Friday, May 20, 2011
By jeanne starmack
campbell
The school district tentatively is able to project nearly a $500,000 savings for fiscal year 2012 in its proposed five-year forecast.
The savings is largely the result of a reorganization that is sending eighth-graders from the middle school to the high school, schools superintendent Thomas Robey said.
The forecast, which must be voted on by the school board this month and sent to the state, was tabled at the board’s Tuesday meeting because two unions, the Campbell Education Association and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, had not yet had contract-ratification meetings.
CEA’s meeting was Thursday, and the two-year contract was ratified 63 to 15, said union president Lisa Steigerwald-Kana.
The contract included no raises and a higher co-pay toward health-insurance, she said.
OAPSE’s meeting is set for Monday afternoon.
Agreements also are pending with administrative and other nonunion employees, Robey said.
Until the contracts are settled, the district can’t firmly project how much of a savings it will have, Robey said.
Union representatives at the board meeting said the unions are making concessions.
“There have been many concessions made — we understand that has to happen,” said CEA secretary Mary Janek.
“We have also given concessions — gladly, because this is all about the kids,” said OAPSE president Cathy Berry.
Robey is proposing staff reductions in the reorganization through retirements and reassignments. The total potential reduction is one administrator, 51/2 teaching positions, a bus driver and a head custodian. No employees are being laid off, he said.
Other cost controls include improving bus routes to save on fuel and repairs, buying food and electricity through purchasing consortiums and a reduction in workers’ compensation rates for participation in a special training program.
District treasurer Nora Montanez said that in the proposed five-year forecast, total expenditures drop from $13,178,316 in fiscal year 2011 to $12,603,609 in 2012. Expenditures continue to drop in fiscal year 2013 to $12,542,340 but creep back up in 2014 to $12,622,015 and to $12,769,817 in 2015.
Montanez said it is hard to project five years out because of uncertainty over how much money the schools will get from the state.
In an issue related to the reorganization, Robey said he and the schools’ transportation director still are considering the best way to offer busing for eighth-graders.
The district does not offer busing for high-school students, but, Robey said, eighth-graders will be bused.
Fiscal year 2012 runs from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012.