NLRB says KIPP Columbus used unfair practices against union efforts

A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled last week that a local charter school on the city’s northeast side engaged in unfair labor practices while the school’s teachers were unionizing.

The violations occurred during the 2022-23 school year, when KIPP management threatened to freeze employees’ wages if they organized a union and when KIPP threatened to deny intervention specialists a stipend if they organized a union, according to the NLRB decision.

The judge ordered KIPP to post notices of these violations for all employees to see and to pay the treatment compensation to the response specialists, with interest.

KIPP teachers, who are unionized within the KIPP Columbus Alliance for Charter Teachers and Staff (a bargaining unit of the Ohio Federation of Teachers), are currently in contract negotiations with the school following unionization in 2023.

Andrew Mensah, a mathematics professor at KIPP Columbus, said the NLRB’s decision was encouraging because it confirmed what staff already knew and signified accountability at KIPP.

“That’s kind of what our organization is about, we want to have the opportunity to be at the table, to sit down and make decisions, and in essence, create a community that is safe for students, safe for staff; you know can thrive,” Mensah said.

More: KIPP Columbus engages in “anti-union persuasion campaign”

In a statement, KIPP Columbus said that during the unionizing effort, the school “provided team members with information about the potential implications of unionizing for our work and our shared goal of building happy, academically excellent schools where all students graduate ready to pursue any path. they choose.”

“We deeply appreciate our dedicated educators and are committed to negotiating in good faith,” the statement said. “In doing so, we remain focused on ensuring that each agreement is right for our students and improves their outcomes.” »

Mensah said the union and administration have been in contract negotiations for about a year and he worries the process isn’t moving fast enough.

“We want to believe that KIPP is negotiating in good faith,” Mensah said. “We just want it to be more efficient.”

Teachers formed union at charter school in 2023

Last year, KIPP teachers voted 67% to 33% in favor of unionizing within the KIPP Columbus Alliance for Charter Teachers and Staff, The Dispatch previously reported.

The union represents approximately 130 teachers, social workers, paraprofessionals, intervention specialists and student life coordinators at KIPP elementary, elementary, middle and high schools under the name KIPP Columbus Alliance for Charter Teachers and Staff (KIPP Columbus ACTS ).

KIPP Columbus began in 2008 as KIPP Journey Academy with 50 students in a former Columbus City Schools building in Linden and has since expanded to its current 150-acre campus at 2900 Inspire Drive on the city’s northeast side. That campus is home to more than 2,000 students from KIPP Columbus Elementary, KIPP Columbus Primary, KIPP Columbus Middle, KIPP Columbus High, KIPP Columbus Battelle Environmental Center, KIPP Columbus Early Learning Center and KIPP Athletics & Wellness Complex.

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