No Deal in Teachers' Strike

UPDATED 7:20 P.M.

Negotiations between striking teachers and the Board of Education ended Sunday afternoon with no contract deal and no progress toward one.

All five School Board members attended the session, the first negotiations since the 383 members of the Strongsville Education Association went on strike March 4.

But Tracy Linscott, president of the SEA, said the School Board and union did not meet during the four-hour sesson. The board members sat in a separate room, she said.

"They wouldn't even meet with us," Linscott said. 

School Board President David Frazee said, though, that "it is the negotiation team's resposibility to meet, not the board's."

"We put our full trust and confidence in our negotiations team to represent the wishes of the board, and would not want to undermine their position," Frazee wrote in an email. "Now is not the time to change our agreed-upon negotiation team."

Teachers will start their third week on the picket line Monday morning.

No new negotiating sessions have been set. "The parties remain substantially divided on key issues," Frazee said in a statement.

Linscott said the teachers submitted a counter-proposal March 2, and are still waiting for a response from the board. 

"They need to some up with something if they want to pull us off the picket line," Linscott said.

Frazee has said the district is standing behind its "last best offer," which it submitted March 2, the last time the two sides met to negotiate a deal.

In the statement, Frazee said the board members remain a "crucial" part of the process. "The board is briefed by the negotiation team and is available for consultation," he said. "The board has expressed unanimous support of the negotiation team."

He also said the union's counter-proposal would put the district at least $2 million in the red.

See both sides' March 2 proposals by clicking here.

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