Educators and support staff gathered for a special meeting April 13 at the Deer Valley Unified School District office in hopes of witnessing the governing board proclaim their support of educators and #RedforEd.

And it happened.

President Jenny Frank read the proclamation out loud and the vote was called. The motion carried with the excited support all of five board members including Ann Ordway, Ann O’Brien, Kim Fisher, Darcy Tweedy and Ms. Frank. Although superintendent Dr. Curtis Finch did not have a vote, he verbalized his "aye" vote to the pleasure of those in attendance.

The #RedforEd campaign is characterized by educators and supporters wearing red in a plea for increased funding for schools and higher salaries for teachers. Educators and support staff have descended on the state capitol in Phoenix every Wednesday for the past several weeks, often skipping school, to protest. Governor Doug Ducey caved to protests last week, proposing to raise teacher salaries by 20 percent by 2020.

Arizona teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation, with elementary instructors earning a median 2017 wage of $43,280 and high school teachers $46,470, the 3rd and 6th lowest in the nation, respectively, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Adjusted for local cost of living, federal figures show elementary teachers actually rank 49th in earnings and high school teachers 48th.

Prior to the DVUSD vote, two people spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. The first, was a spouse of a teacher who was nominated for DVUSD teacher of the year this year. He described his family’s struggle and their decision to leave Arizona and head to New York, where he said she can make more money. He also raised questions about what it will look like if teachers do walk, what that means for the support staff left behind.

"We want what’s best for the students, and I don’t know the exact answer to that, but we are working on it," Mr. Finch said. "One issue if teachers strike, we have to decide if we’ll close and if it’s going to be for a long period of time or short. And are we going to stay open to feed kids? Because for some of them this is the only meal they get. Or maybe it’s just pockets throughout the district that will remain open. I have to have a plan and ready for any of that."

Bellair Elementary music teacher Calle Treppiedi spoke on behalf of all teachers.

"Do not forget about your teachers, not just the ones teaching math, English and science, but remember the art, PE and music teachers too," she explained. "Don’t forget your classified members like my paraprofessionals, who save us all the time. I see the cafeteria workers and the front office people too."

Ms. Ordway encouraged teachers to mention support staff often when they are speaking on behalf of #RedforEd and that they don’t do it on their own.

"It’s because of students and everyone that helps you, and so we just get louder and include more so we can now show some visuals on the whole education we do here," she said.

Ms. Tweedy was encouraged by Governor Doug Ducey’s teacher salary increase, but very disappointed he left out classified staff, saying teachers aren’t wearing "red for me" shirts.

"I think we still have work to do," she said.

Ms. O’Brien said with the additional money the governor proposed, the governing board will have an opportunity for the district to take care of staff that were not included by the governor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report