Video: Scenes from Day three of the Columbus City Schools teacher strike
Scenes from Columbus City Schools teacher strike. Picket lines at Downtown Columbus and Whetstone High Schools, Stewart and Spanish Immersion
Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus City Schools teachers union and district are nearing an agreement on a contract ahead of the first day of school, the union said.
The Columbus Education Association, which represents nearly 5,000 teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors, announced Aug. 8 on Facebook that it had reached a conceptual agreement with the district on its contract. The announcement follows months of negotiations beginning in March over the union’s new contract.
John Coneglio, CEA president, said that “in the environment we’re in with public education, negotiations were fine.”
“There are some good wins for the community, and students and teachers moving forward,” Coneglio said.
It is unclear what is included in the conceptual agreement. Both the union membership and Columbus City School board would need to approve the contract for it to take effect. Union membership will vote on the contract Aug. 14, Coneglio said.
The first day of school for students is Aug. 25 for grades 1-12. Columbus City Schools did not immediately return requests for comment.
If the contract is approved by both parties, the district will avoid a repeat of the 2022 CCS three-day teacher’s strike, when hundreds of teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors in the CEA lined up along with some students and parents on the scheduled first day of classes and waved picket signs at buildings across Columbus City Schools, calling for the Board of Education to come to the negotiating table.
Early in those negotiations, CEA was asking for an 8% increase at each step of the salary scale for the contract years. The agreement ultimately approved by the union in 2022 included 4% pay increases, guarantees for air conditioning in every school and reduced classroom sizes.
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report