Editor’s Note: No deal was reached between CCS and CEA during a bargaining session on Tuesday, August 16. The two parties will meet again on Thursday, August 18.
Columbus City Schools students and parents are anxiously anticipating what the start of the school year will bring as the Columbus Board of Education and Columbus Education Association continue contentious, months-long negotiations and the threat of a teachers’ strike looms.
With just over a week remaining before CCS students are set to return their classrooms for the 2022-2023 academic year, Board of Education president Jennifer Adair released a statement on Monday announcing their interest in resuming negotiations with the CEA, the union representing more than 4,000 CCS teachers and education professionals.
“Today the Columbus Board of Education bargaining team requested that the federal mediator contact the Columbus Education Association (CEA) and ask them to participate in two negotiation sessions this week,” Adair said in the statement. “Our team is fully committed to listening to our teachers and to serving the district with integrity.
“It is our sincere hope that CEA will meet with us and bargain in good faith. It is time to set aside the rhetoric so that together we can create opportunities for unity and resolution. We will swiftly and thoroughly review any comprehensive proposal from CEA and will be responsive and engaged in respectful bargaining. This is what our students and our entire school community deserve.”
On Monday afternoon, CEA posted to its Facebook page that it had “learned from the media this morning about the Board’s request to return to bargaining. We can confirm that the mediator has reached out this afternoon, and we will meet Tuesday and Thursday.”
The Board’s move arrives four days after CEA filed a Notice of Intent to Strike and Picket with the State Employment Relations Board (SERB), opening the door for CCS teachers and staff to walk out on August 22 if both organizations failed to adopt a mutually agreeable contract.
“At issue is disagreement over learning conditions such as smaller class sizes, full-time Art, Music, and P.E. teachers at the elementary level, and functional heating and air-conditioning in classrooms,” CEA said in a statement regarding the Notice, dated August 11, “as well as adequate planning time, a cap on the number of class periods during the school day, outsourcing positions to private, for-profit corporations from outside the community, and recruiting and retaining the best educators for Columbus students.”
Another significant item on the table is CCS teacher salary increases. According to the Board, CEA’s initial compensation proposal in March requested a successive salary increase of 8% over the next three academic years. In May, the Board counteroffered a 2.25% annual increase through the 2024-2025 term, and then countered its own offer with an increase to 2.5%. Its final offer in July reflected another bump to 3% annually.
Bargaining toward a successor agreement between the organizations has been a turbulent process – especially over the past month. Concluding 19 bargaining sessions over a five-month period that began on March 28, the Board presented CEA with its final contract offer on July 28. Later that day, CEA president John Coneglio appeared in a Facebook video message in which he stated, “in the only joint session of the day, lasting exactly one minute, the Board’s team declared they were done with bargaining, handed us what they termed a ‘final offer,’ and immediately walked out of the building. With nearly a full month before the expiration of our contract, the Board is trying to dictate to us rather than negotiate with us. We will not accept take-it-or-leave-it bargaining.”
In response, the Board filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge with SERB on August 3, citing CEA had misrepresented the negotiations and the terms that were discussed during them.
“During the course of bargaining, CEA has engaged in a practice of bad faith bargaining through its failure to bargain about mandatory subjects of bargaining and its publishing of misinformation,” the filed charge read.
Board president Adair later clarified in a statement that its stance on three specific items – class sizes, HVAC building upgrades, and teacher compensation – were falsified by CEA.
“It is disappointing that he CEA is not fully transparent with its own members and the public, and the Board strongly felt we needed to address the misinformation and that is why we filed a charge with the State Employment Relations Board,” Adair said.
While the disputes have polarized the communities served by CCS, city officials have implored the Board and CEA to continue to negotiate.
“Columbus City School students are our future leaders and deserve a quality education,” said a statement issued by Columbus City Council last Friday. “Kids need to be in class, in-person, safe and learning. Unfortunately, talks between Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Education Association have stalled, jeopardizing our kids’ education.
“As a body, City Council has consistently supported our friends in the labor movement and their right to collectively bargain for a better workplace. The collective bargaining process creates the opportunity for workers and employers to find solutions that work for everyone.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther posted on his Twitter account on August 12 with a similarly urgent message to the parties:
“No one wins from a strike, but the real losers are the children who have already suffered so much through the pandemic. Collective bargaining works. I encourage [Columbus City Schools] and [Columbus Education Association] to negotiate until they reach a resolution that prevents further harm to students.”
In preparation for the possibility of a CEA strike, Columbus City Schools has established a dedicated webpage outlining alternative opening plans for the 2022-2023 school year. The district is prepared to start classes “through synchronous and asynchronous remote learning.” All academic buildings would be closed during the strike.
Also central to CCS’ contingent plans are the installation of “many capable full-time substitutes who will be supplied with the curriculum, which has already been prepared, so that students may smoothly enter into the remote learning experience.” Recruiting and retaining its substitute teaching pool is also one of the items on the Board’s regular meeting agenda for Tuesday night. A recommendation will be on a table to offer substitutes a $100 incentive across each of six weeks of instruction through the end of September.
For more information, visit ceaohio.org and ccsoh.us.