Saturday, January 21, 2006
The board will have a hearing on rehiring its recently retired superintendent.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The governing board of the Trumbull County Educational Service Center is scheduled to vote on a 10-year lease for new office space at its meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Under the lease, the board would rent the third floor of the former Carlisle's department store building at 6000 Youngstown-Warren Road in Niles from Covelli Properties Inc. of Warren at $138,473 per year. That space, totaling 19,113 square feet, was formerly occupied by Delphi Corp. offices, said Lori Simione, board treasurer.
The rent would include building maintenance and all utilities, except telephone service, but not office cleaning services.
ESC would pay Covelli $375,000 to remodel the third floor to suit the center's specifications, and ESC hopes to move there in July from its current quarters in a county-owned building at 347 N. Park Ave. in Warren, Simione said. The board now pays $30,000 a year to rent 27,000 square feet. ESC pays for office cleaning, but not for utilities at its current location.
In bad shape
In an interview in November, when the board decided to seek new office space, Superintendent Anthony D'Ambrosio described the heating system in the building ESC now occupies as "antiquated" and said some components of the building could break and not be replaceable.
The adult education program and offices of the county Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities occupy the first floor of the Youngstown-Warren Road building, known as the Carlisle's-Maxwell's building in Village Center Plaza. The second floor is vacant.
Rehiring hearing
Also during Monday's meeting, the board will conduct a public hearing on rehiring D'Ambrosio, who retired Dec. 31. The public hearing is required by state law.
If the board decides to rehire him as superintendent, board policy says he must be paid at least 10 percent less than the $105,398 a year he was earning when he retired. The board will likely vote on rehiring D'Ambrosio next month, Simione said.
If he is rehired, D'Ambrosio, who has had a 35-year career in education, including superintendencies at Girard, Southington and Newton Falls, would simultaneously collect his new salary and his State Teachers Retirement System pension, she said.
Laura Ecklar, STRS communications director, said she couldn't disclose the pension amount for a specific retiree. But published STRS guidelines say a retiree with 35 years of contributing service would receive 88.5 percent of the average of his three highest years of Ohio public earnings.
Had D'Ambrosio returned immediately, state law would have required him to forgo his pension for the first 60 days after his retirement, Simione added.
Victoria A. Giovangnoli became associate superintendent and interim superintendent Jan. 1, and will continue as interim superintendent through Feb. 28.