For more than a year, the Perkins Education Association and school board have wrangled over a new contract for teachers. Sunday night, the teachers declared a strike. They set up picket lines outside school buildings on Monday, the first day of school.

Ziegler, who lives in Perkins Township, said he respects the teachers and coaches who went on strike this week and he wants teacher contract issues to be resolved. But after school, Ziegler, who also has football experience at Ashland University and Oberlin College, will keep coaching.

Huron Education Association President Andrea Arambula told Ziegler in a letter he received Tuesday that he would be charged dues but lose his union benefits for a year for crossing Perkins teachers' picket line. Ziegler was hired this year as a special education teacher at Huron's McCormick Middle School.

The letter referred to the troubles of December 2005, when the Huron school board, with the school district then in fiscal emergency, threatened to impose a contract on the Huron teachers.

She noted many Huron teachers have family members who teach in Perkins schools, and referred to the continuing negotiations, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Morning Journal.

The Huron Education Association executive committee met this week and decided that if Ziegler crossed the line to coach, he would be charged his union dues but would lose the insurance and legal services provided by the union membership, according to Arambula's letter. The loss of union membership would last for a year, she wrote.

The letter to Ziegler is an internal matter for the union to handle, said Mike McEachern, labor relations consultant for the Ohio Education Association.

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