Youngstown teacher strike updates
Youngstown Education Association members and Youngstown City School District members are slated to continue talks on Labor Day. Here are the latest updates.
Youngstown Education Association to hold labor rally
The Youngstown Education Association wishes to announce the Labor Rally in the Valley: Justice for Shane, in partnership with Mahoning-Trumbull AFL-CIO Labor Council. The rally will take place at 11:45 a.m. Thursday in front of the Youngstown city prosecutor’s office, 9 W. Front St. in Youngstown next to the Mahoning County Courthouse downtown. The rally will call on the prosecutor’s office to prosecute Youngstown City School’s Chief Academic Officer Aaron Bouie III for his actions when he ran his car into YEA member Shane Snyder at Volney Rogers Elementary School on August 23. As of this release, the prosecutor has pressed no charges against Boiue. It is also worth noting that as of this release, Youngstown City Schools has not placed Boiue on paid administrative leave, which is a customary step when an employee has committed a workplace infraction that could result in discipline.
YEA spokesperson Jim Courim says, “We’re proud to stand with other organized labor in the Valley in solidarity with an educator and union member who was attacked by management for exercising his legal and contractual right to strike. Our message to the prosecutor is clear. No more stalling. Do your job. There is no good reason that there has been no accountability yet in this situation. Our message to the community is that we hear you. It is time to get this done for our students.” Courim continued, “It’s been almost a week since the incident, but there’s no way to feel any better about this situation now. We’re talking about a high-ranking school administrator who made it his business to use his car as a weapon against an art teacher. It’s unconscionable. It’s a horrible look for the school district, and it’s pretty difficult to defend anyone who is in a position to hold this man accountable and doesn’t.”
- Youngstown Education Association
Talks continue on labor contract
WKBN is reporting that Youngstown Education Association members and Youngstown City School District members will meet 1 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday and Friday at East High School in an effort to end the school strike, which is in day 6.
Youngstown superintendent updates parents on strike
Youngstown superintendent Jeremy Batchelor released a video update talking about what the Youngstown City School District is doing during the Youngstown Education Association teacher strike.
You can watch the statement below.
SERB says Youngstown Education Association strike is legal
Youngstown Education Association won a decision Friday afternoon when the State Employment Relations Board said their strike Youngstown City School District was legal.
Youngstown Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor also told WKBN Friday that the school board has filed for a temporary restraining order in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against the union.
Statement from Youngstown Education Association about the decision
This afternoon, the State Employment Relations Board (SERB) ruled that the Youngstown Education Association has satisfied all contractual and legal requirements for a strike. The Board had filed a challenge with SERB, claiming that YEA had to comply with the Ohio statutory dispute resolution procedure known as fact-finding, despite the fact that YEA’s contract, like that of many public employee unions throughout the state, contains a provision for mediation in lieu of fact-finding.
Many public employee unions, including YEA, who have this mediation provision have gone on strike in the past without this type of challenge.
Jim Courim, YEA spokesperson, says of the ruling, “We’re certainly happy that SERB has ruled in favor of our contractual and legal rights. A strike is something that a union never undertakes without much deliberation and planning. A major part of that was of course making sure that we were in compliance with our contract and the law.”
In the meantime, SERB’s ruling does nothing to solve the issue that forced YEA to take the step of striking earlier this week. Courim says, “The Board has continued to insist that they alone, though they have little to no direct interaction with students, have the ability to determine our students’ learning conditions. We know that we need a real voice in this. We know that our negotiated agreement with the Board has to carry the full force and weight of any negotiated agreement, and the Board has no business attempting to cancel a negotiated contract.”
Read letter from Sherrod Brown asked for return to negotiations between district, teachers
Dear Superintendent Batchelor, Members of the Youngstown City School District Board of Education, and Mr. Eric Teutsch:
Wednesday should have marked the start of the school year and all the excitement that comes with that annual occasion. Instead, students are at home and the teachers – members of the Youngstown Education Association – are outside of our schools rather than inside them. We need to ensure that our children receive the in-class instruction necessary for them to learn.
They cannot do that until the adults return to the bargaining table and reach an equitable contract that recognizes the essential role teachers play in helping all our children reach their full potential. Sadly, this dispute is now disrupting critical in-person learning and other academic and non-academic supports that Youngstown City schools provides to our students, and on which parents rely. For the good of students and parents, I write to urge you to come back to the negotiating table in good faith and to reach a fair contract.
Teachers in Youngstown have worked hard and made sacrifices for the good of this community. In order for parents and students to get the high-quality education they deserve, we need teachers who are supported and working under a fair contract so they can be the leaders in educational growth that we need them to be.
