Teachers, board ratify contract

By Jeanne Starmack

Health-care costs are going up 8 percent this year, the superintendent says.

STRUTHERS — Teachers and the Struthers board of education have ratified a two-year contract that includes a raise and makes a change in health care.

Schools superintendent Robert Rostan said the school board ratified the pact June 18. The 136-member teachers union, the Struthers Education Association, ratified it June 4.

Rostan said the contract includes a 2 percent raise. It also does away with coverage for spouses if the spouse has benefits available through his or her own employment, he said.

He called that change significant, saying that health-insurance rates are going up 8 percent this year for the district.

Still, he said, Struthers’ costs have risen significantly below the national average because it purchases insurance through the Mahoning County Schools Consortium. The national average, he said, is 16 percent to 18 percent.

Struthers teachers’ pay under the new contract ranges from a starting salary of $30,507 to a top salary of $69,556 for a teacher with 27 years’ experience and a master’s degree plus 30 hours of continuing education, he said.

For single coverage under the district’s core plan, the district spends $4,528 per employee a year, he said. For family coverage, the district spends $12,673 per policy a year. There is no co-pay.

For the district’s lower-deductible plan, it spends $4,824 a year for single coverage and $13,508 for family coverage. Teachers’ co-pay is 4 percent.