You might see your son's teacher on the corner waving at you during Tuesday's commute.
Or, if you're home, your daughter's math instructor might stop in for a visit.
Teachers are expected to knock on doors and stand on corners waving at traffic across the state during the 19,000-member Utah Education Association's one-day job action. They hope the tactics will help people understand what they call an underfunded school system.
"I believe the purpose is to get some information to the public, and I hope teachers will come out to help us accomplish that," Davis Education Association President Kathleen Leatham said Monday.
In fact, if the 2001 Legislature doesn't come up with a long-term funding plan for schools, more walkouts could be scheduled.
"This is to let (the Legislature) know we're not happy with them, and if the Legislature is not going to come up with some type of long-term funding that's acceptable to teachers across the state, there could be another job action in February," said Elaine Tzourtzouklis, UEA regional president and head of the Salt Lake Teachers Association. "We're not saying we will, but it's a possibility."
The state's largest teachers union last week called for the one-day walkout. The reason: The state Funding of Education Task Force, set up to stave off a threatened strike last winter, didn't come up with an acceptable plan to better fund schools in the future.
The task force last week recommended the state give $30.6 million for textbooks, put $10 million in a school building aid fund, boost state matching dollars for school districts and raise property taxes, among other potential money sources.
UEA President Phyllis Sorensen praised the work as a step in the right direction but says none of it brings long-term funding. Textbook money is one-time, and not all school districts will be eligible for the building aid money.
Tzourtzouklis says 80 percent of Utah's teachers support the strike. But teachers will be in class in at least 12 districts Tuesday, including Uintah, North and South Summit, and Granite, whose teachers walked out last February.
And union officials acknowledge not all teachers will participate in Tuesday's activities. Some have day-care issues or physical ailments that prevent them from doing so, Leatham said.
The planned job action also has disappointed some school boards and is putting a monkey wrench in athletics in some districts.
"We've had a little trouble over the cancellation of extracurricular activities," Alpine School District spokesman Michael Robinson said. "There's a big game tomorrow for Lone Peak along with practices and a number of events across the district."
The Lone Peak Choir has sold tickets to its fund-raising event, a Madrigal sit-down dinner, for Tuesday night. That has been rescheduled to Wednesday night, school officials said.
"The administration doesn't support the walkout," Robinson said. "There are different strategies that would work better."
Provo extracurricular activities also have been called off.
But Nebo School District's extracurricular plans won't be affected, and parent-teacher conferences will continue where planned Tuesday, Nebo public information officer Francis Larsen said.
The job action has angered some Republican lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature, which increased the state's basic per-student funding formula by 5.5 percent this year, more than double the 1999 infusion.
As for students, the day is like a luxury — sort of. Some have said they'll spend the day sleeping in, Christmas shopping or at Utah's ski resorts. Yet some don't like the fact they have the day off, though, because they'll have to make it up later in the year, in some districts on an already scheduled holiday.
Contributing: Sharon Haddock
E-MAIL: jtcook@desnews.com