Brookfield teachers dispute continues

A group is collecting signatures
for a petition to remove board members.

By SEAN BARRON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

BROOKFIELD — “The lack of respect between the community and the board is appalling,” said the Ohio Federation of Teachers president Saturday, after a Brookfield Board of Education meeting.

Many in the audience urged the board to pass a three-year tentative agreement with the Brookfield Federation of Teachers union, whose members have been working for nearly a year without a contract.

Sue Taylor, president of the OFT, said it’s imperative that the agreement be passed. Taylor said she attended the session as a show of solidarity.

Afterward, Taylor said she was disappointed with what she felt was “ideology taking precedence over the real facts” regarding the needs of teachers and students. “Teachers don’t go in to make money and be rich; they go to help students and shape [students’] futures,” she said.

Since their contract expired in July 2006, Brookfield’s teachers have been paid under the 2004-05 salary schedule. The tentative agreement was reached in March, but the board refused by majority vote to ratify the pact.

The agreement calls for a pay freeze in the first year as well as 1 percent and 1.5 percent raises in the second and third years, respectively. Many teachers were also willing to pay a portion of their health care benefits, noted Jay Bodnar, a teacher and the union’s treasurer.

“It’s time to stop the chaos,” said Taylor, who’s also been a teacher since the late 1970s. “The three board members’ rejecting the agreement shows a blatant disregard for the integrity of the process and education in this community.”

Taylor added she’s never heard of a board member being part of contract negotiations, then voting against ratifying the contract. She was referring to Dean Fisher, who was part of the negotiating team. At board meetings in April and May, Steve Varga and Joseph Pasquerilla also voted against the contract.

“This is a chance to get at it, heal the wounds and move on,” she said about passage of the pact.

Citizen group attended

The audience was filled with members and teachers who support Save Our Schools, a citizens group formed about 18 months ago. Three of the board members have had run-ins with SOS members and others regarding their refusal to support a levy and other issues.

Some residents were furious by what they said was the district’s spending of about $200,000 in legal fees against a backdrop of a cut in teachers and programs. One person wanted to know why a school nurse was let go.

“We can’t afford it,” Fisher said of the nurse’s contract.

Pasquerilla, board president, has maintained that the district doesn’t have the funds to certify the contracts. As of June 30, the district will be facing a $363,000 deficit, according to a recent five-year financial forecast, and the last time a levy was passed in Brookfield was 1995.

Pasquerilla explained that he refuses to go into “deficit spending,” saying that approving the contracts would exacerbate the district’s financial shortfall. He is ready to negotiate at any time, however, he added.

That assessment did not sit well with many in the audience, including Sally Schneider, president of the Brookfield teachers union, and Gwen Martino, a member of SOS. No progress has been made on contract talks, Schneider said.

Schneider and SOS member Lynn Price noted the group recently drew up and has been circulating a recall petition to have the three board members removed. The petition needs 519 signatures and, if successful, will be heard in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Price said.