COLUMBUS, Ohio – After reports of chaos and confusion inside classrooms on the first day of a teachers’ strike, officials in the Reynoldsburg City Schools planned to bring more structure to the school day “until students are more comfortable with the situation and regain their composure.”
There were media reports of unprepared replacement teachers struggling to deal with by overcrowded classrooms on Friday, when about 360 union members in the district of some 7,000 students took to the picket lines.
“The heightened emotional state and corresponding behavior of some of our older students’ demands that we structure our school days differently to help everyone focus on academics,” said superintendent Tina Thomas-Manning in a letter to parents posted on the district’s website Sunday.
High school students were to be escorted in groups of 30 from their buses or the front doors of their schools to classrooms where they Thomas-Manning said they would remain. Restroom and exercise breaks would be scheduled and lunches would be served in classrooms.
Students in middle school, junior high and high school would receive laptop and online assignments.
Unruly students would be suspended and Reynoldsburg police promised to “actively” enforce truancy laws.
“Students who are causing distractions, especially near any schools, may be taken into custody by police,” Thomas-Manning said.
Police will take students whose parents cannot be contacted to Franklin County Children Services
Shuttles between the two high school campuses will be suspended for at least Monday and Tuesday. Students may take a bus home from whichever campus they are on.
Students’ work will count toward credit core classes in middle school, junior high and high schools.
Elementary schools would be at the top of the priority list for new substitute teachers until children can be returned to their regular classrooms, the letter stated.
Principals have provided lesson plans and grades on those assignments would be recorded.
Thomas-Manning says the district expects to introduce more activities for elementary school students through the week.