Teachers Strike Begins In Cleveland Heights

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — The Heights Teachers Union began its strike against the district on Wednesday morning.

Teachers manned picket lines outside Heights High and the Heights Board of Education. Teachers planned to picket from 9 a.m. to noon, despite the frigid temperatures and substantial snowfall lingering from Tuesday.

Karen Rego, union president, said the union is following recommendations from the Cuyahoga County Board of Health on how to proceed with the strike. Each picket line will include 10 teachers, and some schools will see a caravan of cars too. Every school in the district will eventually see a picket line, Rego said.

Negotiations between the district and teachers union have stalled, with the sticking point being health care options for staffers.

The district said it needs to create a "fiscally responsible" plan, while union leaders said their counter-proposals have been ignored.

The district said the union's proposals would cost the school system somewhere between $1 million and $1.75 million per year.

"That proposal only exacerbates the District's grim financial reality and was rejected," the district said in a statement.

The union said its offers to the district have been fiscally fair.

"We would never make an offer the board couldn't afford. After many hours of negotiating and the Boards refusal to move we were left with no choice but to strike," Rego told Patch.