GROVEPORT, Ohio (WCMH) -- Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools have been without dozens of key staff members for weeks now. Close to 30 workers are on strike amid a contract dispute over pay.  Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools serves more than 2,200 students across 16 school districts in central Ohio. The local chapter of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE), which represents maintenance workers, custodians, cooks and IT staff, has been on strike since Jan. 7, marching for better pay. Record amount of volunteers helps to better understand homelessness in central Ohio A statement from Board of Education President Bill McGowan reads:   "The Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools Board of Education and OAPSE #686 have been in contract negotiation since May concerning Eastland-Fairfield classified staff including custodians, cafeteria personnel, and building IT staff."   Members of the union voted unanimously to strike after negotiations ended with both sides rejecting each other's offers in December.   Sean Dahl is the field representative for the local union.  "The employer needs us and we're not coming back until we get a fair deal," Dahl said.   Dahl said the district has canceled school five times since the strike, a few of those times due to weather.  Ohio death penalty may be reintroduced at Statehouse "Then another time, they claimed that the electric was out in the building and another time they claimed that the building flooded," Dahl said. "These things could've been prevented if you had the proper staff in there and they chose not to have them."  According to Eastland-Fairfield spokesman Ryan Gasser, the board has acted in good faith, agreeing to eight of the nine fact-finding recommendations from a third party. Gasser said they recognized changes need to be made to their cooks' compensation package; however, they have not been able to reach an overall agreement with OAPSE #686 members on compensation. Starting wage for cooks is $16.50 an hour.  "We're proposing $18 an hour for cooks but the scabs they brought in are making $28.85 per hour," Dahl said. "We have that in a public records request."   The board is proposing a 3% raise which Dahl said is not enough.  "A lot of people had high regard for this career center, but seeing the way management acts and how they have this ‘good enough for us, not good enough for the people that work below us’ kind of mentality has not been good, it's not been well received by the locals," Dahl said.   The administration rejected the fact-finding mediation which found the union's request for a wage increase should actually be higher.  Ohio House adopts new rules that some say dampen transparency According to Gasser, salaries rank within the top 25% of its 16 partner districts. He said Eastland-Fairfield’s goal is to maintain compensation within the top 33% of its partner districts. Additionally, he said they have consistently and uniformly applied all items and increases negotiated by teachers to all staff.   "They've had a habit of only doing 3% raises for years with no step increases," Dahl said. "Therefore, all the districts around are getting steps plus 3% or plus 5% so they're so far behind now."  Dahl said the more involvement they get from the community, the better. The local union is urging people to continue emailing and calling the school board as well as the district administration.   "This is why I do this for a living," Dahl said. "These people deserve it. I used to be a school employee. I worked for Whitehall City Schools for 13 years before being recruited by the union and I've been doing this now for about 12, but extremely passionate about it and all I wish for is that employers would treat their employees correctly.”