October 20, 2005

By Diane Chiddister

At their meeting Thursday, Oct. 13, members of the Yellow Springs Board of Education approved a new two-year contract with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE), which represents school staff members.

The board is still negotiating a new contract with the teachers union, the Ohio Education Association.

The school board voted 4–0 to approve the contract with OAPSE. School board member Richard Lapedes was absent. Present at the meeting were board president Rich Bullock and board members Mary Campbell-Zopf, Bill Firestone and Angela Wright.

The agreement with the staff union includes a 1.5 percent salary increase with an additional 1.5 percent cash payment.

According to a report by Superintendent Tony Armocida, the union members voted 16–0 to approve the agreement.

The union’s president, Nancy Purdin, declined to comment on the agreement.

The board also approved 1.5 percent salary increases, along with a 1.5 percent cash payment, for school administrators and policy staff for the next two years. The administrators include Yellow Springs High School Principal John Gudgel, Mills Lawn School Principal Christine Hatton, special education coordinator Jody Chick and Board of Education employees Teresa Newton (who retired Oct. 1), Susan Griffith, Eva Anderson, Sharon Horne and Jacob Stebert.

Contracts for Armocida and District Treasurer Joy Kitzmiller have not yet been finalized, Armocida said last week.

In other school board business:

• Patricia Olds told the school board that she attended the meeting out of concern for the “morale of the teachers,” since the teachers union and the board still have not agreed on a contract. A school board member in the 1970s, Olds encouraged the board to pay attention to the teachers’ needs.

“We spend too much money on the buildings and too little on teachers,” Olds said. “The teaching is the important thing.”

Olds also expressed concern that community members seldom attend school board meetings. When she was on the board, she said, large numbers of villagers attended school board meetings. She said she believes that sort of attention benefits the community and the schools.

• The board requested that Wright and Lapedes meet with Mary Ann Weissman of the Weissman Group, which the board has asked to serve as a consultant for a possible search for a new superintendent. Wright and Lapedes are to meet with Weissman to clarify the framework and timelines of her work, and will report back to the board.

• The board discussed a parking study submitted by an ad hoc committee of Village Council for new parking possibilities in town.

Board members agreed that Phillips Street, behind Mills Lawn School, could be revamped for parking, with a net gain of 24 spaces, with no harm to schoolchildren. However, they also agreed that another proposed site, Elm Street, which is adjacent to the school playground, is a potential safety hazard for children if developed into parking, and they agreed to not approve that site for new parking.

• The board approved the YSHS band and orchestra trip to Chicago for Nov. 17–19.

• Board members approved as modifications to the 2006 budget the following additional revenues: $10,000 for the Theater Arts capital improvement fund; $2,000 for YSKP to incorporate arts into the classroom, from the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education; and $1,000 for an Ohio Arts Council grant to Mills Lawn. They also included changes to the general fund, the most significant being the addition of $31,027 to the building heating budgets.

• The board approved Susan Butler as transportation coordinator, at $2,500 for the year.

• The board accepted the resignation of Leslie Welsh as YSHS junior class advisor, and approved her as co-advisor, with Margi Clonch, at $423 each.

• The board approved as substitute teachers, at $70 per day, the following: Pegeen Laughlin, Lea Pochet, Christopher Wintersheimer, Tonya Baise, Brian Gross, Charles Kelly and Gail Trippett. Cheryl Claypool and Angela Warner were approved as aides, at $10.38 per hour.

• The board approved cocurricular contracts for the following employees: Pat Spracklen, Student Assistance Team, at $1,143; Michelle Edwards, United Society advisor, $502; Yvonne Wingard and Robin Fast, YSHS senior class co-advisors, $529 each.

The board approved cocurricular contracts for the following: Lisa Crosswhite, YSHS cheerleading advisor, $847; Maurice Wimberly, assistant YSHS football coach, $1,874; Jeff Mohlman, seventh-grade basketball coach, $1,070; and Paul Comstock, eighth-grade basketball coach, $1,070.

• The board approved a recommendation that employees under the classified health insurance plan receive a four-month rebate of $27.50 per month.

• The board approved a recommended one-day suspension for YSHS custodian Greg Hasser.

• The board approved Jo Frannye Reichert as Title I instructional aide for Mills Lawn.

• The board approved Paula Cordell as community volunteer coordinator for the Ohio Reads Program, at a stipend of $2,000.

• The board approved the position for a Mills Lawn reading intervention tutor, effective Oct. 31.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com