© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Reporting on the state of education in your community and across the country.

Lorain Teachers Consulting Attorneys In Pay Dispute

Lorain City Schools CEO David Hardy Jr. in 2017 [Annie Wu / ideastream]
Lorain City Schools CEO David Hardy Jr. in 2017

Lorain city school teachers are exploring legal options after the district Chief Executive Officer David Hardy, Jr. said he could not pay 900 employees because of a lawsuit filed by the school board regarding the district treasurer.

Josh Hill resigned earlier this month to take a job with South Euclid schools, but the Lorain school board did not accept his resignation. Hardy says without the ability to hire a new treasurer, staff won't be paid after this Friday.

"They're extremely alarmed," said Lorain teachers union president Jay Pickering. "Teachers don't make a lot of money and oftentimes are living paycheck to paycheck. To realize they might not be receiving a paycheck is a big deal for them."

Pickering says he's spoken to union attorneys, who also work for the Ohio Education Association.

"They're looking into the different legal actions they can take regarding this," Pickering said. "Of course, they have contacted the school district too to say, 'Hey, why do you believe this is true?'"

Pickering says moves like this are a consequence of House Bill 70, which allowed for the state to take over failing school districts and appoint an academic distress commission. The commision hires a CEO who has the authority of a superintendent and school board.

"We don't hear about things until the CEO decides he wants to tell somebody," Pickering said. "Whereas in your typical school district, there'd be a superintendent and a treasurer as well as a school board who would all be aware and get to weigh in before something of this gravity is announced to everybody."

He believes not enough people were involved in crafting HB 70, and it was passed too quickly. The legislature introduced and passed the 2015 bill in one day.

"There's no question they didn't think of everything because it was a very small number of people who were involved in creating this and here's just one more example of where they didn't think about what would happen to the treasurer and so it leaves us in this limbo right now," Pickering said.

Pickering says a renewal levy on the November ballot is also a hurdle for the district and is one of the reasons why the school board is not yet willing to accept Hill's resignation, believing it will be difficult for taxpayers to vote for a levy without a treasurer in place. 

Staff will be paid this Friday but a September 13 payment is in question. Both the Academic Distress Commission and the Lorain school board meet Tuesday night.

CEO David Hardy, Jr. did not respond to a request for comment.

Glenn Forbes is supervising producer of newscasts at Ideastream Public Media.