues will continue to grow if something isn’t done to address these concerns,” he said.

Other results included a disapproval of public funds being used for private education: 85 percent of WVEA members said taxpayer funding for education should only be used for our public schools. And more than 70 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their working conditions.

“In all instances, the dissatisfaction is overwhelming,” Lee said. “Now keep in mind that the working conditions over educators are the learning conditions of our students.”

Turning to solutions, Lee highlighted two interesting results of the survey. When asked to indicate support for different proposals to address education burnout, such as allowing teachers more input in the classroom decisions by eliminating the bureaucracy, 100 percent of respondents chose “raise salaries” and “increase educator respect”.

According to the National Education Association, West Virginia ranks last among U.S. states in average teacher pay.

“Our pollsters indicate that it’s very rare to have such a consensus on two items in a poll,” Lee said.

Lee says he hopes to present the survey findings to both the Senate and House education committees, and work with them on solutions.

State Board Of Education Hears Hope Scholarship Concerns, Approves School Closures

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, has raised concerns that Hope Scholarship funds are being spent in public schools in other states.

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, raised concerns at the May meeting of the West Virginia Board of Education that Hope Scholarship funds were being spent in public schools in other states.

The Hope Scholarship allows K-12 students to receive state funds that can be used for tuition at private schools, homeschool curriculum, and other qualifying expenses.

On Wednesday, Lee again raised the issue, claiming 29 out-of-state schools are receiving West Virginia taxpayer dollars including a public school in Steubenville, Ohio.

“At the end of the fiscal year I’ll have more information about where everything goes, but this is alarming to me,” Lee said. “Hopefully we can keep taxpayer dollars in West Virginia for our kids.”

Lee said he received the information from the Hope Scholarship Division of the state Treasurer’s office.

In an email to WVPB, the state Treasurer’s office said spending Hope Scholarship funds in out-of-state school systems is permissible and consistent with the “money follows the student” intent behind the Hope Scholarship.

“It should also be noted that West Virginia public schools charge tuition to Hope Scholarship students attending classes or participating in extracurricular activities,” the email said. “Like West Virginia, most other states require public schools to charge tuition to any out-of-state students wishing to access their curriculum or other services.”

On Thursday, Lee told WVPB he understands that the out of state spending is permissible, “but I still question why West Virginia taxpayer dollars are going to fund schools out of state of West Virginia.”

“We believe that parents have the right to homeschool or private school their children,” he said. “But our constitution provides for a thorough and free public education and they choose not to accept that, and I don’t think taxpayer dollars should be used to fund that.”

School Closures

The West Virginia Board of Education also approved the closure of three elementary schools in Kanawha County during its Wednesday meeting.

Marmet Elementary School, Grandview Elementary School and George C. Weimer Elementary School were all approved for closure at the end of the 2023-2024 school year and will be consolidated with existing local elementary schools.

These are the first school closures to be approved by the state board since Senate Bill 51 went into effect on June 5. The new law requires impact statements including transportation time of the affected students be written in certain instances of school closing or consolidation.

The application for the closure of all three schools carried the following impact statement:

The consolidation of these schools will enable Kanawha County Schools to operate their schools more efficiently.

The Kanawha County Board of Education voted to approve the closures in May, before the law went into effect.

All W.Va. Counties Now Offer Some In-Person Instruction As Teacher Unions Prepare For Legal Fight

The last county school systems in West Virginia that did not implement in-person instruction have accepted a mandate passed by the state Board of Education.

The ruling requires some in-person instruction for grades K-8 regardless of the color on the state’s COVID-19 risk map.

All 55 county school systems are now offering some in-person classes. In some places, school might be held in brick-and-mortar buildings a full five days a week, but in others, some have shortened days, and some are blended — alternating between in-person and remote throughout the week.

Fully remote learning is no longer permitted for students in kindergarten through middle school, and high schools are only allowed to be remote when a county is red on the state’s coronavirus map.

Gilmer, Taylor and Marion counties were the last to follow the state’s mandate. The week began with seven counties opting to stay fully remote.

On Thursday, Gilmer and Taylor county boards of education held emergency meetings to reconsider the state BOE’s ruling, and on Friday, Marion County did the same.

Marion County Superintendent Randall Farley had recommended a return to full, in-person instruction following the state board’s ruling on Jan. 13, but the Marion school board opted to keep all students remote whenever a county is orange or red, which is what the state followed in the fall.

Farley urged board members once again on Friday to follow the state’s recommendation for the spring.

“The second semester registration shows that 69 percent [of families] are choosing the in-person learning option, and 31 percent are choosing a virtual or distance learning option,” Farley said. “Those percentages have remained consistent and constant throughout all offerings of in-person learning — from the get go.”

Some board members, while agreeing students should be in school and ultimately voted in favor of that, said they felt “strong-armed” by the state board. Superintendent Clayton Burch argued against their characterization.

