Did You Know...

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Southington High School Social Studies teacher Edward Malczyk abruptly resigned from the Town Council when the teachers' strike went into effect in 1979?

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The 1979 strike, the first and only one of its kind in town history, went into effect on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 4, 1979, the eve of the beginning of the school year. The district's 470 teachers were on the picket line the next day while their classrooms were run by substitutes and aides.

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Issues between the school board and the teachers' union had been brewing for some time. Disputes over prep time, contracts, salaries and insurance forced it to boil over and interrupt the opening of the school year.

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Among those on strike was Ed Malczyk, a Southington High teacher who also was in the midst of his second term on the town council. When teachers voted to strike, Malczyk submitted his resignation to Town Manager John Weichsel. In his letter he said he believed it was a conflict of interest for the council to have "one of its members actively demonstrating against another municipal agency." Though the strike ended the following week, Malczyk didn't return to the council until he ran again in 1987. He would serve eight terms before deciding not to seek re-election in 2003, shortly before retiring from the high school.