Is There any Incentive for Our District Lawyer to Encourage Settling with SEA?

The following table lists the amounts billed to the Strongsville City School District by its law firm Pepple and Waggoner for negotiations only since the start of 2009.

Month	Negotiations Lawyer Fees	Negotiations Sessions with SEA
Jan-09	$12,898.50	0
Feb-09	$11,717.50	0
Mar-09	$17,770.00	0
Apr-09	$23,671.50	0
May-09	$21,708.00	0
Jun-09	$39,307.00	7
Jul-09	$9,971.50	2
Aug-09	$13,617.50	0
Sep-09	$7,198.00	0
Oct-09	$17,341.00	0
Nov-09	$12,789.00	0
Dec-09	$5,512.50	0
Jan-10	$5,900.00	0
Feb-10	$15,425.00	0
Mar-10	$16,625.00	0
Apr-10	$19,165.50	0
May-10	$19,700.00	7
Jun-10	$13,789.00	1
Jul-10	$14,382.00	0
Total	$298,488.50	17

Of the almost $300,000 between January 2009 and July 2010, note that $215,721 are from months when there were a total of ZERO negotiations sessions between the Board’s team and the SEA.  At a time when the Board makes cut after cut that negatively impact your children, the Board’s fiscal prudence seems to end when it comes to the fees paid to its lawyers.  This begs the questions: is there any incentive to the attorney to encourage a settlement when the Board continues to freely throw money his way?

Is Our Superintendent REALLY Trying To Control Health Care Costs?

During negotiations last March, the Strongsville Education Association (SEA) asked Superintendent Jeff  Lampert to look into the possibility of joining the Suburban Health Consortium.  This organization is a health insurance group that most of the schools on the west side of Cleveland belong to. 

Based on the latest figures, joining this consortium could save the district $6,000 per teacher - and could save the district even more if administrators and non-certified staff also enrolled.  Lampert said he would “look into it.”

In August (or 5 months later), SEA asked Lampert if he had any information about joining the consortium.  He said he had not gotten around to it. He said he was worried about the application fee, which comes to about $6.25 per teacher. This sounds ludicrous when in light of the fact that this fee is less than the $3,000 bonus given to the Kinsner principal because of “large enrollment” at his school.

We can pay a bonus to someone for doing his regular job, but we can’t put a lesser amount into potentially saving millions?


If you are looking for answers, please contact the Superintendent's office at 572-7000 or get involved in your school district decision making process by attending the next Board Meeting, Thursday, Oct. 21st, at 7pm, at the Strongsville High School Media Center.

Facts about Strongsville Teachers

FACTS ABOUT STRONGSVILLE’S TEACHERS

Your Strongsville Board of Education continues to choose to negotiate 1-year contracts with its unions and incur all the accompanying lawyer fees that go with it. These fees are expensive, drain the district’s limited funds, and are not going to your children. But, since they are negotiating this way, let’s review some of the events that have occurred over the last year:

A year ago, Strongsville teachers agreed to a base pay freeze and major health care concessions. One year later, we want to continue to honor those concessions.

Compared with one year ago, the district’s expenditures for teachers’ retirement, insurance, and other benefits are down $2,538,500, a decrease of over 16.5%

Compared with one year ago, the district’s expenditures for teachers’ salary and wages are down $2,380,700, a decrease of over 8%. (Much of this is due to attrition with the remaining teachers picking up the extra students and increased work load) 

According to the Treasurer’s Permanent Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011, the sum of all Strongsville City School District employees’ salaries, wages, and benefits for the FY 2011 will be 82.3% of the district’s total expenditures. According to the most recent Cupp report, the average for “similar districts” in 2009-10 was 86.1% (Why is the District reporting different numbers to the community?) 

Strongsville’s teachers are proud of our students for earning the Strongsville City School District its 9th consecutive Excellent Rating on the State Report Card, and proud of our contribution in helping students achieve this honor for the district. 

Strongsville teachers care about our students’ growth and achievement. A survey of over 200 Strongsville teachers found that the average teacher spends about 400 unpaid hours each year outside of the school day on activities that benefit your child’s growth and achievement. These activities include writing recommendations, tutoring, running over 100 clubs and activities, and showing support by attending extracurricular activities. 

Strongsville’s dedicated teachers have received numerous local, state, and national awards for their classroom activities, preparedness, and professional activities. 

Strongsville teachers have taken it upon themselves to augment classroom materials by successfully writing grant proposals for classroom materials and technology. One teacher alone has obtained over $22,000 in grants for the direct benefit of her students and your children. 

Our survey of Strongsville teachers found that the average teacher spends about $450 per year on materials to use in their classrooms. With over 400 teachers in the district, this amounts to over $150,000 donated to your children by Strongsville teachers out-of-pocket each year.

It is no secret that negotiations between Strongsville’s teachers and its Board will soon resume. Some rumors you hear may not be true and we want to provide you with some facts. We are passionate and love our jobs of teaching your children. We know that the district is having financial difficulties. We have helped and are helping to be part of the solution.

