November 17th, 2024

Strike Day 4: Tailgate rally

Rally attendees get fired up along Pacific Boulevard as they wait to cheer for the buses carrying West Albany's football team to a quarterfinal playoff game in Dallas.

  Day 4 of the Albany teachers strike saw more morning picket lines around the school district and a mid-afternoon tailgate rally in the I-5 Sports parking lot on Pacific Boulevard.
  Greater Albany Education Association President Dana Lovejoy provided a strike update in a brief video taken during the rally.“We have been in mediation today, and we feel like the district is taking this serious,” she said. “We’re not sure that means we’ll have a deal, but we do plan to bargain throughout the weekend because it’s our intent to get this done quickly and get our students and our teachers back in their classrooms.”
  The rally crowd of several hundred heard speakers and music by North Albany Middle School teachers Andy Nelson and Ryan McGovern and West Albany band members, and attendees were welcome to go through a potluck line for chili and other dishes.
  The rally ended with the sign-carrying crowd lining Pacific and Queen Avenue to cheer the West Albany football players as their buses headed from Queen onto Pacific for the trip north to a 5A quarterfinal game at  Dallas. (The Bulldogs won 23-13 and will move on to the semifinals.)
​   A rally for parents who support the striking teachers but have been unable to attend the weekday rallies is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday in the Keller Williams parking lot, 2125 Pacific Blvd. S.E.
   School is canceled Monday.

​Video: Dana Lovejoy, Greater Albany Education Association president, gives a Day 4 update on negotiations.

Video: North Albany Middle School band director Andy Nelson (clarinet) and social studies teacher Ryan McGovern (guitar and vocals) lead the crowd in "Solidarity Forever."

The potluck line grew longer as the rally got closer to dinner time.

Along Queen Avenue, striking teachers and supporters cheer as the buses carrying the West Albany football team head onto Pacific Boulevard.