I ask all of you to return to the bargaining table and do everything in your power to reach a contract as soon as possible that honors the dignity of work, students, families, and all educational professionals. It’s unacceptable that our students are missing critical in-person class time. Any delay in returning to negotiate unacceptably puts students at risk of losing even more time in the classroom.
I encourage you to do what’s best for Youngstown students: reach a fair agreement so that they may return to their classrooms and start learning from their permanent instructors.
I look forward to hearing your plan to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown
Youngstown Board of Education to hold special meeting Friday
The Youngstown Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting 5 p.m. Aug. 25, in the commons area of Choffin Career and Technical Center. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss negotiations.
Teacher hit by car during picket in Youngstown
A picketer demonstrating in the Youngstown schools strike was hit by a car in front of Volney Rogers School on Wednesday. It happened about 1:55 p.m. The picketer is an art teacher. He was getting an ovation when the ambulance pulled out. He was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center. Police say they have identified the driver as an administrator with the schools. Police did not say if charges would be filed in the incident.
Union’s response to the matter
The Youngstown Education Association (YEA) commenced a strike today after a spring and summer of attempting to negotiate a slim and simple contract and being met with Board of Education obfuscation and random legal maneuvering in place of productive negotiations. YEA members assembled peacefully today to picket district sites around the city. During afternoon picketing, witnesses reported that a school district administrator struck a YEA member with his car while entering Volney Rogers Elementary School. The YEA member was taken by ambulance to an area hospital to receive treatment. Multiple Youngstown City police officers were also summoned to the scene.
Of the incident, YEA spokesperson Jim Courim says, “First and foremost, our thoughts are with our injured member, and we all hope for the best. We all stand together, especially now. The district has a motto that everyone who works here knows. It is: Be Respectful. Be Responsible. Be Safe. It is disgusting, especially in light of that motto, to see this kind of conduct.”
In light of this incident, YEA will hold a vigil on public property outside the residence of Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor at 3 pm on Thursday, August 24. The message is that this kind of conduct is unacceptable under any circumstance. Courim also points out, “As we’ve been saying all along, we should have never been in the situation anyway. I would like the Board and administration to explain to the community how Youngstown’s students benefitted from a school administrator doing what he did today. What is the actual goal of this Board and administration? Ours is clear. We will fight for our right to defend our students’ learning conditions and to have a true voice at the table.”
Youngstown City School District moves opening date from Wednesday to Friday
As Youngstown Education Association teachers voted to strike on Monday night and plan to picket as early as Wednesday morning, Youngstown City School District Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor says the district is providing remote online instruction starting Friday. which is the new first day of school.
Batchelor shared a note on social media Tuesday asking elementary and middle school parents to pick up devices on Wednesday and high school students to pick up devices on Thursday.
Note from Youngstown School District
As the YEA union has gone on strike, the first day of the 2023-2024 school year has been postponed. Youngstown Schools will begin the school year with remote online learning. Remote online learning will begin on Friday, August 25, 2023. We fully understand that starting the school year online is not what any of us expected. To ensure safety, the District’s buildings will be closed to scholars and community members during the strike, with the exception of our “grab-and-go meal sites” and the accompanying technology distribution centers.
Meals for scholars will be available to pick up from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. daily at Chaney Middle School, East Middle School, Harding Elementary School, and Wilson Alternative School. One bag will be provided containing breakfast and lunch per YCSD student. Enrolled students and families who need loaned technology to learn from home or remotely can pick up a Chromebook at the student’s school on Wednesday, August 23, and Thursday, August 24, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and again from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The District has many capable full-time substitutes who have been supplied with the curriculum, which has already been prepared, so that students may smoothly enter into the online learning experience. In addition to our substitutes, the District’s own administrators and those teachers who choose not to strike may provide online instruction to their students.
Following the announcement of a strike by the YEA union, Youngstown Schools remains committed to working to achieve an agreement on a new contract. More information about the Districts’ plans to continue delivering online instruction, meals and similar supports, including resources to keep our scholars on track and our families supported in the event of a work stoppage, can be found online at https://www.ycsd.org/page/temporary-remote-learning. The District will continually update this page to keep families informed of the progress and delivery of instruction during the teacher strike.
School district files State Employment Relations Board complaint
Batchelor also said he filed a complaint with Ohio’s State Employment Relations Board claiming the strike was illegal since teachers rejected the use of a neutral third-party fact-finder,
“We do believe that, because we do believe that the Ohio Revised Code calls for fact-finding before a strike can actually be authorized and be lawful,” Batchelor told WKBN.
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This story was originally published August 21, 2023 at 6:00 AM.