KIPP Columbus charter schools decline to recognize the union the staff is organizing
KIPP Columbus charter schools administration declined to voluntarily recognize KIPP Columbus Alliance for Charter Teachers and Staff (KIPP Columbus ACTS) — the union that teachers, social workers, paraprofessionals, intervention specialists and student life coordinators from KIPP’s primary, elementary, middle and high school on the Northeast Side are trying to organize, according to the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
KIPP Columbus hired the Vorys legal firm, which filed a legal challenge with the National Labor Relations Board on Nov. 16, one day after members of KIPP Columbus ACTS presented their signed union cards to KIPP Columbus Superintendent Ciji Pittman and the board of directors. Vorys declined to comment.
"We respect our colleagues' rights to join the OFT and equally respect the right to not join — both of these are protected through a fair election, which we support. Together with our valued teachers and staff our focus remains on our collective work in educating our students," a KIPP Columbus spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
More:Teachers, staff at KIPP Columbus charter schools trying to unionize
The Vorys legal filing reads, “KIPP Columbus is a political subdivision excluded from the definition of employer under the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act).”
If true, that would put KIPP Columbus under the jurisdiction of the State Employment Relations Board (SERB) instead of the NLRB.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but their employees are managed privately. Because of that, charter school employees must go through the private-sector NLRB election process if they are trying to form a union instead of the public-sector election process, said Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
The NLRB has asserted jurisdiction over Ohio charter schools in the past.
Teachers at Menlo Park Academy, a charter school in Cleveland, successfully unionized earlier this year, but the school challenged the NLRB’s jurisdiction when they formed their union, saying that the school “is a political subdivision exempt from the (NLRB’s) jurisdiction.”
The NLRB found that it did have jurisdiction over Menlo Park Academy.
"We expect that the law firm KIPP Columbus has hired is knowledgeable enough about this to know that nine charter schools have formed unions in Ohio under the NLRB’s jurisdiction and that the NLRB reaffirmed their jurisdiction over Ohio charter schools earlier this year when Menlo Park Academy in Cleveland made this exact same argument," Cropper said. "We feel that this legal challenge is a tactic to delay a union election."
Andrew Mensah, a math teacher at KIPP Columbus High School, said he is disappointed in the response from the school's administration but is not surprised.
“Instead of spending time and money to improve outcomes for our students and staff, they're spending it on senseless legal challenges," he said.
KIPP Columbus received at least $15 million in public funding for the 2021-22 school year, union organizers said.
“We are undeterred by this unnecessary delay,” said Becky Lancaster, a social worker at KIPP Columbus High School. "If teachers had a seat at the table, we would be advocating for spending these funds on our students, not on anti-union corporate lawyers.”
Seventy-eight percent of KIPP Columbus' roughly 130-person staff signed union cards.
KIPP Columbus was started in 2008 as KIPP Journey Academy with 50 students in the fifth grade. Today, it has about 2,000 students and has expanded to its present 150-acre campus at 2900 Inspire Drive on the city's Northeast Side.
The campus includes KIPP Columbus Elementary, KIPP Columbus Primary, KIPP Columbus Middle, KIPP Columbus High, the KIPP Columbus Battelle Environmental Center, the KIPP Columbus Early Learning Center and the KIPP Athletics & Wellness Complex. KIPP is a national network of college preparatory schools.
More:Westerville City Schools confirms measles case as disease spreads across Greater Columbus
More:Feed the Kids Columbus provides bags of food for students during extended school breaks
Other KIPP schools, Ohio charter schools are unionized
KIPP Columbus ACTS is organized through the Ohio Federation of Teachers and would be the 10th charter school to join OFT.
The other unionized charter schools are in the Cleveland area: Stepstone Academy in Cleveland, Menlo Park Academy in Cleveland, three schools in the Summit Academy chain (Parma, Painesville and Lorain) and four schools in the ACCEL charter chain.
KIPP teachers and staff at schools are unionized in New York City, Baltimore and St. Louis.
@megankhenry
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: KIPP Columbus charter schools decline to recognize staff's union
