Teachers' Union Blasts School Board for Not Accepting One-Time Offer

The Strongsville Education Association issued a one-time contract offer at a negotiating session Sunday that called for adding a half-hour of instruction to each student's school day.

The proposal also included minor financial concessions and a "no reprisal" clause to protect teachers, students and parents from discipline for their actions during and before the strike.

Click here to see the one-time offer.

"The parents of Strongsville need to read the SEA proposal and demand that the Board explain why they would reject a settlement that would immediately end the strike while also adding an extra half hour of learning to each day of a child’s life from kindergarten through 12th grade,” SEA spokeswoman Christine Canning said in a news release issued early Monday morning.

The SEA said the board rejected the offer Sunday without explanation.

But in a news release issued after the session, School Board President David Frazee said the teachers' union "continues to insist on unreasonable economic and contract language terms.”

He also said that with only 32 days left in the school year, the district is prepared to finish the semester with substitute teachers.

The SEA's one-time offer is largely the same as a counterproposal it issued last week.

It continues to seek re-instatement of step and column raises for teachers for the next two years. It also seeks a payment of $1,200 for teachers who aren't eligible for step increases this year and next year -- a reduction from the previous request of two $1,500 payments.

The School Board on April 14 moved for the first time from its "last best offer" and agreed to half-step increases for the next two years and a one-time payment of $1,200 to non-eligible teachers this year only.

The two sides now agree on insurance pickups of 15 percent for teachers, up to $200 a month for family coverage and $100 a month for individuals. The SEA had wanted a 10 percent pickup with $150 and $75 caps.

Canning said the insurance concessions would save the district $1 million, and said extending instruction a half-hour a day was worth $2 million.

The one-time offer also kept a class-size requirement, but removed a clause that paid teachers extra for overseeing larger classes.

The offer continued to require a 25-student maximum for K-3 classes and 27 students for grades 4-6, but no longer called for teachers with bigger classes to receive a quarterly stipend of $20 for each student in excess of the max.

The two sides have also agreed to transfer a 9.3 percent retirement pickup into wages, which would increase a teacher's base salary to $38,373.

The SEA contends that a $3.2 million windfall in unexpected tax revenue, coupled with an estimated $2 million the district has saved in salaries over the seven-week strike, gives the district enough money to support the union's requests.

The union's news release says the district wants "to hold the students of its city hostage to further their personal agenda at all costs."

Frazee, meanwhile, said it's the SEA that "won’t take meaningful steps to end their strike."

He said the union rejected "out of hand" the district's last offer, and that "the SEA leadership has yet to take the board’s offer to the membership for a vote.”

The district says about half of the $3.2 million is likely a one-time windfall and won't be received in future years.

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

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