School Board Wants Teachers to Vote on Last Best Offer

The Strongsville Board of Education, citing a "lack of significant progress" after six long negotiating sessions, is asking the Strongsville Education Association to present the district's "last best offer" to its membership for a vote.

"We believe that the last best offer presented on March 2 remains to be what is in the best interest of Strongsville City Schools, our community and our students," Board President David Frazee said in a news release issued late Monday night.

"Given the extraordinary number of hours spent at the bargaining table, yet lack of significant progress, at this time we respectfully ask the SEA bargaining team to present our last best offer to their membership for a vote to get our teachers back into the classroom," Frazee said.

    • UPDATE: Teachers Union Won't Bring Last Best Offer to a Vote

The negotiating teams were in talks at a federal mediator's office in Independence all day Monday, and had similarly long sessions last week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Since the SEA went on strike March 4, the teams have met to negotiate six times; on two other occasions, key players from each side met with the federal mediator to talk.

The news release said that after Monday's session, there was "no progress to report."

The district's last best offer, which can be seen on its website, includes no step or column increases for teachers and asks employees to pick up a larger share of their health insurance costs.

The day after it was presented to the SEA negotiating team, its 383 members voted to strike.

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For other stories on the teachers' strike, click here.

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