Nobody wins, everybody loses during teacher strikes

The first conversation I ever had with Kelly Glass lasted about 30 seconds and ended with him hanging up on me.

Glass is a very successful high school football coach at Massac County High School and also serves as athletic director. On that day in 1997 I contacted Glass to see if he would do an interview about an ongoing teacher’s strike — a strike that ended up decimating the high school football season and sharply divided the entire county.

After Glass unceremoniously left me listening to a dial tone I fired off a letter to him telling him that his conduct was lacking. A few days later I received a phone call from Glass. As I took the call I braced myself for his comments, but was surprised at what I heard.

“I’m probably not near the jerk you think I am,” he said. “I apologize … you caught me at a bad time.”

Glass went on to say that the strike had taken a toll on him and he had a short fuse with everybody. I accepted his apology while telling him that I was just trying to do my job. Since that day 15 years ago I have become friends with Glass and I hold him in high regard.

I spent a great deal of time last week writing and also reading about several school districts throughout the state that are facing a potential teacher’s strike. As the scheduled start of classes looms closer it’s obvious from the people that I talked with that tensions and frayed nerves are also increasing.

It was during a conversation last week with a union representative about the ramifications of a teacher’s strike that the conversation I had with Coach Glass on that September morning in 1997 came to mind. So, I decided to give Glass a call to get his perspective on what exactly happens when a lengthy strike shuts a school district down.

Glass agreed to talk about those tumultuous days.

“The first thing that will happen is that people pick sides — they either agree with the teacher’s union or the board,” said Glass. “So, immediately there was a division in the community. It can’t help but happen. On the day a strike starts the community will be divided. The day the first picket line is formed sides are chosen.”

Glass, who will soon begin his 18th season at Massac County, said his 1997 team was ranked third in a Class 3A Associated Press pre-season poll. Because of the strike his team began the season with three forfeit losses and then lost another regular season game and missed the playoffs.

“It put me in a position that on one side I had my job and my livelihood as a teacher and on the other side I had my senior players that had been with me and worked hard for three years to get to this point. I don’t care to say that I voted for the contract and not to strike, but I was in the vast minority,” said Glass. “After the strike started the football boosters got involved and everybody chose sides. I would love to have that team back just to see what we could have done. But, I would have still felt the same way if we would have had a bad football team.”

Glass said the high expectations for the football team that year drew the most attention but the entire school system was affected.

“We went so long with the strike that all the fall sports, band competition, academic team meets, everybody was affected,” said Glass. “Anytime you mess with a family’s kids or a family’s money you’ve got a controversial issue and a lot of problems. These kids weren’t in school and it got very personal. The negotiators met so many times and every time they got together there would be 200-plus people waiting to see if a settlement had been reached.”

Glass said as tensions escalated and both sides dug in the strike turned “ugly.”

“The negotiator for the union had a brick thrown through his window in the middle of the night with a threatening message attached telling him that he had better settle things,” said Glass. “It was ugly at the end and I can honestly say that I believe there were divisions made that will never, ever heal because of the strike. I guess we got the contract we wanted, but looking back I still wish we hadn’t done it. We ended up going to school half of the next summer.”

As he reeled off the names of his senior players from that 1997 season Glass talked about his biggest regret about the strike.

“I’ll never get another senior season with those kids and no matter how old those players get they will always remember their senior season and what might have been,” said Glass.” “There were things that were missed that we can’t ever get back. It was just a nightmare.”

Knowing how important it is to be fairly compensated for a day’s work and also knowing the dire financial situation in most school districts the thought behind today’s offering is not to pick sides. Instead, I just wanted to offer a simple reminder to negotiators on both sides that money is not the most important issue on the table.