RH Jones: Report on 9/5/06 Summit Co. RTA meeting

From RH Jones, Sept. 5, 2006

To all:

This is the SummitCRTA General Meeting as told to me by the VP and Legislative Chair, Dr. K. Fluke: There were 171 in attendance! Among them were Mr. & Mrs. Brian Williams. Brian is the 41st District Candidate [ for State Representative] for re-election. He expresses support for STRS retirees. After all, as a retired superintendent of the Akron Public Schools, he is one of us.

Also, I am proud to report to you that the present Akron Super, Dr. Sylvester Small, attended and spoke! He told of the dire straits that Akron is in and the need for Akron's residents to support the new levy. The last one failed. Dr. Small realizes that charter schools are hurting Akron dearly and straining the district to back the employer/employee increase. Akron Bd. Member and OSBA President, Linda Omobien, is with us on the issue of public school support, but I did notice in the June STRS Bd minutes that the OSBA still does not support the employer/employee increase! I hope to contact Omobien to ask her "flat out": Are they for or against it now? Her e-mail at APS is unknown to me.

Dr. Fluke was able to cover all the bases except the employer/employee increase. ORTA Pres. and SummitCRTA At-large Bd. Member, Blin Scatterday, covered that. However, it was mentioned that the State Reps will be contacted by ORTA after the election. In my opinion, they should be contacted now and their stand published in the ORTA Newsletter.

Again, at this critical time for kids & their teachers, both active & retired, the entertainment at the meeting lasted too long. However, more stayed to the end of this meeting due to the issuance of prizes.

RHJones, Legislative CMTE Mem. SummitCRTA