LAKEVIEW SCHOOLS Teachers, staff extend pacts with wage freeze

District voters are being asked to approve two levies next month.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- Teachers and staff in Lakeview schools have taken a one-year wage freeze in light of the district's finances.
The school board approved the one-year contract extensions at a meeting Monday. The extensions mean the contracts with teachers and with classified staff expire in August 2006.
"Our financial situation is crucial and I give credit to our employees for recognizing that," said Matthew Chojnacki, superintendent.
The district is asking voters to approve two levies on the November ballot: a 3.4-mill renewal to bring in about $890,000 annually and a 4.5-mill levy that would generate about $1.145 million annually.
"Once again the teachers have sacrificed for the greater good of our students," said Danita Davis, president of the 127-member Lakeview Teachers Association.
Members want district voters to concentrate on the need to pass both the renewal and additional levies, she said.
Delayed spending
The school board has delayed spending on new materials, technology and safety to the tune of about $500,000, said Davis, a teacher at Cortland Elementary.
"That's all going to catch up with us," she said.
Through attrition, the district has cut five teaching positions in the last two years to trim costs.
Donald Moore, school board president, emphasized that the wage freeze "does not lessen the need for the passage of both levies that are on the Nov. 2 ballot."
Board members have already voted to cut busing to the state minimum in January if the renewal doesn't pass.
Chojnacki also said the school administrators agreed last spring to take a pay freeze for the year.
"No employees in the district are receiving an increase," he said.
The superintendent cited rising fuel, utility, insurance and health-care costs and the state funding situation as contributors to the district's financial woes.