Austintown teachers: Resume talks

AUSTINTOWN — Teachers have asked the Austintown Board of Education to go back into contract negotiations.

Austintown Education Association president Sandy DeCerbo said she took a formal written request to the superintendent’s office Tuesday.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 7 a.m. Thursday to discuss negotiations.

The two sides have not met since Nov. 17, after the teachers union rejected the board’s last-and-best offer. The union then rejected a tentative agreement Nov. 26. It had been signed by both negotiating teams.

Superintendent Doug Heuer met with the union membership Monday to answer questions about the tentative agreement.

The two-year agreement calls for a one percent raise the first year and no raise the second. Teachers would be picking up 8.5 percent of the health-care premium.

The sticking point in negotiations, which have been going on since spring, is the amount of planning time teachers get and whether they have input into that decision.

Teachers at Austintown are paid between $29,000 and $66,000 a year. They are ranked ninth highest in salaries out of the 14 Mahoning County school districts, according to information provided by DeCerbo.