Arbitrator Offers His Services in Strongsville Teachers Strike

The Strongsville Education Association says a local arbitrator has offered his services free of charge to help settle the teachers' strike, which is now in its eighth week.

Marvin J. Feldman wrote a letter to both sides April 12, offering to waive his 1,250-a-day fee for two days to arbitrate a settlement in the strike.

“I am willing to become involved because our community is involved and because your negotiations, apparently, are going nowhere,” Feldman wrote to both parties, an SEA news release said.

The SEA, which represents the striking teachers, has accepted the offer.

“We are grateful for Mr. Feldman’s generous offer. We value his interest in our community, his 50 years of experience, and his impartiality. We are happy for people in the community who have taken initiative to try to bring an end to this strike,” Christine Canning, SEA spokeswoman, said in the release. 

The Board of Education has not yet responded, the SEA says.

The SEA first offered to go to binding interest arbitration April 2, promising teachers would return to their classrooms until the contract was decided.

The Board of Education rejected the offer, saying an outsider should not be deciding issues that will impact Strongsville taxpayers for years to come.

Since then, the board has made a new offer to teachers that includes half-step pay raises. The union has countered that with an offer that calls for full step and column increases.

On April 21, the SEA made a one-time offer during contract negotiations that retained the same pay demands, but offered to add a half-hour of instruction to each school day.