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Niles school board OKs pact with nonteachers
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The city school board has unanimously ratified a 13-month contract with its 105 nonteaching employees containing concessions that the superintendent believes will save the district $375,000 over its lifetime.
The agreement approved Wednesday had been previously ratified by Local #365 of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE).
The new contract, effective Thursday and running through Dec. 31, 2012, freezes all wages and step increments for its duration and requires all members to pay from 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost of medical benefits depending on the number of daily hours worked.
The higher percentage will be paid by those who work six hours or less daily.
Under the previous contract that expired in August, the board paid the entire medical premiums for all Local 365 members hired before October 2008 with employees hired after that date required to pay a small percentage.
Figures provided by Linda Molinaro, district treasurer, show that Niles was paying $1,826 monthly for family coverage for each employee and $790 for single coverage in the previous school year.
Molinaro and Mark Robinson, school superintendent, said they could not estimate the medical costs to the district with the OAPSE concessions until they review the agreement with the insurance carrier.
“OAPSE wants to be a team player in our district, and I thank them,” Robinson said of the contract.
Debbie Simini, local president, admitted the contract is “concessionary” but said the union members felt they had little choice.
She said that approximately 95 percent of the union members live in Niles and that played a role in deciding to go along with the agreement.
“We were faced with a school emergency and just felt we needed to step up to the plate and do what’s best for the district,” Simini said, adding that the vote to ratify the agreement “wasn’t close.”
“It’s going to be a difficult time for our members, especially those who work less hours,” Simini said.
The local represents the district’s maintenance and cafeteria workers, bus drivers, secretaries and administrative assistants.
Their wages vary with each job classification. Hourly wages for bus mechanics start at $11.47 an hour with a top scale of $17.78.
For secretaries in the elementary schools, the range is $10.64 to $16.63, while an assistant cafeteria cook, working five hours daily, starts at $9.18 and can go to $15.47 an hour.
Robinson met with the board in executive session after the ratification to discuss teacher negotiations.
The teachers have continued to work under their old contract, which expired Aug. 28. Both sides have declined to discuss the status of talks.