Lordstown schools OK nonteachers pact

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

The village school district has approved a contract with its 22 nonteaching employees that includes the same three-year wage freeze and improvement in health care that was approved by teachers last May.

Superintendent Bill Pfahler said the board ratified the contract 5-0 after the union approved it earlier Wednesday.

The contract is retroactive to August 2009 and runs through July 2012. It covers secretaries, bus drivers, maintenance and custodial workers and cafeteria staff.

On the low end of the wage scale, cafeteria workers make between $11.77 and $16.06 per hour. On the high end, bus mechanics make between $16.02 and $19.25 per hour.

As with the teachers, the contract reduces health-care costs for workers by eliminating an employee contribution that they had under the old contract.

Pfahler said that provision involves a small increase in cost to the school district.

The same provision increased the cost to the district about $30,000 per year when the teachers contract covering 43 employees was approved last year.

Mark Ferrara, school district treasurer, said step increases for the nonteaching employees amounted to about a $20,000 increase in cost to the district in the first year, but that increase is offset by retirements.

The cost of health care for the workers who have it is $15,516 annually for a family plan and health-savings account and $7,224 annually for single coverage and health-savings account. About half of the nonteaching employees receive the school district’s health care.

Pfahler said the pay freeze is a reflection of the poor economic conditions in school districts throughout the Mahoning Valley and the state.