West Covina Teachers Strike

Teachers walked off the job this morning at 14 schools in the West Covina Unified School District in a dispute over pay and benefit issues.

It was the first teacher strike ever staged in the 8,000-student district, which has 2 high schools, 2 intermediate schools and 10 elementary schools, district officials said. Substitute teachers, who had been on standby, were called in to staff the classrooms after word of the strike came at 7:30 a.m., a district spokesman said.