If you have questions about the District’s financial situation or how your money is being spent, please call the Strongsville City School District Offices 572-7000 or ask questions at the Board Meeting on Thursday, Oct. 21st, at 7pm in the Strongsville High School Media Center.

Things that make you go hmmm ...

     Did you know that the non-certified workers (clerks, custodians, bus drivers, aides, and monitors) in Strongsville City Schools pay NOTHING for their health care plan?  Is this part of the huge savings the Board brags about getting from their latest negotiations with that union, OAPSE? (Why publically bash the teachers, who have made substantial concessions, for working to help the district make it through these tough financial times?)

     Did you know Board member Ruth Brickley’s husband is a member of OAPSE?

Is the Strongsville Board Spending YOUR Money Wisely?

One fact about our Board’s spending:

We have a retire/rehire superintendent.  The original premise of retire/rehire was that a superintendent was hired at a lower cost because the superintendent already receives a full pension.

Board member Scott Maloney said,

“My understanding is that Jim Gray was originally hired into the Strongsville school district on a one-year contract to serve in an interim capacity for the 2003-04 school year following the abrupt resignation of the prior Superintendent in May of 2003. I agree with this action because an appropriate Superintendent search for a school year beginning in August should start no later than the preceding January. However, once the interim Superintendent was hired, the board failed to follow through on its promise to the community to conduct a Superintendent search for the 2004-05 school year. The board instead gave Mr. Gray two additional three-year contracts. His current contract does not expire until the end of the 2008-09 school year. Rather than grant contract extensions to a formerly retired Superintendent, the board should have conducted the search and hired a new leader for the 2004-05 school year, someone who would make a 7-10 year commitment. I also feel strongly that the Superintendent should live in Strongsville, as the position is too important and has too many ties to the community. Mr. Gray does not live in Strongsville.”  

http://mystrongnet.org/maloney.html


Instead, Maloney was a member of the Board who hired Jeff Lampert, a retire/rehire superintendent who does not live in Strongsville, at a salary over $35,000 more for his first year in the district than Mr. Gray earned in his final year a few months earlier.

You decide - Has the Board been truthful about its spending and policies?

(Better yet, call the Board Office or go to the Board meeting and ask the Board to explain itself.)

SEA's Decision for Declining Federal "Race To The Top" (RTTT) Funding

Much has been made of the fact that the Strongsville Education Association (SEA) did not agree to provide a necessary signature on the Strongsville City School District’s Race To The Top (RTTT) Application.  

While the SEA indeed verifies that we did not provide the necessary signature, we take issue with other claims that have been presented, as well as the Board and their Superintendent’s interpretation thereof.

The Superintendent has consistently provided a $300,000 figure as an estimate of the total amount of grant money for which Strongsville could have been eligible over a four-year period.  Our sources indicate that we would have received  $160,000.  While the Superintendent’s repeated misrepresentation of situation is questionable, it is not at the heart of the issue.

The most important issue is the prudence of the decision not to participate in RTTT.  The Superintendent’s criticisms have implied that the RTTT dollars could be used for badly needed supplies and technology.  Yet, every document from the federal government has clearly stated that is not the case.

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of districts in the area, in a collaborative decision between teachers and administration, chose not to participate in RTTT. Moreover, some of the few that did submit an application have since rescinded that application.

Most notably, the Brunswick City School District has decided to forego the $300,000 it was in line to receive. http://blog.cleveland.com/brunswicksuntimes/2010/09/brunswick_schools_pass_on_race.html  In the end, the administration decided that the implementation of the Federal Government’s mandates would be more costly than the amount of their grant.  “The allocation of RTTT funds would not cover all of the expenses we would incur over the next four years to fully and effectively implement the plan,” said Michael Mayell, superintendent of Brunswick City Schools.

In the end, the acceptance of RTTT dollars carried with it the potential for two evils: (1) having a local school district’s autonomy compromised by demands in return for dollars from the Federal Government, and (2) having to pay out of the local taxpayers’ pocket to meet these insufficiently funded mandates.

When judging the Strongsville City School District’s lack of participation in RTTT, citizens must ask themselves the following question:  Do we want to pay out of our own pockets to have the City of Strongsville’s schools beholden to the Federal Government’s mandates? 

Strongsville Community Rallies Support for its Teachers

The following is a copy of the speech given by SEA Communications Director
 Mr. Fred Dillon to the Strongsville Community Rally in support of its teachers.

To start the school year, the Strongsville Board of Education’s Treasurer gave a presentation on the state of the district.  He started with a video of a toilet flushing.  Unable to conceal a smirk, he asked, “Any questions?”


You bet we have questions.

“Why is the state of the Strongsville schools a joke to the Treasurer?”

“Why is your child in a class of 34 students?”

“Why does your child’s classroom have holes in the ceilings?”

“Why doesn’t your child have access to the latest educational technology or,

      for that matter, virtually any educational technology?”

“Why have 55 teaching positions been eliminated over the past two years? 

     How is this helping your child succeed?” 

“Why was your child’s teacher given a lay-off notice to start the school year?”

