Frustrated Resident Trades Jabs With School Board Over Levy

A resident sparked a heated debate with Strongsville School Board members Thursday night about the district's on the Aug. 2 special election ballot. 

Jay Phillips blasted the levy, saying fiscal irresponsibility, poor leadership and botched negotiations between the board of education and the Strongsville Education Association this past March were to blame for needing the issue. 

He claimed the board should have cut teachers’ salaries and benefits by $10 million – not just by the $2 million that was agreed upon – to help avert the necessity of a levy. 

“This is our town,” Phillips said. “We’re not here for the teachers union. Ninety-two cents of every dollar in 2010 went to teacher compensation. We were the highest in the state of Ohio. 92.1 percent, that’s an embarrassment!” 

Growing irritated, board member Carl Naso countered and said, “I just haven’t heard any suggestions for how we get to the utopia that you suggest short of firing all the teachers and starting from scratch. . . You come up here time after time, you rant and rave, and I don’t really hear any suggestions on how to accomplish what you’re saying.” 

Phillips charged back and argued that the board needs to institute merit-based raises and should support the passage of Senate Bill 5, which would heavily restrict bargaining rights among teacher unions. 

Board member David Gusman joined the heated discussion, defended the negotiations and said Phillips should take it up with the Ohio General Assembly, not the school board regarding the recently

“One of the things that the community needs to understand and recognize is that we as a board do not have the ability to just say, ‘Okay, here’s a number, take it or leave it.’ We are bound by laws that are state mandated in terms of the process we go through,” Gusman said. 

The end result of the negotiations were “unprecedented,” Gusman claimed, and he informed Phillips that demanding a $10 million salary and benefit cut from the unions would have resulted in a legal battle that the district would not have won. 

If passed, the levy would generate about $40 million over the next four years, and would cost Strongsville homeowners $211 a year for every $100,000 in valuation. 

Superintendent Jefferey Lampert had the last word. “I’m very proud of the many things that this district, students and staff tries to accomplish,” he said. “Certainly, are we perfect? No. No district is, but we work very hard every day to reach the best level we can. I’m very proud of the results of recent negotiations and its incremental change, and we’ll be back at the table next year to seek more incremental change.” 

Gusman said if the levy fails in August, then the board will move to put it on the ballot again this November.