May Day — the beginning of summer, a celebration of spring and International Workers Day — is here, and in a sign of district solidarity the West Linn-Wilsonville Education Association organized a before-school walk-in for Thursday, May 1.

Centered around a simple message, “We love our schools, and we believe they deserve full and fair funding,” teachers were joined by students, parents and district administrators, all wearing “Red for Ed” before the school day began.

Signs at the directed the community to visit https://www.wlwvschoolfoundation.org/, the website for the West Linn Wilsonville School Foundation.

The organized protest is to bring further attention to the impacts that the estimated $15 million in budget cuts will have next year. According to the WWEA, the cuts have resulted in 75 teachers being laid off so far.

A budget update from the district in April said that the teacher reductions totaled 59 teachers — 30 primary, 15 middle and 14 high school — as well as 51 additional staff including teachers on special assignment, librarians, nurses, PE teachers, music teachers, school psychologists and social workers.

The walk-in was organized with school administration and parents and students were informed of the action by school newsletters and emails earlier in the week.