September 26th

Health Care Coalition Being Heard Around the State

Members of the Hands Off Our Health Care Coalition are making their voices heard across Ohio. Lawmakers have been flooded with letters and emails from teachers, custodians, clerical assistants and other school employees in opposition to a statewide mandated health care plan. Members of the Coalition include all Ohio Federation of Teachers district affiliates, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Service Employees International Union, the Columbus Education Association and AEA. We urge members who have not voiced their opinion to visit www.akronteach.org, find their elected senator and representative, and let them know you like your health care plan just the way it is!

The Public Schools Health Care Advisory Committee has been appointed and includes representatives from such “friendly” groups as the Ohio Association of Health Plans, the Health Care Consortium, the Ohio Association of Health Underwriters, the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, the Ohio School Boards Association and the Ohio Education Association. The Health Care Board has not yet been appointed. The State Controlling Board has appropriated $500,000 for the project, most of which has gone as a retainer to the consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Not to alarm anyone, but the first link that pops up when you visit their website is a research story on how “funding for annual bonuses is improving.” We might be wrong, but we don’t think they mean bonuses for school employees. Another slightly disconcerting article entitled “Cost of Employment” starts out this way:

Getting the right pay and benefits to the right people at the right price is becoming more complex each year. Organizations that find a way to control labor costs clearly have a competitive edge. Watson Wyatt can help.

Several members have sent us copies of responses they have received from their legislators. Those responses show that there is a huge—and scary—difference among lawmakers about what the legislation actually says. For example, Rep. Charles Calvert (R-Medina) wrote that, “To be adopted the new plan must provide equal or better benefits at a lower cost. If not you stay with your current plan.” As much as we hope Rep. Calvert is right, at no time has anyone who has any idea about the law suggested that if a state adopted plan isn’t as good as ours, we can just keep what we have.

Locally, Sen. Kim Zurz (D-28) and Rep. Brian Williams (D-41) have taken positions supportive of the Coalition

AEA Raises $39,000 for Strides Campaign

Akron teachers raised a whopping $39,000 in contributions toward last fall’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. This year’s fund raising surpassed last year’s total by $13,000, an increase of 50%. AEA finished in a virtual tie with the Acme supermarket chain for the top spot among flagship sponsors.

Much of the credit for the campaign’s success goes to the individual building captains who volunteered time to organize teams in their schools.

Leading the way among elementary buildings was Essex School. Captain Paula Christensen raised an incredible $10,337.10. Firestone led all secondary schools, raising $2,501.55, which was the second highest total of all schools. Chris Milcetich captained the Firestone team.

In all, 44 sites participated in the fund raiser.

In the last edition of the Notes, we recognized the captains in each of the schools, but overlooked those at non-school sites:

Ila Shriver, Adult Basic Education

Jim Perge, Alternative School

Wendy Gillespie, Integrated Pre-School

Barb Dawson, Practical Nurses

Aileen Mullaney, Psychologists

We apologize for this oversight.

In addition, we want to thank Kenmore band students, under the outstanding direction of Bret Pendergast, for providing music at the event.

AEA has been asked to serve as a flagship sponsor again next year.

Thank you, Mary Stormer

Akron students and teachers will lose a friend when Mary Stormer’s term expires at the end of the month. A tireless advocate for Akron schools, Mary opted not to run for re-election to the board this past November, a race she would have won handily. Instead, she made a bid for an at-large city council seat, but lost. A long-time critic of the tax abatements Akron businesses have been granted at the school district’s expense, Mary truly believed she could address that and some other critical issues more effectively as a member of council than she could as a board member.

In April of 2003, Mary Stormer addressed a school funding rally from the steps of the Ohio Statehouse. Thousands of teachers from all over Ohio attended the rally. Stormer was the only non-teacher to address the crowd.

No one ever had to guess where Mary Stormer stood on an issue. She took positions that were at times unpopular with

her party or city hall or her colleagues on the board or AEA. But her opinions always reflected what she felt was best for Akron kids.

Thank you, Mary, for devoting eight years to the betterment of the Akron Public Schools.