Pact seen as support for tax levy

Teachers had also accepted a pay freeze in a contract extension last year.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Education Association’s acceptance of a three-year concessionary contract is being viewed as a sign of support for a 9.5-mill tax levy on the November election ballot.

This is the first step toward getting the levy passed, said Christine Domhoff, a member of the state fiscal oversight commission monitoring school district finances.

Youngstown was placed under fiscal emergency by the state in November 2006, resulting in the appointment of a five-member Financial Planning and Supervision Commission to monitor and control district finances.

The commission gave its approval to the new teacher contract Thursday. Both the YEA and the school board approved it last month, but details were withheld pending commission approval.

Will Bagnola, YEA president, said the 650-member union was willing to accept a concession package “because we’re trying to move the district forward. We’re trying to help kids.”

School district officials publicly thanked the teachers for their willingness to accept the package and indicated that bargaining sessions were more like two sides working toward a common goal rather than an adversarial process.

Roger Nehls, head of the oversight commission, called the agreement “a demonstrable commitment by the administration and teacher leadership to move this district back to solvency.”

“The community also needs to step up at the levy ballot,” he said, warning that the district can’t cut its way back to solvency.

What’s been done

The district, which ran a $15 million deficit last fiscal year, has cut spending by $17 million over the past two years, and Superintendent Wendy Webb said her administration is looking for additional reductions.

The district must now show the community that it’s done all it can in terms of immediate cost cutting, said commission member June Johnson, suggesting one avenue of urging people to support the levy.

The teacher contract covers this year and the next two years and calls for a freeze of base wages over that period.

That doesn’t mean that some won’t see additional money in their paychecks.

About one-third of the teachers have yet to reach their pay scale maximums and are still moving up through the salary schedule steps each year.

Those people will still get those step increases, Bagnola said.

School officials had no available estimate on what that will mean in terms of salary cost will be, but said it will be far less than the $700,000 a year the teachers will now contribute to their health-care insurance cost.

This is the first time teachers have agreed to pick up part of that expense.

The contract actually extends the teacher pay freeze to a fourth year. They accepted a freeze of base salaries last year in an extension of their previous agreement.

The new contract ends June 30, 2010.

The teacher payroll has been cut significantly, said Carolyn Funk, district treasurer. She told the commission that the salary line item has been reduced from $55 million last year to about $52 million this year.

gwin@vindy.com