School construction plans halted

By Ed Runyan

The district may not be able to renovate the intermediate school and high school.

AUSTINTOWN — Plans to tear down the school district’s five elementary schools and replace them with one or two new ones will be put on hold until the superintendent investigates a new program within the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

Superintendent Doug Heuer said the state’s recent budget corrections bill produced changes in OSFC guidelines that could affect — or even eliminate — the district’s construction plans.

One positive change involves the Exceptional Needs Program, for which the district might now qualify, Heuer added.

That program may be necessary in light of other changes in the bill that eliminated other options for Austintown, he said.

The end result is that the district will probably have to focus on the replacement of the elementary buildings and abandon plans to renovate Frank Ohl Intermediate School and Fitch High School, Heuer said.

The superintendent had hoped to select an architect and proceed with plans for an OSFC project this month, but later changed course, resulting in the board deferring a decision on such matters until at least November.

Heuer said the district won’t be able to afford the local share of the construction of new buildings and renovation of the two others under the new rules, so he is looking to replace the elementary buildings only.

In other business, the school board and Ohio Association of Professional School Employees recently approved the two-year contract for the district’s 226 nonteaching employees. The union represents cafeteria workers, secretaries, custodians, sweeper-cleaners, mechanics, groundskeepers, maintenance personnel and paraprofessionals.

The deal calls for a 1 percent pay increase the first year — which runs from July 1, 2007, through Aug. 31, 2008 — and zero percent the second year. That costs the district about $50,000.

But the contract is similar to the one the teacher’s union signed last winter in that its pay increase and higher costs for health care offset to produce a net zero increase in cost to the district, Heuer said.

Examples of salaries paid to workers covered by the contract (before the pay increase) include: 12-month full-time secretary, between $29,800 and $36,000 per year depending on seniority; 12-month full-time custodians, $30,000 to $36,000 per year; 12-month full-time mechanics, $32,000 to $38,000 per year; 9-month part-time paraprofessionals, $6,000 to $11,000 per year for between 1 and 3 3‚Ñ4 hours per day.

The contract requires workers who receive health insurance to increase their contribution to 10 percent instead of the former 3.5 percent. About half of OAPSE workers get medical insurance, which costs $4,500 per year for single coverage and $11,500 for family coverage.

The increase raises the cost to the employee of a single plan by $292.50 per year and a family plan by $747.50 per year.

The workers’ insurance provides standard medical coverage, plus dental. They do not receive eye coverage.

A new provision of the contract requires employees hired after June 19 to be paid 15 percent to 20 percent less than current workers for their first three years.

The contract also prevents part-time workers hired after June 19 from securing more than one part-time contract at a time. Heuer said the reason the district wanted this was that a state court district outside of Mahoning County recently ruled that school employees could not have two such contracts.

Eliminating dual contracts also could reduce substitute pay costs, Heuer added.

runyan@vindy.com