4th district OKs center contract

The Niles board is expected to vote on the agreement at a meeting today.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- School board members approved a new five-year contract for the Gordon D. James Career Center, contingent on the approval of the other school districts.
The compact includes Lordstown, McDonald, Niles, Howland and Weathersfield school districts. McDonald and Howland both approved the new agreement but those resolutions were contingent on the other districts' also agreeing to continue the pact. Weathersfield school board approved the contract at its Wednesday night session.
Niles, which has been the holdout for the last few months, is expected to vote on the contract at a special meeting today.
Lordstown is the administrator for the five-district compact. The current agreement expires June 30. All of the districts except Niles had passed nonbinding resolutions last year or early this year to continue the compact.
Niles has held off on a recommendation and voted in December 2000 to explore an affiliation with the Trumbull County Technical and Career Center.
The new agreement runs from July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2007, and may be renewed for subsequent five-year terms.
How deal works: Any school board that doesn't want to renew the agreement must give written notification to the others school districts at least a year before expiration of the agreement.
If no such notice is given, the agreement will automatically renew for an additional five-year term.
Earlier drafts of the pact included a rolling five-year agreement among the five districts with the initial term beginning July 1 and expiring June 30, 2007.
On July 1 of each year, the agreement would automatically have been extended for a rolling five-year term unless written notice of a decision not to extend is given by a school board of participating district to the other districts before June 30.
But that provision isn't in the agreement passed by the Lordstown board Wednesday.
Niles' involvement: Niles sends the most students to the career center of the compact districts, and districts pay a tuition per student. If Niles pulls out, the remaining districts would have to make up the costs to sustain the compact.
TCTC doesn't charge tuition for students to attend, but residents and businesses in districts that attend the center are assessed a property tax of about 2 mills.
dick@vindy.com