Good decision BOE! We (majority of the tax payers) support you! Stick with it. Best and final offer, means just that! SEA / OEA is out of touch!

meetings usually occurs when one or the other party expresses a change in position.
the board members have jobs the ex-teachers do not, nothing has changed
Norma Rae Linscott is still waiting for an answer on her 108 page proposal, which as of last sunday is still 108 pages long

Bravo BOE, we taxpayers stand strong and united with you. Please do not give an inch to the union thugs.

Support the BOE !!!!!

I stand with the board in its decision, the final offer is fair, the teachers need to accept it or move on, most of the teachers DO not live in Strongsville, Why do they care about the taxpayers of this city

You have the support of this Community! Good Job BOE! Please don't allow this Community to be pushed around any longer! Enough is enough.

Good for the BOE. That is one tough decision, but one RIGHT decision. Thank you BOE!

I know the mayor has good intentions. This thing does give the city a black eye.
However the mayor might want issue a plea to the SEA to back off the personal picketing and try staying on message. If he wants to do something positive, this would be it. I say this because I am truely to a point of no return with the teachers who are acting in this manner.

The teachers better consider their options here... which at this point.... are take it or leave it. Given the uncertainty a funding going forward the BOE has clearly dug their heals in and are following fiscsal responsibility hopefully to a "T. " As the saying goes get on board or get left behind. Or better yet ... a bird in hand( ie current contract offer) is better than one in the tree( desired contract that is not coming back) !!!

Can't wait fro Lynslobs union propanganda rebuttal...........
The board does not want to meet with us Blah Blah Blah......

Stay strong Board. I can't believe my prayers have been answered. This has been a long time coming to bring these teachers down to reality. Thanks much.

Hey teachers I heard that the cold weather is going to stick aroung through the end of the month and be a wetter than normal spring. Better get some rubber boots and unbrellas ready!

How does the humble pie taste teachers? One day, hopefully soon, when you lose your job here, you will look back and say dang I had it good at Strongsville.

The mayor needs to start worrying about the wishes of the community that he governs over, not the wishes of the non-residents of this city.... it has been pointed out that most of those on strike do not even live in this city...... and pay ZERO in property taxes,

Woow.. the Board not talking, teachers picketing at private homes and workplaces. People on these boards being hatefull to teachers, people on facebook being hatefull to BOE members. Strongsville is a mess. From the outside looking in, it seems like two kids are fighting and the rest of the school is egging them on.
Time for everyone in Strongsville to grow up, and leave the elementary school antics behind.

Allen, the Board not talking? The Board has been negotiating with the SEA for 9 months. They have made their FINAL and BEST OFFER. If it matters that much to you what happens here in Strongsville, I encourage you to read the actual contracts. The Board is being more than fair with our teachers. I am sure everyone here appreciates your concern for OUR City. Nevermind, probably not but thanks for your input!

these teachers need to wake up and understand that Jeff Lampert is no longer the Superintendent, he was the biggest friend that the teachers had !!!!!
the only thing that would have been worse than Jeff Lampert as Superintendent would have been Tracy Linscott

John Krupinski came from St. Albert the Great (not a public school) administrator

Jeff Lampert came from north royalton and was collecting full STRS since 2003 (public school) fellow LIFETIME union member

Great job BOE being the strong financial stewards of the taxpayer's money. Great example for the kids to live within your means. Last and final baby!

St. Albert the Great is NOT a public school? I always thought it was...with the big crucifix in front of it.

All of these comments sicken me. You don't realize the fabulous school system and teachers that we have been blessed with for all of these years. This fine school system was built on the merits of the teachers and their dedication. You are willing to throw all of this away NOT to mention our children's education. Shame on you! The last laugh will be on us when NO ONE will want to live here. Good luck with your home value.

John Krupinski was picked because the school board new they can control him. He is spineless.
Is Huffmasters paying their RITA taxes to the city of Strongsville? After day 14, they must begin to report their income.
Do you know that you are paying for the Huffmaster security team to stay at the Marriott Hotel in Middleburg Heights?

Way to go BOE - stay strong - do not drive our community into a financial hardship. I saw Tracy on news - now she is trying to turn the Police Union against the Teachers - accusing them of "targeting" strike supporters. She has just about everyone in the City against her... maybe next she can take a shot at Dunkin Donuts for not providing free stuff to the picket line!

Does anyone know?

By Law, when could the BOE begin to hire the subs to full time positions?

