![]() “A lot of people in the suburbs are unaware of how bad the conditions are, and I think they’re finally getting to see that,” said Maggy Counts, a former art teacher at East High School.Ĭounts, whose young twin boys will attend the district’s schools, said a teacher strike “has been a long time coming.” Instead, teachers pointed out nonunion members who were free to talk. The union had instructed its members not to talk to reporters and to direct questions to their spokespeople. In front of East High School, one teacher was blaring classic rock protest songs from a speaker. Why teachers seem more willing to go on strike Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch/USA Today Network The Columbus City Schools teachers union voted to strike Sunday, August 21, 2022. Members and supporters delivered coolers of water and bags of snacks at several locations for those standing for hours on sidewalks on a sunny day with temperatures in the low 80s.Ĭolumbus teachers, including Jeni Hensley of Woodcrest Elementary, picket Monday morning Augoutside Yorktown Middle School, 5600 E. Members protested in shifts: morning groups starting at 7 a.m., and afternoon groups that would remain out until 4:30 p.m. The union – with a membership of nearly 4,500 made up of mostly teachers, but also librarians, counselors, nurses and other school employees – had appointed captains to organize each picket location. Passersby honked their horns in solidarity. Union members focused their protests on more than 20 schools where they would be visible from high-traffic streets or intersections. Sports and other extracurricular activities will be postponed. The district plans to distribute free lunches in grab-and-go containers. If a deal isn’t struck late Tuesday, Columbus City Schools plans to begin its year with a return to early pandemic practices, having students log on remotely for classes led by substitutes. The strike began Monday after 94% of the union’s membership voted Sunday night to reject the board’s latest offer. “98 DEGREES IS A BOY BAND NOT A CLASSROOM TEMPERATURE,” read the sign one teacher held outside East High School – a reference to a pop group that was briefly popular in the late 1990s.Ĭolumbus teachers picket outside Yorktown Middle School on August 22, 2022. In Columbus, teachers say they want guarantees of smaller class sizes, full-time art, music and physical education teachers in elementary schools and a cap on the number of class periods throughout the school day.īut at the core of the strike is their complaint that too many schools, or parts of schools, lack heating and air conditioning, leaving students sweltering in the summer, shivering in the winter and distracted from learning. The showdown is the latest in years of tensions across the nation between teachers who argue they are underpaid and underappreciated, particularly after navigating the coronavirus pandemic, and school systems that say they are strapped for cash. We will provide further updates as appropriate,” the district’s Twitter account said. ![]() The federal mediator has called both parties to resume bargaining on Wednesday, August 24. ![]() “The Columbus Board of Education remains focused on getting our students and teachers back in the classroom. The school district confirmed that the meeting will take place on Twitter. Wednesday, the afternoon of the first day of school, after a federal mediator overseeing negotiations called the union and Columbus City Schools to meet, the union said on its Facebook page. The two sides are set to return to the bargaining table at 1 p.m. Union members in Columbus hit the picket line for a second day Tuesday, as the stalemate between the Columbus Education Association and the Columbus City Schools Board of Education continued. The day before classes are scheduled to start, teachers in Ohio’s largest school system say they won’t end their strike without improvements to what they describe as dilapidated schools where a lack of heating and air conditioning has led to miserable classroom environments.
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