District officials “are not where we need them to be to properly support the students in our classrooms,” said Amy Brossart, spokeswoman for the REA.
Neither side in the contract talks are speaking publicly about specific areas of contention, but Brossart – who is not a member of the union’s negotiating team – said some issues concern the lack of salary increases for long-time teachers.
“Our entry salary for new teachers is not horrible …but once our teachers progress … that is where we start to fail and that’s what we are really worried about. We are worried about the retention of our teachers,” said Brossart.
According to a statement from officials at the Ohio Education Association (OEA), which is the state organization representing a majority of Ohio’s public school teachers, the months-long contract talks between Ross district officials and district teachers have seen classrooms instructors working with no new contract since the current employment agreement was extended beyond its expiration date on Sept. 1.
Brossart said to date there have been no discussions within union leadership about bringing up a vote among teachers to authorize any work stoppage.
For more than a decade, the largely rural Ross Schools have earned the top overall academic rating among all Butler County school districts on the state’s annual report card and Ross High School is regularly rated as one of the top performers in southwest Ohio and statewide.
The REA labor union represents the school system’s 150 classroom instructors.
Many teachers at the rally were clad in REA T-shirts and signage stating the union’s “fair contract now” slogan dotted the crowd of district employees and their supporters in the Ross Twp. community who gathered late Wednesday afternoon outside the front grounds of Ross’ district headquarters at 3371 Hamilton-Cleves Road.
Ross Schools Superintendent William Rice said earlier this week “we look forward to continuing the bargaining process with the REA, while seeking a three-year contract” but declined further comment.
Ross teacher Kori Woodrum was among the crowd and said “we are excited that we have a bunch of teachers who are united and we are still optimistic that we are going to be heard and supported and likely get our contract.”
Woodrum, who is a 19-year veteran instructor with Ross Schools, looked over the crowd and said “I love that we can all be together outside of the classroom and support one another.”
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