Nearly 600 students attend Walter Douglas Elementary School every day, but on Thursday, the first day of Arizonaβs teacher strike, only 16 lunches and 12 breakfasts were served.
As a result of the teacher walkouts, the Flowing Wells School District elementary school β along with all of the other major Tucson-area school districts β decided to shut down due to the large amount of teachers and support staff that would be participating.
Collectively as a district, Flowing Wells decided to continue serving breakfast and lunch despite the school closures. Amphitheater, Marana, Sunnyside and Tucson Unified school districts also planned to provide meals for students.
βWe felt like our students needed that resource,β Walter Douglas Principal Tamara McAllister said, adding that the community sometimes has a hard time providing meals for their families.
βI want to ensure the students are taken care of,β McAllister said.
The school district tried to advertise the meals as much as possible, but few students ended up using the resource on Thursday.
For cafeteria manager Ana Obregon, the day was hard because she worries about the children who did not come for a meal. For some of the students in Flowing Wells, the school-provided meals are the only solid meals they get every day, Obregon said.
βItβs really hard to know that I donβt know what theyβre eating today,β Obregon said.
Students who did take advantage of the service showed up alone, with friends or family to lunch.
Destiny Valdez, 12, was accompanied by her siblings and mom, Nicole Valdez. Destiny does not think itβs right that she canβt go to school.
βI hate missing out on things,β Destiny said.
Destinyβs mom said she is a supporter of education but disagrees with the strike because it is at the expense of her children.
βWhy couldnβt they wait until after school was out?β Valdez said.
At a table in the nearly empty cafeteria, reading teacher Terry White sat with other support staff members, all three dressed in bright red shirts.
White has been working in schools for 19 years and supports the walkouts.
βPart of what theyβre doing is supporting us,β White said, referring to the teachers striking for better wages for support staff.
Although she supports the walkouts and wants better funding, White is unsure what she will do if the strikes go into Monday.
βThis is my only source of income,β White said, which is part of the reason she chose to go into school despite it being closed.
