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Students: We need to talk about this
Staff Writer CROSBY -- It may be the school year they'll always remember but try hard to forget.
Many Crosby-Ironton High School students watched, with some leaning out of second-floor windows, as school district officials and teachers' union representatives conducted a joint news conference Wednesday outside their school to announce the eight-week-old teachers' strike was over.
While it's too early to tell just how many school activities will be salvaged from now until the remainder of the year, many students expressed relief the strike is over and a sense of normalcy can be returned to their own lives.
C-I senior Kristina Langie said she and other students found out the teachers and district officials reached a settlement after word began to trickle down to students from school employees following their fourth-hour class. Langie said she was "dancing around the hallways" when she learned the teachers would be back. She left class early to find her teachers at the 3 p.m. Wednesday news conference.
"I wanted to just come out here and hug teachers," said Langie with a grin. "I can't wait until tomorrow."
"It was way too long to be out of school," said Anna Baratto, who has been home-schooled since the strike began.
A few students said when school resumes Thursday morning they want an explanation from teachers on why they went on strike.
"I want to talk about it," said sophomore Katie Williams. "Before (the strike happened), it was all covered up. We need to talk about it. What really was their main concern? Was getting back to school their main concern?"
"It's going to be different at first, it's hard to trust the teachers again," said sophomore Haley Fogle. "It's kind of like breaking our trust. It's like they left us. What were we supposed to do?"
Doug Mayfield, a high school English teacher and chief union negotiator, said teachers likely won't be able to talk much about the strike and settlement with students Thursday, but added that many of the students, particularly the older students, have been involved on both sides of the strike and they will want to talk about it.
High school music students have been planning a trip to New York City April 20-25 with a fund-raising variety show planned for April 14. The trip is planned every two years but was in jeopardy of being canceled because of the strike. Parents and a replacement teacher were planning to accompany students on the trip, but it's unclear if this will change now that the teachers are back at school. Originally about 125 students were planning to go but recently the trip was being planned for about 95 students.
C-I choir director Wayne Ellingsen, who chaperones the NYC music department trips, said Wednesday he was going to soon speak to parents and students about the trip and whether he would accompany his students again this year.
Dean Turnbloom, a senior member of the choir's chamber singers, is undecided whether he will go on the choir's trip.
The son of a teacher, Turnbloom had already earned enough credits for graduation and didn't cross the picket lines.
He spent more time at his part-time technical equipment job at Immanuel Lutheran Church during the strike and said it will be difficult to mend fences with people who were too critical of teachers.
"There are a couple people that I don't know if I'm ever going to talk to again," he said.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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