SCHOOLS Board members discuss several personnel shifts

The district will have a new boiler and two new buses in the coming year.
CANFIELD -- School board members began a special session Thursday by discussing the rehiring of a retired middle school employee to save money.
Superintendent Dante Zambrini said Roger Cooley, who has 37 years of service as a physical education teacher in the district, is taking advantage of the "Retire/Rehire" program. Cooley's re-employment will be addressed at the July 20 board meeting.
Zambrini said the re-employment would benefit the district because it gets "the quality of a veteran teacher at a reduced rate."
Because Cooley will receive a first-year salary and no benefits, the district saves money, he said.
The public meeting on Cooley's possible rehiring is required by Ohio law, Zambrini said.
The board addressed a number of other shifts in personnel. Members approved the parental leave of two high school teachers and the hiring of three others.
Amanda Zion was hired as a permanent substitute third-grade teacher at Hilltop Elementary with an annual $29,982 salary, and Rene Nagy was approved as a middle school tutor at $19.06 per hour for seven hours per day. Both had been serving as tutors within the district.
The board approved a list of more than 80 seasonal extracurricular positions to be hired, as well as a new high school fitness center director, former Canfield student Richard Phelps. Effective July 5, Phelps will receive $12 per hour for six hours per day.
In the coming year
The board passed two resolutions for the issuance and sale of acquisition bonds to be consolidated into a $161,000 note sold to Farmers National Bank.
The money will be used to purchase two buses in the 2005-06 school year at a cost of $121,086, with the remaining $29,914 to be used to purchase a new boiler, the third at the middle school to be replaced in as many years.
Zambrini concluded the meeting by explaining why he cast the lone no vote in a 13-1 vote Wednesday by the Mahoning County Schools Employee Insurance Consortium to approve Medical Mutual of Ohio as the health insurance administrator.
Zambrini said he made his choice "because some of my questions were not answered."
Board President Bruce Brocker was absent from the meeting.