- The Youngstown teacher strike seems to be over after a tentative agreement was reached over the weekend. It hasn’t been voted on yet (5:00 pm today), and it’s only for one year (probably to get them over the hump until the ADC is permanently gone), but the buses should be rolling up there right now for the first time this year, ending weeks of remote learning for students. (WKBN-TV, 9/17/23)
- Meanwhile, in nearby Springfield Local Schools, contract negotiations continue between district leaders and the teachers union. No strike on the horizon yet, but…leaders had to cancel classes at the last minute on Friday at both the high school and junior high because 25 percent of the teaching staff in those buildings called in sick and there were not enough subs to cover. A union rep assures the ABJ that this was not a sickout—“When we met with the Ohio Education Association, they told us not to do these type of things.”—but I imagine that local families were scrambling just the same. (Akron Beacon Journal, 9/15/23)
- Editors at Vindy.com once again took a very interesting tack in their editorializing this weekend. On the heels of a strike resolution, they took the occasion to point out that Youngstown City Schools’ student enrollment has dropped 54 percent in the last four years. (Hmmm… wonder what else was going on in the district over that time? If only we had some idea.) And that in the other local district where enrollment has risen modestly, costs have gone up astronomically. Their solution? “Structural and systemic change” by way of consolidation between the shrinkers (those with fewer kids and too much square footage and staff) and the growers (those who need more space and staff). Awesome! (Vindy.com, 9/17/23)
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