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Youngstown board resolves union issues; hires Chaney principal
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
The school board has resolved two unfair-laborpractice charges filed by the teachers union.
The Youngstown Education Association filed a charge last April with the State Employment Relations Board after the Youngstown Academic Distress Commission returned management rights to the school district. Some management rights had been relinquished in collective- bargaining agreements. But because the district was in academic emergency last year and under the commission’s control, the law allows the commission to restore those rights to the district.
Will Bagnola, YEA president, said the district had tried to implement changes without informing the union.
The union amended its complaint last July, saying the district “disregarded the parties negotiated dress-code policy and implemented a new one” that includes a disciplinary component.
Bagnola said two memorandums of understanding approved by the board Tuesday accomplish what the union wanted.
One memo establishes an alternate dispute- resolution process to resolve issues pertaining to restored management rights. If the parties disagree, either side may request mediation, and arbitration may be requested if mediation fails.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn said under the memo, the district can make assignments of the best people for particular positions rather than based on seniority.
The dress code outlined in the second memo lists jeans, low necklines, flip flops, skirts higher than 2 inches above the top of the knee, jogging suits and T-shirts among prohibited clothing.
“They implemented a new dress code without bargaining the effects of the dress code,” Bagnola said of the action that precipitated the unfair-labor- practice charge. If someone was determined not to be in compliance with the new dress code, he or she would be reprimanded.
The memo establishes a committee of the superintendent, the union president and a third party to resolve alleged violations of dress policy.
The board also appointed S. Diane Rollins, principal and campus administrator for James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, as Chaney principal. She replaces Richard Gozur, who resigned this month citing personal reasons. Rollins, who begins Feb. 1, will earn $38,814 for the remainder of this school year.