ASHLAND – The Ashland County West Holmes Career Center has a new contract with its teachers.
The school’s Board of Education voted unanimously at its regular meeting Thursday, Dec. 21, to approve a new three-year contract with the Ashland Vocational Teachers Association, retroactive to August 1 and running through July 31, 2020.
The contract includes a 1.25 percent pay raise the first year, 2 percent the second year and 1.25 percent the third year. Superintendent Michael Parry said the biggest change was on the health insurance side, where teachers were asked to pay a larger share of their premiums.
“For so long, public entities grew their insurance packages to compensate for the salary packages and those insurance packages were outpacing other industries in terms of the richness they were delivering,” he said. “We worked hard with the association for a new package, as part of the agreement, that will give us more of a choice and more flexibility that can assure our financial stability.
Although Career Center teachers will be paying several percent more for their health insurance, the new contract includes a new wellness incentive package through the schools’ insurance consortium.
“We asked for an increased contribution from employees but with the incentives they’ll be able to buy back some of their insurance cost,” said district treasurer Julie Smith.
Contract talks began in late April and finished last month. Parry said the process took seven months because negotiations slowed down during the summer.
“We never got particularly contentious and we were able to listen to each other and respond and understand each other even though there were things we did not agree on,” Parry said. “We all came to the table understanding that nobody was going to get everything they wanted but that we could all find some things that we wanted and be satisfied with that.”
The only other non-routine item of business during the last board meeting of 2017 was a final report from maintenance supervisor Joe Bowman on the conversion of the former Resource Conservation program area into classroom and laboratory space for the new Animal and Veterinary Science program that started this school year. Bowman said the project came in about $3,300 under budget and included work by four firms located in the Career Center school district and the school’s Construction Trades program.
Parry said the one item that caught school officials off guard was the fact that the construction plans did not include accommodations for handicapped accessibility. The school spent $17,530 for self-opening doors while Construction Trades built concrete ramps.
Parry also presented a list of $83,500 worth of potential future projects at the Animal and Veterinary Science area that either were not done initially in order to save money or need to be done now that the program is underway. They include additional barn space, an epoxy floor covering, trenching in the kennel area and additional pasture fencing.
Parry said Construction Trades instructor John Staats indicated his class could do the trenching and fencing next year and that the other projects could be done as money becomes available. Ashland City School Board representative Brian Lefelhoc suggested getting individuals and businesses in the community involved with helping to fund projects.
“We’re having some luck in Ashland City with that kind of thing, so we probably need to talk about it as a board, as far as what we’re willing to do, and have some discussions and then take that to the community because it shows good will between the community and here,” Lefelhoc said.
In other business, the Career Center Board recognized West Holmes School district representative Dave Kick for his seven years of service, who is leaving the board at the end of the year.
The board also set 7 p.m. on January 11 as the time and date for its organizational and regular January meetings. The board also will hold its annual budget hearing at the regular meeting.
