Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Education Association have reached a “comprehensive conceptual agreement” on raises and issues for the next two years, the teachers’ union said.
On April 24, the Columbus Education Association, which represents nearly 5,000 CCS teachers, librarians and other faculty, posted on Facebook that the union’s negotiators had reached agreement with Columbus City Schools for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years.
Details of the agreement were not immediately available. The CCS Board of Education and CEA membership both need to approve the deal before it takes effect.
CEA President John Coneglio said that the contract is “not perfect, but fair” and said it was good to have board President Antoinette Miranda at the bargaining table.
“They came to the table with issues they wanted fixed, and we came to the table with issues we wanted fixed, and we worked through those things in a collaborative manner,” Coneglio said.
CCS could not be immediately reached for comment.
In 2025, the district and CEA agreed to a three-year contract. However, the approved contract only included a 2.25% raise for the first year and raises in the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years would be subject to further negotiations between the union and the district.
In addition to the 2025 raises, CEA members also secured new caseload language for the number of special education students and English-language learners assigned to an instructor, and school safety improvements.
The contract negotiations come amid an ongoing budget crisis in the district. In late 2025, the district approved $50 million in cuts, including teaching positions, and is expected to have to make significant additional cuts to address budget challenges.
Coneglio said the budget challenges “factor into everything” during negotiations.
“We are in the backdrop of a hundred million dollars in cuts, so it’s important we’re on the same page and trying to work toward issues that are important to both of us, but also understanding we are in a tough situation,” Coneglio said.
District moves past 2022 CEA strike
The 2025 agreement meant the district will avoid a repeat of the three-day teacher’s strike in 2022, when hundreds of CCS teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors in the CEA lined up along with some students and parents on the scheduled first day of classes and waved picket signs at buildings across Columbus City Schools, calling for the Board of Education to come to the negotiating table.
Early in those negotiations, CEA was asking for an 8% increase at each step of the salary scale for the contract years. The agreement ultimately approved by the union in 2022 included 4% pay increases, guarantees for air conditioning in every school, and reduced classroom sizes.
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus schools, teachers union reach tentative deal for next 2 years
Reporting by Cole Behrens, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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