No new teacher contract yet

District, union

to talk July 9

By BECKY BROOKS

Enterprise Editor

clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com

Negotiations on a contract with the Clyde-Green Springs Education Association are continuing.

At the Monday night local school board meeting, superintendent Todd Helms acknowledged that the contract with local school teachers was expiring.

The previous three year contract ended on Monday, June, 30.

He asked the board to approve teacher, non-certified, coach and advisor hirings with wage rates to be added later after a contract is approved.

"We meet again on the 9th (of July)," school treasurer Alan Binger said on Tuesday. "It doesn't really affect anything."

Binger said that there is latitude over the summer to negotiate the agreement as certified staff pay for the school year is paid over 26 pay periods - including the summer.

"They are being paid what they were paid last year," he said.

The new contract would not affect pay scales until the first pay period in September, he added.

Binger admitted the administration hoped to have negotiations completed by June 30.

"We had hoped," he said, but commented, "I thought we would be at impasse."

Doug McCauley, president of the CGSEA, could not be reached Tuesday for comment on negotiations that began earlier this year.

Binger said the sticking issues are insurance and salaries.

"We've come to an agreement on the other issue," he added.

"When we meet on 9th, we expect to have a counter offer," the treasurer commented.

The last contract with the CGSEA had included a one-year pay freeze and a reopener cause that allowed the union and board to negotiate a wage and insurance increase in year two of the contract.

The school board approved a three-year contract last year with its other union, Local 415 of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.