West Carrollton OKs school union pay raises after levy passes

More than 500 union members in West Carrollton City Schools are getting more money.

The district’s two unions will recieve one-year, 1 percent pay raises and a “stipend” equal to 2 percent of their annual salaries as a result of a measure approved Wednesday night by the West Carrollton board of education.

The increases for the final year of four-year contracts for both the West Carrollton Education Association and the West Carrollton Classified Employees Association are the third time in the past seven years the groups have gotten raises, Superintendent Rusty Clifford said.

“Our associations have worked with us to get to where we need to be,” he said, noting that one-year stipend does not have a long-term impact on the district’s salary schedules.

The 2014 four-year contracts both groups agreed to called for 1.5-percent increases the first year and 2-percent hikes in the second year. Last year, the unions agreed to pay freezes as busing cuts, a $3.72 million projected budget deficit by 2020 and the threat of cutting teaching jobs loomed after a spring levy defeat.

But voters in the district – which includes parts of Miami Twp. and Moraine – approved a November levy that increases tax funding for the first time in nine years.

Passage of a 5.5-mill property tax allowed the district to reinstate bus services and helped the district avoid cutting 20 to 25 teaching jobs, Clifford said.

“We’re extremely appreciative of the willingness of our associations to work with us in negotiations so that we could maintain our promise to the community when we passed the levy last November that we would be able to stay off (the ballot) for at least three years,” he said.

A five-year forecast approved by the board of education Wednesday night shows the deficit spending mode the district has been in the past three years will not return until 2020.

While the district had a $3.74 million deficit for the end of the 2015-16 school year, the levy’s passage provides a $74,411 surplus for the end of this school year, said Treasurer Ryan Slone.

The surplus climbs to $1.14 million by the end of the 2018-19 school year before the district shows a $786,957 deficit after the 2019-20 school year, according to the forecast.

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About the Author

Nick Blizzard

Nick Blizzard is a staff writer for the Dayton Daily News. He is a graduate of Stebbins High School who earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and its E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Nick is a Riverside native and has been a journalist in the Dayton area for more than 20 years.