COLUMBUS, Ohio – Classes went on as scheduled in the Reynoldsburg City Schools Friday with the district’s teachers standing on picket lines.
Members of the Reynoldsburg Education Association voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to go on strike after a last-ditch bargaining session with the district failed to produce an agreement.
The district had already hired replacement teachers and hired additional security personnel, according to ABC6/FOX28.
During talks Thursday, the Board of Education rejected a union proposal that called for what district officials called “inflexible” caps on class size and included $1 million more in guaranteed raises than the most recent proposal from the district, according to a post on the district’s website The union says its latest proposal would have cost the district less than the board’s offer, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“The proposal is far beyond what the community can afford, and it appears that the union had no intention of settling the contract,” superintendent Tina Thomas-Manning wrote on the website.
The district’s most recent offer included step and cost-of-living raises and performance incentives, the Dispatch reported.
The school board offered to take the negotiations to binding arbitration, but the union turned that suggestion down, setting the stage for the walkout by its 360 members in the district of 6,425 students.