Schools
Strongsville Schools Sued Over Releasing Substitutes' Names
Cleveland Teachers Union wants to know who worked here during strike
The president of the Cleveland Teachers Union is suing the Strongsville Board of Education to get the district to release the names, addresses and phone numbers of all the substitutes who worked here during the eight-week teachers strike.
David Quolke filed a complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court asking that the district be forced to turn over the public information.
The district is fighting the request.
Named as defendants are the Strongsville Board of Education, Superintendent John Krupinski, Board President David Frazee and Treasurer Deborah Herrmann.
Neither Krupinksi nor Quolke could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Strongsville hired more than 250 substitutes during the two-month teachers' strike in March and April.
According to court documents, on March 5, attorneys for the Cleveland Teachers Union sent an e-mail to Krupinski requesting the names, addresses, and home an cell phone numbers of everyone employed as teachers or substitute teachers in the district.
Attorneys Susannah Muskovitz and William Froehlich also requested employee identification numbers and all compensation information, including pay rates and benefits.
Herrmann responded by saying the names, addresses and phone numbers were not public and were exempt from disclosure because releasing the names "poses a threat of violence to such employees and their property."
State and federal law allow public entities to not release that information if the threat of harassment or violence exists, Herrmann said in her response.
She also said employee identification numbers (or Social Security numbers) are not public information.
She provided compensation information, but without the names of the teachers.
Quolke subsequently filed a complaint in court, seeking to force the district to turn over the information. In early May, he filed an amended complaint.
The documents do not say why the Cleveland union is seeking the information about the substitute teachers.
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