Akron Public Schools teacher strike would shut down City Series sports
The Akron Public Schools athletics department has received a few phone calls from parents asking how a strike by teachers would affect City Series sports.
The answer is sports and all other extracurricular activities would be shut down during a strike, APS Athletics Director Joe Vassalotti said Friday by phone.
“It might catch the public by surprise,” Vassalotti said.
A letter sent Wednesday from the union representing APS teachers to its members states “we are united and fully prepared to strike at 12:01 am on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023.” According to a news release issued Thursday morning by the union, the Akron Education Association, picketing would begin at 9 am Jan. 9 “After attempts at resolving outstanding issues through federal mediation failed.”
Although APS plans to conduct classes virtually during a strike, performing arts, robotics and any other type of extracurricular activity would be halted until unionized staff returns to work, Vassalotti said.
“Extracurricular activities that are currently active would be stopped during the strike,” Vassalotti said.
Practices and games would be prohibited during a strike, Vassalotti said, no matter if a team is coached by an APS teacher or not, based on a decision by Superintendent Christine Fowler Mack and the Akron school board.
“We have some teams that are coached exclusively by APS teachers, others may be exclusively by non-APS teachers and some teams have a mix,” Vassalotti said. “So I think the superintendent just decided to be fair, we’d just shut down all teams and not, in theory, let some teams practice and others not, depending on whether their coaches are in the union or not. There’s no loophole as far as that goes. It’ll be a uniform policy that would be the same for all teams – middle school and high school.”
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Players could theoretically gather at non-APS gymnasiums or facilities to work out together, but coaches would not be allowed to join them because of the policy, Vassalotti said.
If a strike interferes with games being played, would they be rescheduled?
“It depends how long a potential strike would last,” Vassalotti said. “We would make rescheduling our league games, our City Series games, a priority, so they could possibly bump non-league games if there are conflicts and dates remaining on the schedule. We’d have a time limit because of the OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletic Association) sectional tournaments that would begin in all the winter sports. So if the strike lasts longer than say a week, we could be looking at potential cancellation of games and the fact that all games might not be able to be made up.”
Sectional tournaments begin Feb. 6 for swimming and diving and girls basketball; February 12 for bowling; February 13 for boys basketball; and Feb. 20 for wrestling.
APS teacher strike could put major wrestling tournaments in question
At least two wrestling tournaments could be affected by a strike.
The Bill Dies Memorial Wrestling Tournament is scheduled for Jan. 13-14 at Firestone.
Of the 29 teams set to compete in the 2023 tournament, only two hail from the City Series — Buchtel and Firestone — said Mike Dies, whose family runs the event. If a strike were active during the tournament, Buchtel and Firestone would be forced to sit out.
Vassalotti is seeking a final answer about whether the tournament would proceed as scheduled with the other 27 teams.
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Dies certainly hopes it does. The tournament was canceled the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, the 2020 version had a modified schedule because of the threat of a blizzard and the 2018 event was canceled due to wintry weather.
“We have to get it rolling again,” Dies said Friday during a phone interview. “We lost teams because of the last couple of years of having to cancel. That’s why we’re down this year. It’s a staple in the wrestling community. We have to get this thing going. We can’t have another interruption.”
The tournament typically includes 35 to 40 teams, Dies said.
North High School is scheduled to host its first girls wrestling tournament Jan. 14, but it would not be permitted during a strike because the event would be run by North’s wrestling program, Vassalotti said.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at [email protected] On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.