Austintown teachers reject contract

AUSTINTOWN — Teachers rejected a contract proposal by a large majority, and the Austintown Education Association has requested that the school board go back into negotiations.

Teachers voted Wednesday, with 75 percent of the membership voting against what was “a last and best offer” from the school board, said Superintendent Doug Heuer and AEA President Sandy DeCerbo.

DeCerbo said that 100 percent of AEA membership voted. There are 326 teachers in the union.

DeCerbo said union leaders did not recommend the membership reject or accept the proposal. She said that because it was a last and best offer, the leadership was required to take it to the membership.

“This was not a mutually arrived-at proposal,” she said.

DeCerbo said that there were three membership meetings before the vote to clarify points of the proposal.

She would not be specific about why she believes the membership turned it down.

She said, as she has in the past, that there are language issues.

“The ball is in [the school board’s] court,” she said. “We’re hoping they honor our request” for more negotiations.

Heuer said the school board will meet in a closed session Friday morning to consider the AEA’s request.

Of 10 Mahoning County school districts in negotiations with teachers this year, Austintown is the only one left that has not settled on a contract. The district is also still negotiating with its nonteaching employees in the Ohio Association of Public School Employees union.