SCHOOLS Boards OK borrowing for projects

Hermitage officials also approved new teacher and service worker contracts.
Both the Hermitage and Farrell Area school boards approved tentative bond issues for building renovation projects, although neither has a specific project designed at this point.
The board took the action Wednesday in an effort to beat a Friday deadline for Pennsylvania school districts to authorize borrowing funds for capital improvements without first securing taxpayer approval for any tax increases needed to pay for that debt.
Act 72 gives the voters the right of referendum for such increases after Friday.
The Hermitage School Board approved borrowing up to $11 million for improvements hinging around the possible closure of its Hermitage Elementary and Hermitage Middle school buildings.
Farrell approved borrowing up to $25 million for extensive renovation of both its elementary and junior-senior high school.
Although the boards approved the borrowing, that doesn't mean they will actually secure any bond issues. They are only setting up financing now for potential projects, school administrators in both districts said.
Neither has a specific project plan in place at this point.
New contracts
In an unrelated matter, the Hermitage School Board gave its approval to new contracts for both its 160 teachers and 100 members of its Hermitage Educational Support Personnel Association which includes secretaries, custodians, maintenance workers, teacher aides and cafeteria workers.
The teachers are to vote today on their contract, a five-year package that would be retroactive to July 1 of this year.
The HESPA employees approved their five-year pact Saturday and it is retroactive to July 1, 2003. The employees worked all last school year under an extension of their old agreement.
The new pact includes annual wage increases of 3.5 percent. HESPA workers will begin contributing to the cost of their health-insurance premiums in the third year of the contract but the exact amount isn't final yet, said Superintendent Karen Ionta.