Teachers and families have mixed emotions

Hundreds of Tacoma teachers walked picket lines Tuesday, while parents around the city alternately fumed and supported them. More than 28,000 district students just tried to keep busy.

Mount Tahoma junior Monica Leoso spent the early afternoon at the South Tacoma library branch, filling out a scholarship application and working on homework she doesn’t know when she’ll turn in.

“I want to go back to school,” she said.

A throng of picketing teachers outside Lincoln High School appeared uplifted early Tuesday as they sought to carry their momentum from the previous evening’s 87-percent vote to strike.

“I got so many texts from parents asking, ‘How can we support you?’” said Nathan Bowling, 31, who teaches history at Lincoln Center.

Yet many teachers expressed mixed feelings, saying they wanted to be in classrooms with students.

“I don’t want to be out here,” said Guy Cooper, a third-grade teacher at Mary Lyon Elementary School. “I’ve got 25 kids who should be in school right now.”

Early on, some drivers honked their horns in support of the Lincoln picketers. Two others yelled at the teachers to “get back to work.” One used profanity.

Elsewhere, students joined their teachers near Stadium High School and downtown near the School of the Arts, carrying “on strike” signs.

Brooke Goodwin, a single mom from Puyallup, was not feeling so supportive. Goodwin, whose 6-year-old daughter attends Lyon Elementary, said she learned about the strike Monday when she picked up her daughter from a YMCA day camp at Lyon. It wasn’t open Tuesday.

“I’m pretty furious about this,” said the 29-year-old Allenmore hospital employee. “You’d think teachers would have more class than this.”

Tuesday, she tried to drop off both daughters at a central YMCA day camp. She couldn’t leave her younger daughter there because the site isn’t licensed to care for preschool children.

Goodwin said she’d take her younger child to work and try to keep her occupied by playing a movie.

Tacoma’s YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs expanded their day care program hours to help parents cope with the strike.

The Y had a turnout of about 60 kids Tuesday and prepared for 200 today, a spokeswoman said. The Boys & Girls’ four clubs saw about 160 children and expected at least a 50 percent increase today.

For some parents who stay at home or have flexible schedules, the strike isn’t a life-changer but still affects daily routines in small ways that can add up.

Sarah Massengill, a mother of three, has a first-grader and a third-grader at Crescent Heights Elementary in Northeast Tacoma. She teaches evening calculus classes at Green River Community College, so she can be with her kids during the day. She said she “wholeheartedly” supports the teachers.

“I am lucky, it is only inconveniences,” Massengill said. “I will have to grocery shop with the kids, change my workout schedule, reschedule a dentist appointment, find child care for a funeral I will be going to this week – and my kids are bored.” Massengill said.

“… But for my friends, their family income is affected because they either have to stay home from work or pay someone to watch their children on short notice.”

Jessie Woodworth spent the day at South Park with 6-year-old son Phillip, who attends Arlington Elementary.

Woodworth said school being canceled isn’t a big burden, yet. “I’m lucky in the sense I’m a stay-at-home mom.”

But if the strike continues, she’ll have to help watch five nephews and nieces.

Woodworth said although she supports the union’s decision to strike, she feels it will have a negative effect on her son, who enjoys school.

She added if negotiations aren’t settled soon, “I’ll transfer them to another school district if I need to.”

Bernadette Drummond has one son who’s 16 and another who’s 5. The younger boy, Jayce, just started kindergarten at Lowell Elementary. She said she doesn’t want him to forget what he’s been learning in his first year – he didn’t attend preschool – so she spent part of Tuesday reviewing with him.

Drummond manages the Beverly Apartments and can work with her kids around, but “it really becomes difficult when you need the six hours of solitude.”

“Day cares aren’t even an option,” she said. “Money is extremely tight.”

Alma Jimenez took her 10-year-old niece Stephanie Araujo to the South Branch library. Jimenez can watch the girl for only a few more days, until her maternity leave ends.

“We’re thinking of what to do after I go back to work next week,” Jimenez said. “It’s really, really hard.”

Back on the Lincoln picket line, school psychologist Grace Clark said she was initially reluctant to support a strike this summer. She sympathized with administrators who faced tough choices balancing the budget, but she lost some of that feeling when she saw the district hire a contract negotiator.

“I left very depressed last night” after the strike vote, said Clark, 41, of DuPont.

News Tribune staff writer Craig Hill contributed to this report.