Schools

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

Strongsville Education Association says negotiations are stalled again

 

The Strongsville Education Association will not ask its membership to vote on the School Board's last best contract offer.

SEA President Tracy Linscott, responding to a request from the School Board to put the offer to a vote among the union's 383 members, said there is no need.

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"We did vote on it on March 3, and 94 percent of our members said no," Linscott said, referring to the teachers union's vote to strike.

School Board President David Frazee, in a news release issued late Monday night, called on the SEA to have its members -- now in their sixth week of a strike -- vote on the district's contract offer.

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    • School Board Wants Teachers to Vote on Last Best Offer

"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. 

But Linscott said Frazee "needs to stop micro-managing when the SEA membership meets" and focus instead on leading the School Board, which has canceled its last three meetings.

She acknowledged that some teachers have crossed the picket lines and returned to their classrooms -- as of Monday, six teachers had crossed -- but said they don't speak for the majority.

"The 93 percent that are still out do not want the last best offer," Linscott said.

She added that if the district had accepted the SEA's proposal to go to binding arbitration, all teachers would be back at work this week.

The two sides met in marathon negotiating sessions on Monday and last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- 44 hours in all, Linscott said.

After Monday's, both sides acknowledged no progress had been made.

"They're not interested in moving off their last best offer," Linscott said. "If you don't move off your offer, there's no negotiating."

The School Board indicated it is holding firm on that proposal.

"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," Frazee said.

No new negotiating sessions have been scheduled at this time.

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

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