COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Columbus City Schools reached a collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with the Columbus School Employees Association (CSEA).
The new agreement runs through July 31, 2023.
The agreement went to the Columbus Board of Education for consideration at their regular business meeting on Tuesday evening and was unanimously approved.
"I am pleased to recommend that the Board of Education approve this agreement with CSEA. I believe that it reflects our collaboration with our labor partners and shows the appreciation and respect this district has for our 3,000 CSEA employees,” Superintendent/CEO Dr. Talisa Dixon said. “These staff members are dedicated to our students and are essential to the mission and vision of our district. Their efforts are evident in our school buildings and on our school buses day in and day out.”
CCS said the agreement includes a base salary increase of 3% for all members for the 2021-2022 school year and a base salary increase of 2.25% for all members for the 2022-2023 school year. The 2021-2022 salary increase, which was part of a previous agreement, went into effect on August 7, 2021.
All CSEA members will receive a $2,000 “retention and recruitment” bonus spread across four stipend payments over the two-year life of the collective bargaining agreement.
According to CCS, other highlights of the agreement include:
More than 1,000 positions will also be moved from 7-hour to 8-hour workdays.
Columbus School Employees Association President Lois Carson said she's happy with the new contract.
"It was a battle, a long battle, probably one of the hardest negotiations I've ever been in on," Carson said.
She said she hopes to address other issues in the near future that affect a large portion of the union membership.
"They continue to hire upper-level management but we are so short-staffed throughout the district we don't have but one custodian in every building throughout the daytime that's not enough help to meet all the needs that covid by itself is requiring," she said. "We have secretaries assisting with the nursing duties, giving medicine, contact tracing."
Some board members hope that this contract will be the start of a new era for the district.
"We’ve got to challenge ourselves to treat our people better make sure our people count make sure that we develop policies that are inclusive of our internal that maximize our potential that give us on a building-to-building basis what we need," board member Michael Cole said.