Austintown board OKs contract

June 30, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

The Austintown Board of Education approved a two-year contract with its Ohio Association of Public School Employees union during a special meeting Wednesday.

The contract covers the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years and gives a 1 percent raise to 260 nonteaching personnel.

Superintendent Vince Colaluca said the board will be able to balance the increase with the money saved because the union agreed to give control of overtime to the board.

“The union took a concession and is paying for that raise,” said Colaluca.

Payroll cost for nonteaching personnel for the 2010-11 school year is approximately $4.5 million. This includes full- and part-time paraprofessionals, secretaries, food service workers, sweeper/cleaners and custodians, groundskeepers, maintenance, bus mechanics and bus drivers.

Treasurer Mary Ann Herschel said that entry-level employee wages range from $10.34 to $11.57 an hour with skilled workers starting at $14.79.

Colaluca said in the past, full-time employees could pick up additional shifts and collect overtime, but in the new contract, the union agreed to fill open positions with short-hour employees. Employees will not be able to work more than eight hours a day without board approval.

The agreement comes after a year of negotiations and a federal mediator. Colaluca said the board wasn’t going to give any money without concessions.

Colaluca said hourly employees haven’t seen an increase in pay since 2008. Under the contract, a full-time worker earning $13 an hour could expect 13 cents more per hour or $5.20 a week. Employees will continue to pay 10 percent toward their health care.

Colaluca said the district was able to end the year in the black because the board and union worked together.