EUCLID, Ohio — Teachers in a northeast Ohio school district have issued a 10-day strike notice.
Teachers in Euclid City Schools announced their intention to strike if they cannot come to an agreement with the district. If no agreement is reached, teachers could leave the classroom as early as Feb. 2.
Teachers braved the cold Ohio winter back in early January, demanding a new contract with the conditions they want.
“We understand it’s bad for the children, but we cannot allow this contract to be pushed through, which would have a long-term detrimental impact on the success of the student,” said Josh Stephens, spokesperson for the Euclid Teachers Association.
Stephens has been teaching for 17 years, almost all of them with Euclid.
He says the main issue centers around the district’s desire for administrators to have the power to remove teachers from classrooms and reassign them at any point in the school year to any classroom of their choosing. Stephens said that would be detrimental to the student-teacher relationship.
“If the board seeks to move teachers around into different classrooms and to different buildings, according to whatever administrative whim they feel is important, that will destroy these relationships and that will bring the success of our students down,” said Stephens.
The district and Board of Education responded to Spectrum News’ request for comment.
“The board is seeking changes that promote student success. The union is fighting to keep contract language dating from the 1950s in place, even though changes in education over the past seven decades necessitate modernizing our contract to better ensure student success as they prepare to enter today’s world, not that of our grandparents,” the board said in a statement.
It also disputed the ETA’s claim about reassigning teachers.
“In fact, we are talking about the ability of a principal to assign a small portion of high school teachers within their building – fewer than 20 teachers out of teaching staff of 120 – to courses within the department they currently teach in a collaborative process taking into consideration teachers’ preferences, rather than the union’s unilateral control over all course assignments,” the joint statement said.
According to the district, other issues related to the possible strike include whether a teacher must contact families of struggling students at risk of failure on a routine basis, wage increases and insurance contributions.
And as the strike looms, Stephens says it’s not what anyone wants.
“I am a parent of a Euclid student, I am a resident of Euclid. I am willing to do what is necessary to ensure my child and the other children in this district get the education they deserve,” said Stephens.
