Robin Rayfield's Report on the September 2022 STRS Board meeting: who wants change and who doesn't

From the ORTA Newsletter

October 17, 2022

STRS met on September 15, 2022. The meeting was routine, for the most part. It did get a bit interesting near the end of the meeting when several of the ‘new board members’ made their presence known. In a series of motions, several board members attempted to address the lack of transparency at STRS. Although the motions were defeated (or tabled for discussion later) the point of interest that these motions demonstrated is that change at STRS is inevitable.  

The elections of three ‘reform minded’ candidates in May should have signaled to the STRS management and the remaining STRS board members, that the members are not satisfied with the status quo. Since the May 2022 election, however, the STRS management and the remaining six board members holding on to the current culture at STRS have ‘doubled down’ on keeping things the way they are at STRS. Matters that are simple and straightforward, such as increasing transparency should be non-controversial, but they are not. For example, one of the motions was to use the camera system in place at STRS to ‘live broadcast’ the meetings at STRS and then archive these broadcasts on the STRS website. Why would this be controversial? ORTA has broadcasted the meetings live through our YouTube channel or Facebook each month. We use an I Phone to accomplish this, and it is archived! This would allow active members that are teaching during the meeting to stay abreast of what is taking place at STRS. Another motion that was tabled was moving two meetings per year to a Saturday. This would also allow retirees that work after retirement (more common since the loss of our promised cola) and active teachers opportunities to virtually attend STRS board meetings. Again, why this would be opposed by the STRS management and board members is unclear to me. 

At any rate, the STRS board is comprised of two distinct groups:

a.   People that want meaningful change at STRS. This group includes the three people just elected to the board in May of 2022 (Steve Foreman, Julie Sellers, and Liz Jones, along with Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum, and Wade Steen). 

b.   People that are 100% aligned with STRS management (Ms. Correthers, Ms. Harrington, Mr. Lard, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Roulston, Mr. Price) and want no changes at STRS. It appears that we have a situation like our country’s political status. 

Dr. Robin Rayfield is Executive Director of the Ohio Retired Teachers Association and a strong advocate for teachers, retired and active.