It's 7 am when Chris Ray pulls into Whetstone park. The sun is slowly illuminating the surrounding trees and fields. Birds are chirping. A nearby highway is bustling with early-morning commuters. Ray pulls his work bag out of his trunk and throws it over his shoulder. 

With a water bottle in his right hand and his lunch box in his left, Chris Ray is ready to tackle the uncertainty that lies ahead. 

Like many of his fellow educators, Chris Ray has never participated in a strike. This will be the first time he will put his career on hold. But for him, this is for a bigger purpose. Ray and his constituents are fighting for a better contract for teachers in the Columbus City Schools (CCS) district. 

The talks of a strike began in the spring of 2022. Teachers in the Columbus City School district felt they had fallen behind their competition in the greater Columbus and general Ohio community. Lack of a fair pay scale, large class sizes, and little to no heating and cooling, teachers felt like it was time to start demanding better from their board.

"If things don't start to change, then I'm gone..." Chris Ray said. 

He continues, "If we don't look at our competition and see where we need to do better, then other teachers aren't going to stay either." 

With all this in mind, Chris Ray begins his walk toward Whetstone High School. The scenery is breathtaking this particular morning. Perhaps it's the uncertainty and the unusualness of his traditional mornings. He takes in the yellow glow of the sunrise and the sounds of birds chirping. 

This morning, Chris Ray felt god. All concerns and worries faded away at this moment. He pulls out his phone, points it at the beautifully painted sky, and snaps a picture. 

He takes a look at the photo and sends it to his wife. He captions the photo with, "Today's going to be a good day."

For Buffy Fleece, a seven and eighth-grade Spanish teacher at Indianola Informal K-8, this is all unique for her. This is supposed to be her first year back as a full-time teacher. Who could understand what that’s like? 

“I knew it was the right thing to do; I had seen how the board had treated the elementary school teachers,  it just didn’t seem like the board respected the teachers.”

Fleece took notice of different outcomes to situations between teachers and the board. At times the district would make decisions or announcements without consulting teachers first. The district would receive backlash from the teachers, which then caused the board to turn and walk back their decisions. 

Teachers like Fleece often felt thrown under the bus when this would occur in a more public setting, like press releases. 

“There were often times when a parent would call saying “I just read this…” and we would be like “you did what?” because we had no idea… that seems like a lack of respect for your workforce,” Fleece said. 

Outside of teaching, she is very involved in her children's lives as well. After a long day of shaping young minds, she commutes over to her daughter's high school and assists the theatre department in their productions. 

“I’m theatre mom; I’m momma Buffy,” Fleece said. 

Fleece spends a few hours weekly dedicating herself to the program outside of teaching Spanish.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

At approximately 3 am, Columbus Education Association President John Coneglio made the call to pull teachers off the front lines and bring an end to the strike just after three days. 

Coneglio, a teacher on special assignment, took the union presidency back in 2018 and has been serving the position ever since is gearing up to share the newly agreed-upon contract for the teachers in the CCS district. He feels a sense of achievement with this new contract proposal. 

“As president, it’s my job to make sure teachers have a choice… for my entire teaching career, we never had a choice. We had to accept whatever contract came our way because we were not prepared to strike,” Coneglio said. 

Coneglio knows all too well the long history of the board’s lack of support for their workforce. At one point, he taught at Whetstone High School, where Chris Ray currently teaches, and he left with a sour taste in his mouth. 

“The place was a dump,” Coneglio said. 

Built in 1961, Whetstone High School has been around for decades. Doing patchwork has become more and more difficult over the years, and Coneglio claims the district does not like to invest in preventative maintenance. In his time at Whetstone between 2005-2006, he dealt with poor working conditions, an issue that has remained constant to this day and is now one of the biggest talking points in the strike. 

An old classroom beaming with sunlight because there were no curtains on the windows, mold accruing in bathrooms and places throughout the building, and poor [outdated] technology hindering student success. These were all things John Coneglio dealt with firsthand as a teacher at Whetstone High School. 

The Negotiating Table

The negotiations for the new contract began well before August 2022. In the negotiations, John Coneglio emphasized preparing his union to say no to the contract offers.

“The district looked at the situation and felt they had all the power over the teachers; they didn’t believe there would be a strike since there had not been one in over 50 years,” Coneglio said. 

No matter how much the board attempted the take it or leave strategy, Coneglio promised his peers that he would never walk away from the negotiating table. Frustration filled the room at times when the board's offers did not meet the expectations of the union. A team made up of 10 teachers, a labor relations consultant led by John Coneglio just wanted the board to negotiate with them in good faith, according to Congelio. After the board walked away once again in July of 2022, the CEA proceeded to issue a 10-day strike notice which motivated the board to return to the negotiating table. 

“They came back to the negotiating table and didn’t negotiate in good faith again, so we went on strike,” Coneglio said. 

The negotiations between the board and the CEA throughout the strike worked in supposals. A federal mediator moved between two rooms, each occupied by board members or John Coneglio and his team. Someone would suggest a term or language in the form of “suppose we do this…” and the mediator would bring it to the other side. To the benefit of the CEA, negotiations could regressively bargain.

