A Historic Contract for Cleveland

When Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) President Shari Obrenski headed into negotiations in January 2024, she and her leadership team had big goals. Although they had a pretty good idea about what problems they sought to solve through negotiations, they needed strong evidence to back it up. “We wanted members to be able to say ‘Yes, I’m frustrated with this,’ and have a space to articulate their concerns.... And we wanted to make sure that we were on track” to address those challenges, she shared.¹

Shari learned about the educator well-being survey in the summer of 2022, when CTU members participated in well-being professional development with Educators Thriving through an AFT grant. The promise of this work led to encouraging conversations with district leaders about expanding efforts. Unfortunately, those conversations were halted due to an abrupt leadership transition at the district level. Labor-management relationships that had once been promising became tenuous. “We’ve had an extremely hard time getting this administration to make decisions with us, so ultimately, we made the decision to do it ourselves,” Shari said.

Leveraging Member Voice

Using the survey was a powerful way to gather member voices and elevate top priorities. The process created an opportunity for “our members to be actively involved in negotiations and give us their opinions so that we could better understand their experiences,” says Shari.

For that to happen, and for the district to view the data as representative, CTU strove for 80 percent participation. As Shari said, “If 80 percent of the people in your building said this, and it’s not just two or three people, you have to take that seriously.” CTU leaders and organizers galvanized members, ensuring they understood the purpose of the survey. They mailed fliers, crafted personalized emails, and encouraged site reps to get everyone to take the survey. The survey closed with 79 percent participation, representing well over 3,000 responses from all bargaining units and school sites. Some schools even reached 100 percent participation.

Educators Thriving also hosted focus groups with CTU members across sites and roles to better understand their experiences and priorities. Over 260 members volunteered to participate. Mary Moore, CTU 3rd vice president, K–8, and director of negotiations, shared that “the focus groups were really helpful to give members a chance to talk to somebody neutral” and to “help find solutions for us as a negotiations team.”²

The survey results confirmed much of what CTU leaders already knew and pointed the team in surprising directions. Although there were many schools with very low levels of trust and responsiveness, some sites reported positive perceptions of their administration that were well above nationwide averages. Those bright spots were a relief. On the other hand, Shari and Mary didn’t anticipate that trust across roles had eroded so much. “I didn’t think it was possible for it to be that bad, so really getting a grip on how much our members distrust the central office was good for us to know,” said Shari.

While the results showed there were certain issues where members had conflicting priorities and even polarized perspectives, the survey data and focus groups also led to some solutions. Safety and security were priorities for the negotiations team, for example, but they were stuck on what ideas to bring to the district. In the focus groups, a theme started to emerge around cellphones. Many of the issues members faced around conflict, engagement, or challenges with families and administration came back to lack of alignment about cellphone use. Tying safety and security to cellphones ended up being a win. And so far, the new districtwide policy has been beneficial. By mid-September 2023, there were at least 80 safety and security incidents, but by the same time in 2024—after the cellphone policy was in place—there were fewer than 10.

The Outcome

In May 2024, after months of negotiations bolstered by robust data, CTU brought back “one of the best contracts” in its negotiating history. “We were clear-eyed about what we needed and had the data to back that up. This level of transparency with membership, our team, with the district—we wouldn’t have been able to do it and to that degree without this resource,” said Shari.

As a union leader and career educator, Shari reflected, “I feel seen here; [the survey] gets at the core challenges people are feeling” and “helps us move from feeling depleted.” To others considering using the survey for negotiations, Mary shared: “Have a good understanding of the tool, how it works, and the data you’ll get from it—be clear-eyed about the problem you are trying to solve.” The district still isn’t in a highly collaborative place with the union, but in future years, CTU hopes new opportunities may allow for a more growth-oriented approach.

Statewide Efforts in Ohio

Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), got wind of Shari’s efforts in Cleveland and was inspired. Given her concerns about teacher morale and turnover, she wanted to offer this opportunity to locals across OFT and identify ways to support members statewide. OFT sponsored survey work for 15 locals in the spring of 2024 and recruited a range of urban, suburban, and rural districts. Thousands of members participated in the survey and over 100 joined focus groups throughout the summer.

Melissa shared, “We’re using the data at three different levels.” At the local level, “we are using the data to talk with administrators about teacher morale … and retention.”³ At a state implementation level, “we are connecting locals to share best practices and contract language that address teacher retention. For example, locals are sharing around professional development, planning time, and ways to increase teacher voice in decision making.” Finally, at a state policy level, she said, “we are using the data to identify policy areas we can address through legislation, including asking for money in the budget for educator wellness programs.”

Leaders from each of the local affiliates gathered at the annual Union Leadership Institute outside Columbus in June 2024 with Educators Thriving. They dove into data trends, experienced personal well-being sessions, identified priority areas, and strategized around complex challenges. While each local context is different, they affirmed that there is a clear need to address widespread feelings of burnout and workload overwhelm.

Endnotes

1. S. Obrenski, interview by H. Fox et al., September 11, 2024.

2. M. Moore, interview by H. Fox et al., September 11, 2024.

3. M. Cropper, email message to H. Fox et al., October 23, 2024.

[Photo courtesy of CTU]