Action on layoffs touches a nerve

The union would not extend a deadline for layoff notices, so the district laid off almostall members.
AUSTINTOWN -- Before a packed meeting, the Austintown Board of Education voted to send layoff notices to all nonteaching employees except for 42 bus drivers and three bus mechanics.
Reduction-in-force notices are sent to Ohio Association of Public School Employees every year. They are a formality, and most employees are called back.
But this year, said OAPSE Local No. 194 President Bonnie Grantz, the district was planning to lay off groups of people -- the entire cafeteria and custodial staffs, 19 paraprofessionals and one secretary. There are 241 union members affected by the layoff notices.
Superintendent Doug Heuer said the administration asked for a suspension of a contractual deadline of April 30 for the annual RIF notifications, indicating that if it did not receive that suspension, it would send notices to the entire union.
The union voted not to allow the suspension "because we have tried to work with the administration. My membership took a stand that enough is enough," Grantz explained during a break in Thursday's meeting.
The widespread RIF notifications touched a nerve in OAPSE, with many members attending the meeting.
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Beth Ceremuga spoke on behalf of the paraprofessionals. "We are the people that work in each school library ... we are the helpers for your special-needs child, getting on and off the bus," she said.
Cindy Chine, a cafeteria worker from Frank Ohl Middle School, took issue with a proposal by school board President Michael Creatore for two central kitchens in the district to save money. Each of the school's eight buildings now has its own kitchen.
"Hot lunches, served on time, versus warm, transported lunches," she said.
Heuer said the administration asked for the time extension for the RIFs because it needs time to consider changes for much restructuring going on in the district, because of the new middle school opening on Raccoon Road this fall.
The superintendent said that the administration also wants time to consider recommendations in a state performance audit that could save the district up to 1.4 million, and some of those recommendations would result in changes that would have to be negotiated in OAPSE's contract.
The contract expires June 30, and the district will begin negotiations in May.