I have read here that once this happens, by law, the teachers that are on strike would be first people that the BOE would need to consider to backfill any openings.
Is this true?

My guess is if the BOE can begin to offer the subs full time positions, that they would wait until all 383 positions are filled with subs.

Why not wait it out for the summer months. aT this point, the teachers come back on a new contract and they'll be in "end of year" mode anyway. You think "Scabs" show movies... Let the subs finish out the year and spend the summer months staffing up and getting ready.

My kids and all their friends love their subs! My daughter in her classes have learned more from the subs that actually want to teach. I say keep the subs and post the other positions that are available.

Its getting close to college graduation. They could already be interviewing to fill these positions. There's a whole new crop of eager folks looking for a job.

Lyn, I agree that some of the teachers seemed to have crossed the line of acceptable behaviour. To me it makes more sense to replace those.

Kim L-
Don't you know that an outsider would sign on to the Strongsville Patch today because they are so passionate as an outsider? Isn't that what an onlooker would do? They never had an account before, but they create one to comment on something that doesn't effect them in any way. That's how SHADY and friends all show up each day.
LOL
Kim - any more numbers?

Allen, the teachers are teaching material. They don't have practical knowledge in the subject matter. I'd buy your argument if they worked for several years as an accountant, finance, scientest, mathmatician, etc. and then brought the real world to the classroom. I would trust a recent college graduate would infuse some enthusiasm to the classroom. I don't know if a new college graduate would miss over 20 days of school like her regular teacher did last year.

I always wondered. If a teacher worked in one community and lived in another community, do you think they would vote for a school levy if it came up in their home community?

Emmett the enrollment is down almost 600 kids since the last contract, and I am pretty sure BECAUSE of the teachers behavior enrollment in private schools next year will be up, so a large reduction in force will be needed

Emmett

11 minutes ago

They should accept the LBO. I think the biggest thing holding this up is the seniority piece and reduction in force language.

Allen, where are you from, Canada? England? Australia? (being cheeky woth those last who, as I highly doubt our friends across the pond or down under are really aware of this issue yet.) Your British spelling gives you away. True, you could live here now, but you yourself claim not to be involved, not to live here and not to have any knowledge of the topic. As such, why would you think your opinion was worth anything? Before offering an opinion, if interested in the topic, at least educate yourself on the facts first. If you did, I'm quite certain that you would find that the teachers union is making ridiculous demands and acting in a deplorable manner, the Board has made a very kind offer relative to other districts and has acted very professionally throughout, and the citizens are coming to the defense of their community and children because the teachers union has chosen to pick this fight and put this black eye on our beloved community, at the expense of our children. Just because they chose to make unreasonable demands, does not mean the community or the Board should cave or give into their inappropriate behaviors. In children we call that giving in to temper tantrums. In adults we call it extortion.

The student who produced this video should be very proud of the courage it took him to do so. I'm not condoning the vulgar language that he should have edited out of the music's lyrics, but then again, it matches what many of the teachers screamed at potential substitute teachers on one of the saddest Sundays in Strongsville's history. I highly suggest that patch followers identify the teachers on the video. I'll start with Allison Papish, who teaches AP Honors Government. The teacher who has replaced her could teach circles around her. I hope that my child never has her for class again!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_5K6tpnFbw

I thought it was great that the student id'd their faces. That went to my very suggestion yesterday actually. Now, yes, put some names with the faces. But, I still say we need pics and names of those picketing at homes/and placea of employment.

Allen, opinions don't matter unless backed up with facts. You chose to jump in here, so please back up your statement with specific examples of the Board members acting aggressively. When? How? What did they do or say exactly? We want details before you go making such inflammatory statements. We've all provided plenty of details regarding the teachers. So, we don't need any more examples of that. But please do provide us with your wealth of evidence regarding the agressive tactics by the Board.

Someone needs to finally run against the mayor, for sure.

Allen Dornhoff I will give you links to both the BOE and the SEA proposals so you can decide

here is the school boards 38 page offer

http://www.strongnet.org/cms/lib6/OH01000884/Centricity/Domain/1/BOE.LastBestOffer.2013-03-02.pdf

here is the teachers 108 page proposal

http://www.strongnet.org/cms/lib6/OH01000884/Centricity/Domain/1/Proposed%20SEA%20Agreement3-2-13.pdf

Perciak like to be in control. He will hold a grudge against these teachers for years to come.

