MCDONALD School board OKs contract with 14 staff members

The pay increases are retroactive to Sept. 1.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
McDONALD -- The McDonald Board of Education approved a new three-year contract with the district's 14 nonteaching staff members.
The workers will receive a 3-percent increase in the first year and 2.75-percent increases in both the second and third year of the pact, which the board approved Thursday.
The employees will start to see their raises, retroactive to Sept. 1, with their next pay, along with a lump-sum payment for the period between Sept. 1 and Thursday, district treasurer Thomas Radabaugh said.
The nonteaching employees approved the terms of the new contract in a vote Oct. 6, Radabaugh said. They are represented by these unions: Ohio Association of Public School Employees, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4, and AFL-CIO Local 662.
Changes in health plan
Contract changes will include a switch in the health benefit plan, the same that was made with district teachers who agreed to a new contract approved by the board Aug. 29.
The change will take affect for both teachers and nonteaching staff starting Jan. 1 after the district switched to another health insurance plan.
The changes will switch employees from a traditional health plan, in which they paid $250 out-of-pocket expense and a $200 deductible every year with no co-pay for office visits. Their new plan will be changed to an HMO or Preferred Provider Plan, with no deductible or out-of-pocket expense at the outset, and a $10 co-pay per office visit.
The health insurance benefit plan the district had been under is being changed after the Trumbull County Schools Health Insurance Consortium decided to stop offering separate plans to all 20 schools in the consortium.
The affect the increases will have for employees will vary according to the jobs they have. Radabaugh said only domestics and custodians in the nonteaching staff work all year.
Wages
Pay rates for employees in all classifications are different for each job. A custodian with no experience will earn $12.77 an hour starting Sept. 1 of this year, $13.12 an hour starting Sept. 1, 2003, to Aug. 31, 2004, and $13.48 an hour starting Sept. 1, 2004, to Aug. 31, 2005.
A custodian with 25 years' experience will earn $14.86 in the first year, $15.77 in the second year and $15.69 in the third year.
A bus driver with no experience would earn $12.14 an hour in the first year; $12.47 in the second and $12.81 in the third year.