Birmingham Chief Ends Teacher Strike By Giving Up Contract

By Ann Bradley

The superintendent of the Birmingham, Ala., schools gave up his new contract last week to settle a two-day teacher strike that kept more than 30,000 students home from school.

The strike followed the school board's Nov. 9 decision to give Superintendent Johnny Brown a two-year contract extension and an increase in pay and benefits that would have boosted his compensation from $151,000 to $181,000 a year.

After mounting discontent with the vote prompted some 800 teachers to walk off the job Nov. 12, the 2,400-member Birmingham Education Association took a strike vote. About half the district's teachers, joined by bus drivers and lunchroom workers, were absent...