“Why has the Board taken hundreds of thousands of dollars away from your child

      in the last year alone to pay an attorney for drawn-out negotiations?”

The answer to these questions is in the Treasurer’s video: your child’s education is being flushed down the toilet by the policies of the Strongsville Board of Education.

Mr. Treasurer, this isn’t a joke.  Our children’s education is at stake.

Our teachers have been challenged by unfunded legislative mandates, less man power, larger class sizes, and shoddy negotiating ploys, and the district wants to heap on more challenges.  

Despite these challenges, the children of this district, your children, have received an excellent education due to the efforts of teachers.  Over the past five years, the teachers of Strongsville have continually made sacrifices and done without the basic necessities in the classroom by working harder and harder each year.  We’ve done this while maintaining the excellence that this community expects, the excellence that this community deserves.  And we are not going to stop now!
Yes, we have been working without a contract. Yes, we taken multiple base pay freezes over the past 5 years.  Yes, we have made concessions in our health care, saving the district a half a million dollars. Yes, we have ALL been given letters for lay-off.

 However, the community can have faith we will not stop doing the heavy lifting to make sure your child’s education remains excellent.  

In addition to our contracted duties ... We give countless hours of tutoring.  We run outside of school activities.  We reach out to parents beyond the scheduled school day.  We write letters to colleges and employers.  We buy classroom materials out of our own pockets - even basics like chalk, wall clocks, and marking pens.  

Yet the Board does not think that is enough.

We have remained silent while doing more and more with less and less. It has now reached a critical point where district policies will negatively effect your child’s future.  

After making major health care concessions and agreeing to a  base pay freeze just a year ago, we want nothing more than another continued freeze this year.  

Your Board apparently thinks that it is a better idea to throw money away.

 Among the Board’s poor choices has been to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to a lawyer for drawn out negotiations.  In the 18-month period from December 2008 through May 2010, the Board paid over $420,000 of your tax dollars to their lawyer, over $300,000 on negotiations alone.  Everyone but the Board can see that they are wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

Your Board sees fit to give an elementary principal a $3000 bonus while begging the community for donations so the Marching Band can attend away games.  

Your Board has received paid registrations for conferences, including hotel rooms and meals, while considering cutting the outdoor education program for your children. Their solution – blame cuts on the teachers and then ask parents to get the funding on their own.

Your Board pays a Treasurer over $100,000 a year, but the superintendent deems it ludicrous that the Treasurer should be expected to have a yearly budget in place so staffing decisions could be made in a timely fashion.
When will this insanity end?  Think of what these hundreds of thousands of dollars could buy in opportunities for your children.  

Decent technology?   While other schools have Smart Boards and Video Projectors furnished in every classroom, your teachers beg for a pittance of chalk and overhead projector markers.  As other schools dive head first into the best of cutting edge 21st century technologies, we continue to repair our fleet of broken down antiques.  While our students fall farther and farther behind, our Board thought it prudent to give their Treasurer a 24% raise from 2007 to 2008.

Maybe we could spend all the flushed money from the Board’s poor choices on the structural integrity of our buildings.  At the high school, we knew we were back to school when we saw the buckets strategically placed all around the building to catch the water leaking through the holes in the ceilings.  Elementary buildings are falling apart after years of neglect.  Why can’t our Board spend money on the basic upkeep of the district instead of paying the retire/rehire superintendent a salary double that of the average teacher - while he receives a full pension?
Maybe the wasted money could be used in place of charging students to play sports or even to attend school.  Of course, then we would have to stop paying an attorney $250 per hour for negotiations.  

Besides these poor choices, the Board and their representative show no respect for the well-being of the community or the hard work of the teachers.  The Treasurer showed this disrespect when he ended his talk with a cartoon stating, “I want to thank you for your utter apathy.”

We say to the Board:  The teachers of this district aren’t apathetic.  We have taken pay freezes and health care cuts so that YOU could work out your financial problems.  We have paid for thousands of dollars in basic classroom supplies so that YOU don’t have to.  We have put in countless hours after school, on weekends, and in the summer, so that YOU can continue to tout our district as an excellent one nine years in a row.

And the parents of this community aren’t apathetic either.  Our parents and our community want what is best for the children of Strongsville.  Parents recognize that a child in a class of 34 is not receiving the same quality of education as a child in a class of 24.  Parents understand that a teacher who has a planning period to provide thoughtful, written feedback, plan creative lessons, create new materials, and most importantly, meet individually with a student will be a better teacher for their child than one who can’t.   And parents also know that to attract and keep good teachers in their children’s classrooms, the district needs to offer those teachers a fair and equitable contract.  

Though the Board’s representative made a joke of the financial crisis in our district, no one is laughing.  We have tried to help stop this crisis by giving the Board savings of over a half million dollars on the concessions we made just last year.  We have given time, dedication, and commitment to your children. We have given until we can give nothing more. Now we ask you to tell the Board that your child’s education is not a joke.  Please insist that the Board meet with the teachers at the table to end these drawn out negotiations with a fair and equitable contract.

Thank you for support and for joining us today.