Quiet Hamilton school board meeting a week after teachers protested contract talks

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

The first city school board meeting after one of the largest Hamilton teachers’ protests in recent years was a quiet and quick one.

Three members of the five-member Hamilton Board of Education were in attendance Thursday evening and no members of the public spoke to the board despite hundreds of teachers having rallied outside the district’s headquarters last week to lobby for a better labor contract.

The board met in public session for just more than 12 minutes.

When asked Thursday evening by the Journal-News after the meeting if the lack of attendance by members of the public — and no teacher speakers during the public comment portion of the meeting — might be indicative of less contentious contract negotiations, Hamilton Schools Superintendent Mike Holbrook responded via email with the same, previously released joint statement from the district and the teachers union after the June 22 protest.

“My comments are as follows,” wrote Holbrook. “Bargaining teams for the HCTA (Hamilton City Teachers Association) and the Board of Education met on June 22nd for most of the workday to discuss the terms of a successor labor contract.”

“Progress was made towards reaching an agreement; however, additional time will be needed. The parties plan to meet again prior to the start of the school year in a good faith attempt to reach an agreement,” messaged Holbrook.

A July 7th board meeting has been cancelled and a scheduled Aug. 11 meeting will go immediately into executive session as allowed for board topics under Ohio law with no public meeting scheduled to occur.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Aug. 25 though the school board has the flexibility to announce a meeting at any time under emergency meeting provisions allowed for Ohio’s local governing boards.

Classes for the 9,000-student city schools open on Aug. 15 for the upcoming school year.

Holbrook told the three attending board members — Steve Isgro, Margaret Baker and Shaquila Mathews — the schools will repeat the hybrid scheduling opening used at the beginning of last school year.

Half the students, he said, will start classes on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 and the other half will do so Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 to make for a smoother school year start, and it is “beneficial for teachers.”

The split starting days will see students divided alphabetically by the first letter of their last name in all K-12 grades.

All K-12 students will attend classes beginning Friday Aug. 19, Holbrook said.

In other board action, Holbrook told the board his administration is looking forward to the upcoming release of district grades by the Ohio Department of Education.

The district has previously touted some sweeping changes, including having two teachers in classrooms for earlier grades, as producing significant progress academically, as the district tries as others are in Ohio, to catch up from learning losses of two school years under the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have seen tremendous growth in a lot of different areas,” he said, citing the district’s use of federal COVID-19 relief funds made available to public schools to help students lagging in school.

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