A supporter gives a thumbs up to the school personnel demonstrating outside of the Capitol building on the fourth day of statewide walkouts in Charleston on Tuesday. (AP Photo)

PARKERSBURG — Striking teachers in West Virginia are to return to the classroom on Thursday, Gov. Jim Justice said Tuesday in announcing he is offering teachers and school service personnel a revised 5 percent pay raise in the first year to end their statewide walkout.

For the most part the presidents of the two Wood County teachers unions see the proposals from Justice as a good step forward.

Justice made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday after emerging from a meeting with union leaders for teachers in all 55 counties. Teachers walked off the job last Thursday, their first statewide strike since 1990.

“We need our kids back in school. We need our teachers back in school,” Justice said.

Teachers will remain out of class today in part because some counties had already called off school, Justice said, referring to it as a “cooling off day.”

“Wood County and other school systems will be in session Thursday,” said Wood County Schools Superintendent John Flint on Tuesday.

Wood County Schools will be closed today but operating on Code A, so custodians and principals will be in the buildings to get the schools ready for Thursday, Flint said.

West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Steven Paine confirmed schools will be back in session Thursday.

“I am officially calling for Wednesday, Feb. 28 to be a day of preparation for all public school systems in West Virginia. I am expecting all schools across the state to be open on Thursday, March 1 and have asked each county superintendent to direct employees to report at normal time on that date to resume the school year,” Paine said.

“We are taking this deal in good faith at this point,” said West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee, although he warned that teachers could be called to strike again if progress is not made.

However, the teachers groups said they want to see more done when it comes to issues with the PEIA.

Greg Merritt, president of theWood County American Federation of Teachers, said the deal is not perfect, but it is a start.

“Negotiation is never easy and this is not a perfect deal but may have been best at this time,” he said. “Pay raises are significant and the PEIA is not fixed — but at least there is a hope the PEIA will be fixed over the next few months and include employee voices, and that’s significant.”

Merritt said there is a directive for teachers to return to the classrooms Thursday.

Justice signed across-the-board teacher pay raises of $808 next year and $404 the following two years. But teachers said the increases were not enough, especially as health care costs rise. The state’s average teacher pay ranks among the lowest in the nation.

Justice said that under his new proposal, all state workers would receive a 3 percent raise, with teachers and school service personnel getting an additional 2 percent in the first year.

Chief of Staff Mike Hall said the latest pay raise proposal is based on revised revenue estimates of $58 million. The pay increases would have to be approved by the Legislature. Hall said the governor is committed to calling a special session if necessary.

Justice did not offer a specific revenue source but said that an overhaul of U.S. tax laws passed by Congress last year “is going to have a profound impact” on state finances. He also cited economic activity that would come from upcoming road repairs and construction. Voters in an October referendum authorized the state to sell $1.6 billion in new construction bonds.

Merritt said he is not ready to call the strike completely successful.

“Successful is a relative term, but it is considering where we were three weeks ago, we made strides,” he said. “Our focus will continue to be providing a future for the students and a renewed energy on supporting candidates who will in turn support us.”

Merritt said the AFT appreciated the support from the community over the past four days.

“We are overwhelmed with all the positive community support; it really has really been incredible,” he said. “Pickets were not by employees only but students and community gave us positive support. Our community is interested in seeing our schools succeed.”

While the deal is less than a day old, Merritt said there has been some pushback.

“We have had some pushback,” he said. “That is not uncommon and successful negotiation is tricky. We asked for 5 percent and that is what we got basically.”

Merritt said the raises will amount to about $2,020.

“There is little good about the PEIA part but we hope the task force gets started, gets it fixed and in place by October,” Merritt said.

Bruce Boston, president of the Wood County Education Association, said they are happy all the other sticking points are off the table.

“There were nonsense bills on pay check protection and attacks on seniority,” he said. “Bills with charter schools and education savings accounts are all gone as well.”

Boston said teachers are scheduled to return to school on Thursday.

“Gov. Justice called Wednesday a cooling-off day like the three we had in 1990,” Boston said. “We are getting some pushback on the PEIA part but we have more than we had a couple of hours ago; we hope to get information out tomorrow, answer questions and move on from there.”

Boston agreed the agreement is not exactly perfect.

“In a perfect world the PEIA would be fixed but we have a voice on the task force looking into fixing it,” he said. “Our representative was taken off the public finance board but we will have representation on the task force. There will be a representative from all the teachers and service associations, don’t know who will be there from the House and Senate and from the governor’s office.”

In addition, Justice said a task force will be formed to address health benefits for state workers, including teachers.

The Public Employees Insurance Agency, a state entity that administers health care programs for public workers, including teachers, had agreed to freeze health insurance premiums and rates for the next fiscal year for state workers.

The House of Delegates has passed separate legislation to transfer $29 million from the state’s rainy day fund to freeze those rates and to apply 20 percent of future general fund surpluses toward a separate fund aimed at stabilizing the employees’ insurance agency. Both bills are now pending in the state Senate.

Teachers have been worried the proposed solution is only temporary or worse, especially if the state surplus turns out to be minimal.

Justice said he was swayed during questioning at a town hall meeting Monday in Wheeling from Gideon Titus-Glover, a sixth-grade student at Triadelphia Middle School.

Justice said he was explaining to the student what an investment was when the student asked him a question.

“He looked right back and me and said, ‘wouldn’t it be an investment to invest in smart teachers that would make me smart, and then I could in turn turn around and do smart, good things for our state?” the governor recalled.

“Well, he’s right,” Justice told the news conference. “To be perfectly honest, in a lot of ways I was looking at this maybe not correctly.

“I’ve said many, many times we ought to look at education as an economic driver. But maybe I was looking at it as what was the prudent thing to do and not necessarily looking at education as an investment. So I went home and I thought a lot about it.”

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)