“I wouldn’t call it strong-arming,” Burch said. “I would call it following the [state] constitution and advocating for children’s rights, and that right is the ability to have an in-person instruction [option].”

Gov. Jim Justice said during a press briefing Thursday that he wants children to return to school to offset learning loss and protect students’ social-emotional health. Health officials say the spread of COVID-19 among children age 15 and younger is minimal.

Meanwhile, West Virginia’s two largest teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia chapter and the West Virginia Education Association, are asking judges to halt or slow down the governor’s push to reopen more classrooms during the pandemic. They are demanding that education workers be given the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine before being forced to return to in-person learning.

“We don’t know everything there is to know about COVID-19 at this point,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association in Friday’s meeting with the Marion County Board of Education. “Why would you put the safety of your educators, your students and everyone’s family at risk?”

Other union members said it was “ludicrous” to think that COVID-19 wasn’t spreading in K-8. They also pointed to the new strain of the virus that has turned up in certain states. Health experts say the new strain, while not more deadly than the original strain of COVID-19, is at least 50 percent more contagious.

By the end of the meeting, however, board members voted to concur with the state school board’s mandate.

Virtual schooling is still available to all 55 counties and all grade levels. Virtual is different from remote, especially at the local level, according to the West Virginia Department of Education, in that virtual often mirrors a real classroom held over video conference with a local teacher. But this is not true for the state’s virtual option, West Virginia Virtual School, which is asynchronous and with teachers from out-of-state.

Some local teachers have argued to keep remote learning, because they have adapted their remote model to mirror that of a virtual option, where they provide instruction in real time over Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Starting Monday, Jan. 25, all 55 counties will be back to some form of in-person schooling.

All schools, both public and private, are required to follow COVID-19 mitigation efforts, such as mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing.

W.Va. Education Union Files Injunction As Governor Defends School Re-Entry Map

The West Virginia Education Association, which is West Virginia’s largest teachers’ union in the state, filed an injunction Monday morning challenging the safety of the governor’s school re-entry map.

The injunction claims the state map is unsafe and under constant manipulation by state officials just to get students back into brick-and-mortar classrooms.

The injunction also seeks to temporarily suspend the map, as well as the enforcement of the West Virginia Open Meeting Act as it relates to the panel that meets prior to the map’s posting on Saturday nights.

The school re-entry map is determined by a panel of experts every Saturday from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Department of Education.

Last week, WVEA President Dale Lee announced his intention to file the injunction with the Kanawha County Circuit Court. It was officially filed Monday.

“We know how important it is for students to be back in classrooms working with their teachers,” Lee said in a news release. “No one wants in-person education more than our members, but they no longer feel their safety is the top priority of our state government’s leadership. Our goal is for students to return to school as soon as possible but we must be able to do that safely based on the circumstances in individual counties.”

The union points to Harvard’s color-coded map, which shows a higher rate of COVID-19 spread in the state. The union is calling on Gov. Jim Justice to follow this map, or independent health experts, instead.

Justice responded to the injunction in a recent virtual press briefing.

“If we were going just by the Harvard model, we know, we would have a third to a half of the state of West Virginia, probably the safest state in the nation, a third to a half of the state would be shut down,” Justice said. “You know, from the standpoint of being in school … We know 70 percent of the people in the state of West Virginia wanted to go back to school.”

The governor argues the move by the union is political.

W.Va. Teachers' Union Wants Public Schools To Start Online

A West Virginia teachers’ union is urging public schools to avoid face-to-face instruction when students return next month due to the coronavirus.

The West Virginia Education Association suggested the online-only start Thursday based on a survey of the union’s membership.

WVEA President Dale Lee said most of the respondents felt uncomfortable returning to classrooms under their individual county’s reopening plans. In addition, nearly all members were skeptical that students could effectively maintain social distancing and wear masks.

“Full distance learning will give time for counties to get a handle on the situation and to further iron out the details on how the next steps of the school re-entry will be handled in each location,” Lee said.

Gov. Jim Justice has pushed back the start of the school year to Sept. 8. He said recently that a final decision on the reopening would have to be made by Sept. 1.

Last month American Federation of Teachers’ state chapter president Fred Albert expressed doubt that face-to-face instruction could occur safely based on health trends.

The number of virus-related deaths in West Virginia has jumped 23% since last Friday, pushing the total for the pandemic to at least 153. Confirmed cases in West Virginia have tripled in the past seven weeks to more than 8,150.

Lee said two-thirds of WVEA educators consider themselves at risk due to health, age or caregiver concerns.

“We understood that every county and their individual schools are unique in each circumstance,” he said. ”But safety for the employees and the students should be foremost everywhere. One outbreak of the virus is one outbreak too many. And starting before we are truly prepared will simply force shutdowns and create additional anxiety and uncertainty.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal. The vast majority of people recover.