Look - another YouTube video that Tracy made it into, she is famous after all- http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5kxc6kzH-uI%26sns%3Dfb&h=XAQH6QsXJAQEhMIPzD9CSkFSkA06mDZgv4FAC8EmvfYiM-Q&s=1

Teachers, since less and less of you are picketing, please let other teachers use your orange vests so they do not get hit by a car.

Hey if any teachers need to sell off one of your cars let me know. I might be willing to try and get a good deal from you on your BMW or Audi.

Allen, ahhh, got it. Thanks for clarifying. My apologies for misunderstanding. I saw your lowercase "board," but thought it was a typo. A couple of things to keep in mind. You are correct that sometimes it gets very aggressive on here, but this is the internet era. And, people are anonymous on here, and thus come on here and create fictitious characters to spread propaganda and promote agendas. The professional union people (far above our little town of Strongsville) are notorious for such antics. People on the community's side have been putting up with it for a long time now. You never know whether you're dealing with a "real" person who is debating the issue or some idiot from Columbus who has created their fiftieth screen name simply to conduct their internet warfare. Additionally, people are very angry at the over-the-top behavior of these self-proclaimed professionals, the teachers, and are reacting very defensively for their community and their kids. I don't think anybody would ever have predicted that this would ever happen in this quite little suburban town and people are rightfully very angry that the teachers have 1) acted like trailer trash and 2) aired the "community laundry" in public. Over half of them do not even live in our community.

I 100% agree with the teachers And no, I'm not a teacher just a parent who's daughter has been blessed with wonderful and talented teachers. We want them back. It is really sad how many nasty comments are being posted.here, and how many of you are attacking those who don't agree with you in a public forum. Again I'm not a teacher but I am proud that I teach my kids to be kind, and value other people even if we don't agree with their opinions.

If Ms Linscott were to strip down to her gotchies, Id bet some of her clothes were made in India, Vietnam, China, etc.. Are child slave laborers backed by a strong union?

Does anyone know about the Principal encouraging the HS students to walk out at 10:00 tomorrow & saying that he has had enough of this?

He was not encouraging the students to walk out. He was informed that the students were planning a walk out tomorrow and over annoucements told the students the walk-out had be postponed. He was not encouraging the kids to walk-out.

Take note

Let me tell you about the real March Madness, because what’s going on in Columbus is crazy.

It’s madness when Governor Kasich introduces a budget that, after slashing education to the bone, gives NO additional funding to 60% of Ohio’s public schools, and gives $35 million more to for-profit charter schools.

Chris Redfern
Chairman, ODP

There was a student at the high school uisng social media to organize a walk-out. I think that was Mr. Steffens way of letting them know he was aware of it.

Everybody ignore EA. Today's infantile propaganda strategy apparently. Yesterday it was a middle school principal supposedly helping the teacher cause, today it's the hs principal. The OEA baffoons out to start writing for the National Enquirer. Next the aliens from the planet Zorn will have taken over the Board too. Of course they are sad to learn that the silly little walk out ploy was foiled too and so this is he panicked Plan B effort for that chapter of the play book.

Just got a Patch alert that 8 inches of snow might be coming by the end of tomorrow. Bet the picketers are hoping for one of their coveted snow days!

Please read what "union teacher" actually wrote under the Patch Article about the Srongsville Softball Team.....unbelieveable...talk about threats.

Just fire the teachers and move on already.

Excellent BOE, stay strong.
Sorry Mr. Mayor, just like you were elected and entrusted to run this city and keeping the budget balanced, so too was the BOE elected to run the school system and keep the budget balanced. If you haven't heard Mr. Mayor the BOE has already presented a forecasted budget that was also certified by the State Auditor. The reason for no negotiations, is that the BOE has presented a final offer!!!1

The kid who has the video on you tube had me rolling, Well done kid, its called "strike out" if you need a laugh watch it.

Mr Mayor you job is to follow the will of the people who live here, most of the teachers live elsewhere, and thats where you should let them go ELSEWHERE

I heard a rumor that the teachers were not even given an opportunity to vote on the contract proposal from the BOE. Does anyone know if this is true, and also that the vote to strike was supposed to be secret, but instead was made publicly. Is that true? Sorry if these topics were addressed during another article, but there is only so much time I have to read all of the updates.

