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Employees, administrators to take concessions
Salary and wage concessions by teachers, administrators and other district employees are planned in order to save some direct services to students in Reynoldsburg City Schools.
Administrators and central office support staff will take concessions for a savings of more than $363,000 according to a news release.
The Board of Education is expected to approve an offer by the Reynoldsburg Education Association (REA) to return $440,000 of negotiated pay for next school year.
The central office will be closed for eight additional days next school year, resulting in salary reductions for all central office administrators and support staff. Contracts with building principals and other central office personnel stationed throughout the district also will be reduced by eight days. The savings to the district will be more than $165,000.
Administrators and central office staff also will receive no cost-of-living raises next year. Typical 3-percent raises for those staff members would have cost more than $198,000.
The current contract between the Reynoldsburg City School District and the REA expires in July 2010. The teachers’ association has offered the concessions for the last year of its current contract despite the fact that the Board has promised the community that revenues from the operating levy would not be used to give future raises, according to the release.
Concessions by the Reynoldsburg Support Services Association (RSSA) will be considered as part of contract negotiations that are expected to begin in May. The current contract expires in July. The Board and the leadership of the Reynoldsburg Support Services Association (RSSA), which represents bus drivers, custodians, maintenance staff, office aides, paraprofessionals, secretaries and security personnel, discussed negotiating concessions for next year in advance of the May 5 vote. Both parties agreed, however, to address any concessions in context of the whole contract, which is to be renegotiated
beginning in May.
"While we appreciate the RSSA’s willingness to step to the plate, we believe it is in the best interest of the school district to discuss concessions in the context of the broader contract negotiations,” Superintendent Stephen Dackin said in the news release. “What we need now, more than ever, is the financial stability that comes with a multiple-year contract.
“I am grateful that everyone has been willing to make personal sacrifices in order to protect what programs we can," he said. "These concessions will preserve some direct services to children.”
The employee concessions will go into effect whether or not the levy passes. Reynoldsburg City Schools is facing $11 million in cuts if voters reject the school levy on May 5. This would be the first operating levy for Reynoldsburg City Schools in 12 years.
Dackin noted in the release that the district has achieved an “Excellent” rating on the State Report Card while school enrollment has increased by more than 1,000 students in the past 12 years.
“We have made great progress since the last time we received new revenue,” Dackin said. “We need this levy to maintain our quality schools.”
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