YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Youngstown City Schools were supposed to start school on Wednesday, but the teachers went on strike.
The Youngstown Education Association voted on the strike Monday, and it began Wednesday morning. Jim Courim, an eighth-grade teacher and spokesperson for the YEA, said he wishes he were in the classroom.
“There’s a sadness and disappointment. You know this is the first day of school. We should be in this building getting ready to welcome our kids, but instead we’re out on the picket line because we just can’t get a deal done with this district and I don’t know why, but we’ve been trying since March and here we are, it’s August 23rd and we’re not in school,” he said.
Jeremy Batchelor, the superintendent of the Youngstown City School District, said that he isn’t happy with the strike.
“For us to not have scholars in person with our great teachers, it is frustrating,’ he said.
Batchelor said that the district is not in agreement with the strike. Courim explained that the goal of the strike is to get some language changed in the teachers’ contracts.
“What we’re hoping to accomplish is get the board back to the table so we can get a deal done. It’s important for us to get a deal done. Our students need to be in the classroom. That’s the only way we’re going to get them to learn,” he said.
The school district does not think that this contract language needs to change and Batchelor explained why.
“We do respect their right to do what they believe is necessary, but we do really have to stand on the fact that we are a district in academic distress, there’s some language that’s been in place for over a decade that gives the district some flexibility is some key areas that can help us improve and continue on the academic improvement that we’re on,” he said.
Until there is a resolution between the district and the YEA, students will be given Chromebooks to start remote learning on Friday.
