Lengthy Teachers' Walkout in Ohio Generates High Costs For Community

By Bess Keller

Maple Heights, Ohio

The banners hanging from the lampposts in the worn business district here show an American eagle on a ground of red stripes and proclaim: "Welcome to Maple Heights, United We Stand."

But right now, a mere fortnight since a nine-week teachers' strike in this Cleveland suburb sputtered messily to an end, it's hard to imagine a community where greater factiousness has been on display.

True, the substitute teachers who staffed the district's six schools for 62 days are gone, and the regular teachers are back in their classrooms, trying to play catch-up. Students and their relieved parents are savoring normal scholastic routines. And city leaders, no longer besieged by questions and complaints generated by the strike, can turn their attention...