SALEM Teachers, support staff negotiate contracts

Until labor talks are complete, employees will work under current contracts.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- City school district students and their teachers will be returning to the classroom next week, ready for a new year of learning.
But teachers and support staff are likely to be ready for something else: new labor contracts.
District officials have been negotiating since spring with the unions representing about 160 teachers and 95 janitors, aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and other employees.
So far, contracts have yet to be reached with either party, schools Superintendent Dr. David Brobeck said Monday.
The support staff contract expired June 30. The teachers' contract ends Aug. 31.
Both unions are expected to return to school and work under their current contracts, Brobeck said.
Progression
He characterized talks with the unions as progressing, although those within the support staff, represented by the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, seem closer to producing a settlement.
"We're very close to being done" with support staff bargaining, Brobeck said.
Reaching an agreement with teachers, represented by the Salem Education Association, may take longer.
"That would be pushing it," Brobeck said when asked if a new contract for teachers would be ready in time for Monday's school start.
Brobeck didn't offer specifics regarding bargaining. He also wouldn't say what impact the district's economic situation is having on talks.
Financial crunch
The school board voted last week to place a 7.85-mill emergency operating levy on the November election ballot.
The measure is being sought to help prevent the district from spiraling into a projected $800,000 deficit next year.
That deficit could grow into the millions of dollars in ensuing years unless the district imposes spending cuts and persuades voters to adopt the emergency levy, projected to bring in about $2.3 million annually, schools Treasurer Alice Gunning has said.
Gunning has attributed the fiscal outlook to rising employee health insurance costs and overly optimistic financial projections the district made before she came on board as treasurer in the spring.
The district is spending about $943 monthly for a family health insurance plan for its employees. It costs about $393 per month for the single plan.
Employees don't contribute to monthly premiums.
The contract pays a teacher with a master's degree and 30 years of service $54,506 annually. A beginning teacher makes $25,650.
Among support staff, the highest pay is the $17.11 per hour paid to a maintenance foreman with 20 years of experience.
Bottom of the support staff scale is the $6.93 an hour paid to a cafeteria worker.