COLUMBUS, Ohio — After months of negotiations, members of the Columbus Education Association (CEA) met Sunday and voted to go on strike.
The union said the strike will be effective at 12:01 a.m. Monday
The vote comes after the union has met with the Columbus Board of Education 22 times over the last five months, which has not resulted in a new deal.
The CEA will met at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Columbus City Schools is scheduled to start the 2022-23 school year on Wednesday.
The district offered plans for the school year ahead of the possible strike, giving details for a remote learning plan with full-time substitutes providing instruction. Additional details on the school district's plans are available on their website.
The teachers' union and board last met on Thursday for roughly 12 hours.
Following the meeting last week, CEA spokesperson Regina Fuentes said there had been no movement from the board of reducing class sizes, providing full-time art, music and P.E. teachers at the elementary level, or guaranteeing our students will have functioning HVAC in every building.
“CEA is disappointed that the Board has again walked away from our students. CEA remains committed to negotiating the learning conditions Columbus students deserve,” Fuentes said.
The district outlined its latest offer to CEA in a release issued on Friday.
The terms of the board's offer can be read below:
A Guarantee of More Money for Teachers and All CEA Members
Guaranteed raises of 3% annually for three years.
A $2,000 per CEA member retention and recruitment bonus.
By the end of the contract, a teacher who in the most recent school year earned the district’s average salary of $74,000 will earn more than $91,000 – a 23% increase from the start of the contract.
Starting teachers will earn over $50,000 in the first year of the contract – with that paycheck quickly growing from the guaranteed annual raises.
A Commitment to Fixing Air Conditioning Issues
A letter included with the last, best and final offer specifies that the Board of Education has contracted and/or committed funds to install air conditioning in every school except for Mifflin Middle School, which has central air in about 50% of the building and is targeted to be replaced by a new middle school in the district’s proposed facilities master plan.
A Commitment to Smaller Classes in Grades K-5
Class sizes for kindergarten through 5th grade will begin to be reduced in 2022-23 with no classes of more than 28 students, and class sizes will continue to be cut until the maximum class size is 27.
A Creative Approach to Paid Leave for New Parents
The Board is offering paid family leave never before available. For the birth parent and in the case of adoptions and foster placements, the teacher may take 30 days of leave. And much of that paid leave can be taken without using sick leave.
More Help for Students From More Specialists
The last, best and final offer includes an agreement – technically called a memorandum of understanding – to hire 25 additional full-time nurses, behavioral specialists, school psychologists and speech language pathologists in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The agreement also specifies that all 25 new employees will be CEA members.
More Time for Teachers to Plan
An agreement in the last, best and final offer gives teachers a day dedicated to planning, with students not in schools, for each of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. Teachers may work remotely that day, and the planning days are timed to provide one four-day weekend in February of each school year.