April 13, 2015 Lorain School Board, I am Jay Pickering, President of the Lorain Education Association. On Behalf of the LEA I would like to make the following statement and voice some concerns. I would like to remind everyone that last year, just about now, the treasurer and superintendent informed all of us that there was an unexpected lack of funds due to unpaid property taxes. The superintendent and the board, I believe, responsibly committed to rectify the expected deficit by not replacing 25 retiring teachers. The result has been that the students of Lorain have been and are being taught this year by 25 fewer teachers. This has led to many classrooms being filled to and past capacity. As of February over 90 classrooms in the district were reported over the negotiated capacity of between 25 and 30 students (depending on the grade level). Even these negotiated levels are above the levels that many education experts and organizations across the country recommend. As a specific example of overcrowded classrooms here in Lorain a Kindergarten teacher reported to me, just last week that her class now has 31 students, 6 over the maximum of 25! As I mention this situation I am reminded that many teachers have reported to me that recently we have a lot of students returning to our district from charter schools, which is a fact that I am very proud of. It shows the efforts of the teachers is paying off. I know how hard the teachers of Lorain have worked and I know how much pressure these teachers are under. This is a tough time to be a teacher, not only in Lorain, but across the state of Ohio. This brings me to my first concern. On Friday the Academic Distress Committee resolved to force (?) the district to hire 2 “academic monitors” to wander our buildings and critique our people. Of course they claim they are only here to help, but I will believe it when I see or hear it. They are to receive $450 a day, that is $81,000 each per year (if they work every school day) so for 2 in excess of $160,000 a year. Now I know they might not be working every day, but I think the taxpayers would prefer they work every day and so would the teachers. The worst thing that could happen is that these monitors only show up occasionally when they think they can catch a teacher doing something wrong. I encourage them to become part of the school community, be here every day and experience both the bad and the considerable good that happens in our schools. Now, with the starting salary of a teacher in Lorain being $35,158.01 and these folks costing over $162,000 I ask you the school board to do everything in your power to make sure having to pay these folks does not remove teachers from the classroom. I would also like to voice my concern over the continuation of the position of Executive Director for School Improvement & T/L which is being recommended for approval in 9.14 of today’s Board Agenda. If you recall this position did not exist 2 years ago. This position was created in December of 2012 and was paid for from Federal Title II A funds and was specifically touted as not being a General Fund expenditure. So, in essence, the district has not had to pay for the services provided by this position and this position was not needed previous to it being provided for free. This is analogous to winning something like, free lawn care at your home for 2 years. When the free service is up you have to ask yourself do you have the money to pay for it or do you get out your lawnmower and do it yourself. Considering the financial situation of the district I am not sure we have the money to pay for what was