Okay, received recorded call from Mr. K advising parents that a walkout was planned tomorrow for 10:00 at the HS and Center. He wanted parents to be aware of the situation and speak to their children. He was also concerned because of the weather and as well as the students leaving school grounds unsupervised and their safety. Recreived the call about 7 I think.

Hold on to your wallets once Taxin' Tom gets involved. Remember how he and council solved the city's budget problems? They raised RITA taxes on every resident who was employed outside the city - and they did it without a ballot issue.
ARTHUR: If you will not show us the Grail, we shall take your castle
by force!
GUARD: You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your
bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called
Arthur-king, you and all your silly English kaniggets. Fthppppt!
GALAHAD: What a strange person.
ARTHUR: Now look here, my good man!
GUARD: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal
food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother
was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
GALAHAD: Is there someone else up there we could talk to?
GUARD: No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time-a!

Take a look at what is happening in Chicago schools. Unions do not consider economics even if it means their own demise. I respect the efforts of the teachers that my children have benefited from but I cannot support the Union's tactics. I will not support future levies purely out of principle (or until I see intelligent economic solutions). The Mayor needs to listen to what the taxpayers are demanding. My property taxes have doubled in my 17 years in Strongsville but my house value remains the same. Like you said Mayor - ENOUGH!

Of Course they will not meet with the mayor, The Govenor wont allow that. He is the driving force behind the BOE. This is all about union busting and the govenor is behind it. BEWARE ALL OHIO SCHOOL DISTRICTS YOU ARE NEXT!!!!!

It is a shame that the govenor of Ohio is using the children of Strongsville as pawns in his fight to destroy collective bargaining!!!! He should be ashamed and the people of Strongsville need to wake up and see the big picture!!!! GET EDUCATED BEFORE YOU RUN YOUR MOUTH!!!

Papa, The Governor of Ohio us not using the children of Strongsville for anything. The ex-teachers on the picket line are the ones using the children. The people of Strongsville have woken up and unfortunately for you- you are not dealing with a bunch on uneducated people. You are dealing with business people who live in the real world. Take that crap that you are spewing from your mouth to a different City. It does not work here. Your threats and bullying tactics will not work. Move on........ This BOE is doing exactly what the taxpayers of Strongsville are asking them to do. Now get over it!

Papa, We love it when you people show your true colors. You do all the work for us. You make it so easy. I thought you guys were suppose to be tough and difficult to deal with. Not so much. You have no idea who I am but let me enlighten you. I am a proud member of the Republican party! Have been my whole adult life. What is your point? Actually it is a compliment to me that I represent myself in a way that you can tell that. Thank you! As for your name calling-------sticks and stones pal......sticks and stones......Please go cry in your cereal somewhere else. You are a bore!

Mayor Perciak has known for 9 months the District & SEA were not going to come to a contract agreement; yet he chooses to wait until Strongsville is embarrassed in the national spotlight and parents & taxpayers demand that he get involved.
He pulls a grandstanding measure to invite both sides for a sit down on a Friday morning knowing full well that the board members have day jobs & they're also under a binding agreement w/the SEA to negotiate only with a federal mediator present.
Call him and tell him to take charge back of his city and admonish the SEA for their immature, bullying tactics and give them the best advice possible- get back to work!
Mayor Perciak can be reached at: 440.580.3150.
You can also email him, here's the link:
http://www.strongsville.org/content/mayors_office.asp

I've also been hearing rumors that there are striking teachers getting restless and are ready to accept the final offer & get back to work. If you are one of them, check out this Facebook page newly created to encourage you.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=115510841975477&id=114398238753404&comment_id=20398&ref=notif&notif_t=feed_comment#!/pages/Strongsville-Teachers-Cross-The-Line/114398238753404

School Board Declines Mayor's Offer to Meet; SEA Says It Will Be There ...........what else do they have to do

Tom most of these strikers are NOT residents and are NOT taxpayers WE are, why are you letting the few damage your political standing in this community, everytime you involve yourself in this I lose respect for you, the superintendent decides what is best for our children and he speaks for me

The world is laughing at you,the residents of this city are trash,All of these comments sicken me. You don't realize the fabulous school system and teachers that we have been blessed with for all of these years. This fine school system was built on the merits of the teachers and their dedication. You are willing to throw all of this away NOT to mention our children's education. Shame on you! The last laugh will be on us when NO ONE will want to live here. Good luck with your home value.

Blah blah blah "teacher and proud"...nobody's interested anymore...go find another job. You have ALREADY been replaced! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxc6kzH-uI