ASHLAND — The Ashland City Schools Board of Educators meeting was anything but normal on Monday night.
Approximately 150 teachers and community members crammed themselves into the administrative building’s meeting room to voice their concerns regarding contract talks between the BOE and the Ashland City Teacher’s Association.
Community members held up fliers during the duration of the meeting that read, “ACTA – Always Committed to Ashland.”
The meeting began normally, but emotion overtook the crowd when BOE members began discussing the turf replacement for Community Stadium at Ashland High School.
“Despite the comments in the room, this is being paid for by money that is set aside every year from the Coca-Cola fund,” said Board of Education President James Wolfe. “It doesn’t really impact on negotiations.
“It’s a separate issue that’s been prepaid since we put the turf down.”
The BOE and ACTA recently reached a tentative agreement regarding the base rate of salaries of Ashland City Schools’ teachers. But the ACTA membership eventually rejected the deal.
Jaime Parsons, who addressed the BOE on the same issues in August, was displeased with a press release issued by the board.
“It seemed like it was very misleading and tried to put the teachers in a very bad light,” Parsons said. “If we want our kids to have quality education, we have to pay teachers what they’re worth.
“I really want to encourage (the BOE) to start a more authentic dialogue with the teachers and the community. You can’t put children first if you put teachers last.”
Richard Wasowski, 26-year English teacher at Ashland High School, also took a moment to voice his concerns to the BOE about teachers not receiving a base pay rate raise since 2010.
“In those nine years in the state of Ohio, the cost of living has increased about 18 percent and the minimum wage in Ohio has increased by 17 percent,” Wasowski said. “Since the freeze on the base, our coaches and our advisors are having the same pay that they’ve had for the past nine years.
“Additionally, from the report that I saw, on June 30, 2019, our distract had an unreserved cash balance of $8.5 million, which is about 25 percent of the yearly operating budget.”
Several other community members and teachers also took the opportunity to approach the board and address their concerns.
Wolfe responded to these statements among emotional shouts and negative reactions from the crowd.
“I will say as the longest serving board member that I do not think that this process has been that horrible; I think we have had good discussions,” Wolfe said. “In my time on the board, we did have mediation, we did have a tentative agreements.
“One thing I am certain of is that I have never had a tentative agreement turned down. We understand you want raises on the base; that’s not a matter of debate.”
The BOE and ACTA are scheduled to re-enter mediation Tuesday night.
