YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS Board adopts teachers pact that includes 4% raises

In 2005, the district will pay $58.7 million for employment.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Employment costs for the city schools will rise by more than $10 million over the next three years, in part because of salary increases.
School board members voted Tuesday to adopt a three-year contract with the 831-member Youngstown Education Association. The contract gives teachers a 4 percent raise per year and adds longevity pay.
The board also gave identical increases to administrators, who make the same salary as top-level teachers.
According to budget forecast figures, personal services costs this fiscal year are $48 million. That will increase to $50.8 million in fiscal 2003, $53.9 million in 2004 and $58.7 million in 2005.
Retirement and insurance benefits, now at $17.1 million, will climb to $20.6 million by 2005.
The costs include a contract with the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees union and crafts unions reached in February, giving support staff 5 percent raises in 2004 and 4 percent the next two years.
Workers do not contribute toward health-care premiums.
"The teachers are very deserving," said board vice president Gerri Sullivan, adding the YEA helped the district when it was in fiscal emergency by taking smaller pay increases.
Teachers got 2 percent annual raises in the three-year contract ratified in 2000. It marked the first time in at least 30 years that contract agreement was reached before the end of the school year.
The two previous bargaining years resulted in teacher strikes.
Superintendent Benjamin L. McGee said both sides were committed to reaching an early agreement again. He credited the YEA for making reasonable requests.
In September 1996, the district was millions in debt and was placed in fiscal emergency.
A state oversight commission took control of the district's finances until March 2001, closing six buildings, cutting 200 jobs and tightening accounting and spending practices.
Fiscal 2000 was the first year since 1992 that the district had ended the year with a balanced budget. Since then, revenue has risen by an average of 3.93 percent per year, while expenditures have gone up an average of 1.61 percent per year.
The district has forecasted finishing in the black the next four years, but projections show the balance falling from $19.7 million this year to $837,000 in 2006. The forecast shows 2007 ending in the red.
Clarification
Treasurer Carolyn Funk cautioned against reading too much into the numbers. Districts are required to create five-year forecasts for the state, but they generally change through the years.
"It will definitely be amended," she said. "We're waiting for the state to pass its budget."
Raises were built into the budget forecasts, Funk said, so they project increases in expenses, but not in revenue.
The district took in $22.3 million in property tax revenue in 2002 and an additional $75.5 million from the state and other sources.
Property tax is estimated at $22.4 million in fiscal 2007, with $82 million in state and other funding. Expenditures are forecast at $115 million.