Bowling Green now has a three-year contract with its support personnel.
On Thursday, the school board approved the contract with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees
Chapter 311.
The contract mirrors that given to the teachers in March.
OAPSE member will get a 2.25-percent salary increase for each of the three years of the contract, which
starts July 1.
The deal, though, was not without some disagreement.
Union President Peggy Thompson said that a federal mediator was called in when the two sides could not
agree on step increases
The mediator worked with both sides Tuesday, the same day the union voted to agree on the contract.
"We were trying to squeeze a little bit out," said Thompson.
Teachers lost their step increases, and OAPSE members did as well with this agreement.
Both unions had been working with a one-year contract and salary freeze.
This contract will run through June 30, 2017 for the district’s secretaries, food service workers, bus
drivers and custodians. There are 80 members in the union, and about half voted.
Thompson is in her first year as union president. She has been with the district since 1988 and is
currently an accounts payable clerk.
Superintendent Ann McVey said she was "very appreciative of the efforts the negotiating team
made."
The final vote of nearly two to one in favor "speaks highly of our support personnel," she
added.
Both unions "really stepped up to the plate the last couple years," said board President Steve
Cernkovich.
He added he hopes voters take note of that success when it comes time to renew two levies that expire in
2015.
Thompson said there is some minor changes to health insurance coverage, mostly due to the Affordable Care
Act, with a "mild" increase in premiums the second an third year of the contract.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board hired Kelly Miller as school psychologist; Shannon Opsincs, as
elementary art teacher; Ashley Schmeltz, as middle school intervention specialist; and James Amspoker as
middle school athletic director.
Stacey Lucas was hired as the new head girls soccer coach.
Lucas played for Bowling Green State University from 2006-09 and has served as assistant soccer coach at
Owens Community College. She also is a coach as the Pacesetter Soccer Club in Sylvania.
The board also approved rescinding of the acceptance from Katie Hovanic, who had been hired as an
intervention specialist at Conneaut.