MEXICO – The local vocational board agreed Tuesday night to set up a committee to develop a new way of negotiating employee contracts. They also decided to go out to bid for insurance coverage after learning that the school’s premiums have risen by $6,000.
Region 9 School of Applied Technology Director Deborah Guimont said the current three-year contract expires next June, providing an appropriate time to put into writing how future contracts will be handled.
The school’s employees are not organized into a union.
“We need a format for negotiation,” she said. “I recommend to the board that we appoint two or three members and that the staff appoint two or three members to sit down and devise a timeline and ground rules for negotiation.”
Board Chairman Norman Clanton said a disagreement arose three years ago within the staff as to how to negotiate.
“We need to find a method for negotiation each year that is satisfactory to the board and to the staff. Maybe we need to sit down and be sure we are singing from the same sheet of music,” he said.
Although teacher salaries are set based on the average of the four sending district teacher salaries, which may still be the way salaries will be set, Guimont said she is concerned about the inequity of how educational technicians are placed on the salary scale.
“There is an inconsistency,” she said.
Board members Kenny Robbins of SAD 21, Betty Barrett of SAD 43 and Wayne Thurston of Peru School Department, volunteered to sit on the committee.
Once staff volunteers are chosen, the committee will begin its work. Guimont said the committee is needed as a part of the beginning of the development of the 2004-2005 operating budget.
The board also agreed that a $6,000 hike in liability insurance was too much. Guimont said the school’s liability insurance jumped from $9,000 a year to $15,000 a year because such insurance is required by MeadWestvaco.
Forestry students use a wood lot owned by the paper company as part of its educational program. Because MeadWestvaco is now an additional insurer, the school’s insurance increased.
Guimont recommended that the board keep the current carrier for 90 days, which she said is enough time for the school to go out to bid. If a cheaper package can be found, all the school’s insurance will go with a new company.
eadams@sunjournal.com
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