School board and AEA union face off at Austintown meeting

The union president said contract language is a
sticking point.

AUSTINTOWN — The Austintown Education Association was out in force at the school board meeting Tuesday as what appears to be a contentious contract negotiation continues.

Austintown is the last of 10 districts that were in negotiations this year to settle.

“I would encourage the school board to rethink its negative bargaining posture,” said Sandy DeCerbo, president of the AEA. “Teachers’ patience isn’t limitless.”

DeCerbo told the board that pay isn’t the only important issue. “Respect and dignity is important,” she said.

“Show respect,” she said, and “offer us a contract that shows your appreciation for a job well-done.”

Board President Michael Creatore got into a shouting match with DeCerbo at the September board meeting.

She had protested comments he’d made about cutting busing service, and then giving raises to teachers in their last contract.

Teachers were given 2 percent and 2.5 percent raises in each year of their last two-year contract, approved in August 2005. DeCerbo pointed out though that teachers had taken a pay freeze in 2004-05, the year the district cut busing.

Creatore voted against that cut. “We cut busing that I was not part of cutting,” he said Tuesday.

His comment met with jeers and catcalls from teachers.

Creatore went on to urge people to come out and support the board. He said the community should direct the board on how to run the district.

“I’m disappointed. We have had a lack of support from taxpayers,” he said.

Teachers again jeered his comments. “Here’s your community,” one of them said as several stood up.

DeCerbo said after the meeting that contract language is the sticking point in the negotiations. She said she cannot be more specific.

She acknowledged obvious animosity between the union and the school board president. She said, though, that she does not believe that animosity will lead to a strike. No one, she said, is talking about one.

The district and the AEA will go back into negotiations Nov. 1. A mediator is involved.

The Ohio Association of Public School Employees, which includes secretaries, bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria workers, is also still negotiating with the district.

A mediator has not been called in for those talks.

The board also approved a new three-year contract for Thomas Hura, the district’s business administrator. The vote was 3-2, with Traci Morse Merlo and David Ritchie voting no.

They said they believe Hura does a good job, but they did not want to approve a new contract for someone who hasn’t even been in the district for a full year.

Hura’s present contract doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2008, but Superintendent Doug Heuer said it’s common to negotiate contracts for central office administrators such as Hura well in advance.

The terms of the contract will not change. He receives an annual salary of $60,000, said Treasurer Barb Kliner.