MEDFORD, Ore. – Teachers in the Medford, Oregon school district may have walked off the job to protest for higher pay and benefits, but hundreds of teachers from across the state are stepping up for students.

School officials processed the credentials and drug tested about 200 substitute teachers who flocked to the district over the weekend after teachers with the Medford Education Association walked out on students in protest Feb. 6, the Mail Tribune reports.

“We had a lot of interest in helping us through this interesting circumstance we find ourselves in,” Superintendent Phil Long told the news site.

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Subs came in from the Portland Metro area, Josephine County, the coast, and central and eastern Oregon and were put up in local hotels and bussed to the high school for processing. The replacements were met by roughly 150 MEA members toting picket signs and shouting slogans.

There were also talks of some MEA teachers crossing the picket line and returning to work, the news site reports.

“A lot of things are possible,” Long said. “This is an individual decision for teachers. I realize we have a union involved here, but you are talking about people’s livelihood.”

Teachers on strike lose about 1 percent of their pay every two days they’re not at work, he said.

District officials reopened schools with the help of subs Tuesday by pairing schools together and holding classes on fewer campuses. The school schedule went to half-day, with one school using each facility in the morning, and another in the afternoon, according to the Tribune.

The new schedule and combined classes caused some chaos in the district, and attendance dropped to 52 percent on Wednesday, according to district officials.

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District and union officials are still trying to negotiate a new contract so the district’s first-ever teachers’ strike can end. The two sides met from 8:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday with the help of a state mediator, but did not reach an agreement.

District officials left the union with an offer to consider at the close of negotiations yesterday: a 1.9 percent raise the first year, a 1 percent raise and a one-time, 1 percent stipend in the second year, and a 3 percent raise in the third year of the proposed contract, according to the Tribune.

Oregon Education Association spokeswoman Rebecca Konefal told the news site “The (MEA) team is working on a counterproposal. They will meet again (Thursday) to present it.”