CANFIELD SCHOOLS Teachers union takes pay freeze

Several other district employees took a pay freeze this year.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The teachers union here has agreed to take a one-year pay freeze in an effort to help the school district save money.
"The teachers are willing to do their fair share" said Don George, president of Canfield Education Association. The union, which represents 198 teachers and tutors in Canfield, approved the pay freeze Monday.
District officials have said that they will be about $900,000 in debt at the end of this year unless they receive additional revenue. A 6.9-mill, five-year additional operating levy for schools failed in the May primary and is set to appear on the ballot again next week. The levy would allow the district to collect an additional $3 million each year for five years, beginning next year.
Superintendent Dante Zambrini said he believed the teachers' decision to take a pay freeze helps show voters that revenue from the levy won't go straight into the packets of school employees.
"The question always in voters' minds is, 'does [voting for the levy] mean raises immediately?'" he said, adding, "I see this as a message to the community that the teachers are doing their part."
When it will take effect
The pay freeze is set to take effect next year, which would be the first year of a new contract for the teachers. Their current contract expires at the end of this school year.
Negotiations for the contract are expected to start in the spring.
The Ohio Association of Public School Employees, which represents the district's cafeteria workers, aides and secretarial and custodial staff, took a one-year pay freeze this year in an effort to help the district save money. OAPSE's contract also expires in the spring.
Zambrini noted that OAPSE and the CEA represent a total of about 75 percent of the district's staff.
School administrators, who are not represented by a union, also agreed to take a pay freeze this year.
Zambrini said if the levy passes, the pay freezes will help district officials make the most of the additional revenue. He noted that the district would not add new administrators.
Further, he said, many of those who have agreed to the pay freezes live in Canfield and most likely will vote for the levy. That means they'll be voting to raise their taxes even though they won't be receiving a pay raise.
Also represented
Unions also represent the district's bus drivers and bus mechanics and substitute bus drivers. Zambrini said the bus drivers' union has yet to vote on a pay freeze, and the contract representing bus mechanics and substitute bus drivers doesn't expire until 2004. The bus drivers' contract expires at the end of this school year.
Zambrini said if the levy fails, decisions about staff cutbacks would be made in the spring. District officials have said pupils would be charged $300 for each sport they play beginning this winter. The charge for participating in a school activity, such as band, would be $50.
The district also would cut busing for high school students and all pupils who live within two miles of their school, in January.
hill@vindy.com