YOUNGSTOWN — On what was to be his first day of the school year Wednesday, Youngstown Rayen Early College senior Aiden Straine woke up and contributed to a labor strike in support of his teachers.

The soon-to-be graduate said he feels uneasy about the school year due to the possibility of losing close student-teacher relationships. Straine said he doesn’t have the option to move to a different district.

“If the strike continues, getting out of this district isn’t really feasible for me, or for many other students,” he said.

Straine, 18, stood as a young picket with his teachers, and brought them water and chips throughout their morning protests.

He said a lot of his fellow classmates who couldn’t participate due to their age chose to create their own way of protesting. They are not completing remote work the district assigned. It’s because the work is not being administered by their teachers, and instead left unmonitored, or instructed by “fill-in” substitutes, Straine said.

Teachers were on the picket lines Wednesday morning, when students in the Youngstown City School District (YCSD) were originally scheduled to begin the school year.

The Youngstown Education Association union voted to strike Monday. Classes have been pushed back to remote learning Friday.

Other YCSD students and parents say they are worried about the strike situation. A seeming lack of urgency is why parent Doug Fuller is upset.

“I’ve got four children, one was supposed to start kindergarten today and we knew what the situation was,” Fuller said. “But yesterday and today, I’ve gotten zero notifications on the progress of the strike. At 6 a.m., I had a 5-year-old and 6-year-old crying that they wanted to go to school. It’s hard to explain a teachers strike to kids.”

Fuller also said he and his co-parent had to miss work Wednesday because of the strike.

“I don’t know anything about remote learning; our kids weren’t in school yet during COVID,” Fuller said. “But I think the more parents opt-in to this remote learning situation, the longer the dispute will be. They gave us information about picking things up throughout the day, but we did not grab Chromebooks.”

Youngstown Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, chair of council’s education committee, has two daughters who attend Rayen Early College. She said the ordeal has been “a bit of a challenge,” and mentioned getting some additional information about the negotiations, after attending the board of education meeting Tuesday.

“I attended the meeting yesterday because I am a parent, chairwoman and resident, and I wanted to know, what exactly is the strike regarding?” Adamczak said.

“In my unbiased opinion, from only bits and pieces, it all centers around House Bill 70. The teachers are speaking more about senior rates.”

Senior rates, as explained by educators, deal with allowing those who have years of seniority in the district to refrain from being moved around throughout grade levels and schools to accommodate for specific subjects.

Another issue she said is important: whether the academic distress commission, in charge during the schools’ tenure under state control, still exists since the demise of House Bill 70. During the meeting, one board member said it does, but soon after, another member said the opposite, Adamczak said.

Further, the board of education has spoken about the teachers wanting more money. School district spokeswoman Stacy Quinones said the union’s wage request was more than 2.5 times what the district budgeted, but the union since filed an unfair labor practice suit against the board for speaking about the negotiations.