10 things that will happen if Dayton schools teachers strike

Here are the answers to 10 important questions:

Will schools be open?

The Dayton district's 28 schools will be open Aug. 15 whether there is a strike or not, Superintendent Rhonda Corr has said repeatedly. Most of those schools have new starting times (READ MORE: What are the new starting times?).

Will students be able to get there?

School buses will be running, according to bus drivers field rep Jim Tackett. He said the drivers are covered by a separate contract and are still in active negotiations. While Tackett said the drivers fully support the teachers, it would be illegal for them to strike without providing the 10-day notice that the teachers did.

Who will not be in school if there’s a strike?

The 1,080 members of the Dayton Education Association — that’s all regular teachers and intervention specialists (but not teachers’ aides), as well as counselors, librarians and therapists, according to union President David Romick.

Who will be in their place?

DPS attorney Jyllian Bradshaw said there will be about 500 substitute teachers from the strike staffing company Huffmaster, plus another 125 from Parallel Employment Group, DPS’ existing contractor for subs. Corr has emphasized that those teachers all have at least a substitute’s license and have been background-checked. Building principals are not union members, and so will be at school.

That’s less than 1,080. What gives?

Corr has said some families likely won’t send their children to school if there’s a strike, lowering the number of teachers needed. In the 1993 DPS strike, student attendance was less than 40 percent. Bradshaw also said the district will focus on replacing primary classroom teachers, rather than specialists like Title 1 reading teachers who pull students out for small-group intervention.

Who are these subs?

Some are DPS’ existing substitutes, some are subs from local and distant Ohio districts, and others are retired teachers from here and around the state. In recent Ohio strikes, some of these teachers would drive into town early Monday morning, share a hotel room with a fellow teacher for the week, then drive home to Columbus or Toledo for the weekend.

Will the subs really be teaching?

Associate Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli says yes. She said the subs will receive packets with instruction on what lessons need to be taught. Union officials questioned how effective that will be, adding that teachers who don’t know DPS policies and procedures would be at a disadvantage, especially given all the administrative tasks that have to happen in the first days of school.

How much will all this cost?

Bradshaw said substitute teachers will be paid $200 per day — roughly twice what subs make in most local districts normally. She said that money covers their food and hotel rooms as needed, too. The district will have to pay for liability insurance and other costs on top of that, so the total would be more than $125,000 per day. But if there’s a strike, they won’t be paying their regular teachers’ wages and benefits. Bradshaw said DPS is still running the numbers to see how the cost of strike staffing would compare to regular staffing.

How will security be handled?

Dayton Public Schools would start with its own regular security staff — two directors and 28 school security officers, according to Bradshaw. But they will also be paying Huffmaster for additional security, to monitor the sometimes-tense situation of people walking past picket lines. “Both the interior and exterior of our buildings will be secured from Day 1,” Bradshaw said.

Will this affect sports and extracurriculars?

To some extent, yes. Teachers who would normally serve as coaches, yearbook advisers, band directors and the like will not fill those roles if there is a strike, Romick said. It likely would hit the academic clubs and activities the hardest, as many of the sports coaches are not teachers or members of the teachers union.