CHARLESTON — Rather than blame the House of Delegates over a failed $500 bonus for state workers, the head of the American Federation of Teachers in West Virginia says Gov. Joe Manchin needs to take stock of himself.

Specifically, Judy Hale said, the chief executive was remiss in not making a better sales pitch and working harder to achieve consensus before this week’s special session began.

Manchin suggested the House was irresponsible in inflating the $34.7 million package financed with surplus dollars into a $61 million outlay by embracing retirees and a number of school teachers, some working in Title 1 programs and others whose salaries come from county levies.

“I don’t think it’s fair for the governor to blame the House,” Hale said Thursday, a day after the session ended abruptly with the Senate rejecting the larger bonus package and adjourning.

“In my view, it’s the governor’s job to build that consensus prior to calling the session. We were disappointed that there wasn’t a consensus worked out ahead of time. If there had been some meetings prior to the session and worked out an agreement on it, it would have gone hopefully much better.”

In a statement, the West Virginia Education Association blamed the collapse on “politics,” without elaborating.

Dale Lee, the WVEA president, said his group was “terribly disappointed” and felt the measure was a simple one that deserved passage.

When the week opened, Hale met with Manchin and recommended a 1 percent pay raise in lieu of a one-time bonus for full-time employees.

“I’m not sure he responded to it,” she said, adding it appeared the governor believes an ongoing salary increase couldn’t be sustained in a shaky economy.

In defense of House finance leaders, Hale said the effort was made to achieve some parity by bringing more people in line for the one-time check, including the $266 bonus for retirees.

And without House action, she said, some higher education employees would have been left out, meaning a teacher in one classroom would have gotten the bonus while another one in the same building wouldn’t.

“It would have been very difficult to explain how that would be fair to the person not getting the bonus,” Hale said.

“We should celebrate the House leadership, not condemn it as the governor would have us do.”

Hale faulted Manchin over his attitude toward surplus dollars, saying the money is there when he wants it for some purpose but that he pleads poverty when he doesn’t want to spend it.

“If you agree with him, you are financially responsible, and if you disagree with him, you are irresponsible,” she said. “I’ll give him one thing — he is consistent.”

Hale said the teaching community finds itself in “desperate straits,” a condition likely to be exacerbated by the Manchin administration’s move to shut off post-employment health coverage for new state employees and a salary ranking around 45th in the nation.

Without pay increases, more teachers will retire, she said, and that will impair the ability of school boards to find qualified math and science instructors.

“Without being competitive with salary or benefits with surrounding states, I don’t know how long we’re going to put upper level math and science teachers in our classrooms,” she said.

“We already have a lot of vacancies.”

Lee said it became clear in Manchin’s discussions with the WVEA the governor only wanted to dip so far into the surplus to finance a bonus.

“However, I do believe that all employees should share in the bonus and that appeared to be the intent of the governor when he made the bonus announcement last month.”

Both Hale and Lee said they would pursue the bonus bill in the next session, such as one contemplated in September to deal with cities beset with failed police and fire pension funds.

“I believe a compromise can be worked out,” Lee said.

“We will attempt to get the bonus bill back on track and passed during the September interims. We will continue to work for increasing retiree pensions during the regular session.”