After two and a half days of striking, John Coneglio decided to call an end to it all and come to a tentative agreement with the board of education on a new contract. The following Sunday evening, the CEA team and union members would gather in the local baseball stadium Huntington Park to discuss the new terms of the contract proposal.

Strike Out?

On Sunday, August 28th, 2022, in the seats of Huntington Park, over 2500+ teachers filled in seats eager to hear what their union leaders were able to accomplish. It was a hot day at the ballpark. A sheet was given out to teachers as they arrived, detailing some of the new terms they incorporated into the new contract. 

But…

Upon reading the sheet, teachers became unsettled by what they were reading. As detailed in Chris Ray's telling of the night, many of the union's proposed ideas seemed to fall short of the mark. Class sizes only dropped by two, and probably the biggest blow was the raise not matching what some felt they were promised. Instead of a 7% raise, the CEA could only get it up to 4%. According to Chris Ray, in the prior contract, it was 3%, so the 1% bump up felt disappointing. 

After a 30-minute delay to the start of the meeting, John Coneglio greeted the restless crowd to go over the new agreement. As he began to do so, the teachers in the stands were vocal about how they felt about the new agreement. Eventually, the CEA was being booed off centerfield. 

“It really sucked; imagine pouring your heart and soul into something for people to tell you it sucked,” Coneglio said. 

After getting through the presentation, teachers were welcome to come up and speak about how they felt regarding the tentative agreement. At this moment, teachers like Chris Ray felt frustrated, like the rug had been pulled out from under them. There was a growing sentiment that if teachers went back on strike, the public perception of the union would be negatively affected. A major concern is the perception that teachers only reject the contract because of the money.

“Isn’t that shame to think that teachers are only in this for the money and not the kids?” Ray said. 

After everyone spoke, they proceeded to vote on the contract. In a 71%-29% vote, the CEA and its members agreed to the terms of the new contract for the next three years. John Coneglio was prepared to go back out onto the front lines, but public perception and financial longevity for his members were a big concern to the overall organization. 

“Me personally, I could probably stay longer than the average teacher, but that’s because I’ve been able to save ever since I began teaching, but I have to also consider other people's situations,” Coneglio said. 

After Sunday night's meeting concluded, teachers and students returned to the classrooms the next day for their first day of school. 

A Cup of Coffee Later

Sitting with John Coneglio in a Starbucks days away from thanksgiving, he spoke with me a bit about his experience. Much of the information he shared with me has been detailed in this project. Amid our conversation, Buffy Fleece walked into the Starbucks with her daughter. I felt like a fly on the wall while they chatted about their kids. 

“Hi Buffy, how are you?” Coneglio said.

“I’m good; how’re you?” Fleece replied.

“He’s interviewing me about the strike,” He said.

“That was fun, nothing like coming back to teaching for the first time in 18 years and going on strike, but necessary.” She said.

We all nod in agreement.

“Your daughter is amazing, by the way,” Fleece says.

“Thank you,” Coneglio replies.

“Can we not have her graduate?” Fleece says.  

John chuckles as the banter continues about the theatre department at Whetstone high school. How talented the kids are. Buffy excuses herself and gets in line for coffee. 

After John and I wrapped up our conversation, I walked over to Buffy Fleece to say goodbye before I left. We talked about our interview and the strike. Fleece spoke highly of how Coneglio handled the strike.

She believed in his efforts, despite not fully agreeing with the outcome; she believed in John Coneglio when he said he believed that it was the best it was going to get. 

Looking Forward

For Chris Ray, the strike's outcome left a sour taste in his mouth. Sitting in the summer heat at Huntington Park, he felt the union could have bargained for more. When he left the ballpark that evening, he was left asking himself, “Do I trust my union?”

Buffy Fleece sharing similar sentiments, felt the final offer was the best it would get. She believed that John and the rest of the CEA would not bring a contract offer to them unless they felt it could not get any better. For Fleece, it was John Coneglio’s leadership.

“When he speaks I listen; I am fully locked into what he’s saying,” Fleece said. 

John Coneglio, as a human being has learned that you have to be able to take criticism on the chin. Despite the negative reactions, he feels was able to accomplish a lot for the new contract. He knew it was time to bring the agreement to the union members when he got 9 out of 10 key items put into the new contract.

John Coneglio has already begun thinking years ahead to future contract cycles. Coneglio is a forward thinker. He has planted seeds for the future. With aspirations to make the relationship between the board and the district more collaborative, Coneglio aims to make teaching seen more as a profession.

“The district doesn’t look at teaching kike it’s a profession; they look at it like it’s something to be managed,” Coneglio said. 

The CEA strike was a wake-up call to the board. Coneglio wants teachers to be able to do their craft to the best of their ability because, to him, that’s all teachers want. 

“Not many people understand the extent of what Buffy does, or Mr. Ray does,” He said.

At the end of the day, for John Coneglio, Chris Ray, Buffy Fleece, and the rest of the 2500+ teachers that went on strike, for them, it’s all about the kids. It’s about fighting for the schools those kids deserve.

Acknowledgments

A special thank you to Chris Ray, Buffy Fleece, and John Coneglio for your contribution, time, and assistance on this project.