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FALLS STRIKE ENDS
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STAYING FOCUSED: Newton Falls High School's senior co-captains Joe Zigler, left, and Matt Novotny, said despite the four-day teachers strike in the district, the team had been getting together every day just to toss the ball around and keep their spirits up.
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RESUME PLAY: Newton Falls kicker Eric Cooper, left, and quarterback Brian Sole run through drills at hte team's first official practice after a four-day strike suspended the team's workouts. The Tigers were back on the field Wednesday night, just minutes after learning the strike had been settled.
Many are pleased with deal but not all alldeal pact
BY JORDAN COHEN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEWTON FALLS — An agreement between teachers and the board of education to submit to binding arbitration ended the four-day-old teacher strike Wednesday evening with instructors scheduled to return to classes this morning.
The announcement pleased several hundred people attending a meeting on the strike at the nearby Newton Falls Community Center, but did not stop many from venting their anger against the board and Superintendent David Wilson.
The 82-member Newton Falls Classroom Teachers Association struck last Friday after teachers rejected the board’s “last best offer,” which contained a 2-percent wage increase. School stayed open by hiring temporary substitutes, but the number hired averaged only around 45, according to school officials who also disclosed that one teacher had returned to work during the strike.
Although no new negotiations had been scheduled, NCTA chief negotiator Scott Kernen and President Peggy Giuliano met with Wilson Wednesday afternoon and suggested binding arbitration as a means of ending the work stoppage.
“We did that with the approval of our membership,” Kernen said.
Wilson said he agreed with the proposal, as did the board, in a vote a few hours later. The superintendent said only three board members were available for the meeting and all
in favor.
Kernen and Wilson admitted neither side proposed arbitration before the strike.
According to a memorandum of understanding between the two sides, an arbitrator will be chosen from a list supplied by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Both sides will equally share the costs of arbitration.
“This has been a stressful time for all parts of this community and it’s time to get back to education,” Wilson said.
However, based upon the sentiments voiced during the community meeting that was going on simultaneously with the announcement of the agreement, there are indications the stress may not be over for the superintendent and board.
Meeting organizers said their intent was to demand the closing of schools until the end of the strike. That was made moot by Wednesday’s agreement, but provided no resolution for many in attendance.
Several spoke up against Wilson, and some circulated petitions calling for the superintendent’s ouster — a decision that can only be made by the board of education.
“The board just lets him [Wilson] do what he wants to do,” said Sandra Turner, one of the organizers and mother of three students.
Others in the turnout of several hundred are still angry over the decision to end busing for high school students this semester. Several speakers exhorted them to crowd the next board meeting, Sept. 22.
“We should show up and vote them out,” said Leigh Ann Hankins, mother of a ninth-grader.
The superintendent estimates that the strike cost teachers $27,000 in salaries. He expects to have the total costs to the district available this afternoon. The school system had been paying each substitute $200 per day.
During Wednesday’s events, one striking teacher was hit by a car driven by a substitute teacher and injured.
Wilson issued a statement saying he would be meeting with the security company that has been working in the area near the striking teachers to ensure no further injuries occurred.
A person close to the situation said the male teacher injured his head and arm in the incident.
Police department officials said Police Chief Robert Carlson was at the scene and no information on the incident was available.