The State College Area School District Board of Directors finally reached an agreement with the State College Educational Support Personnel Association at its Monday night meeting after months of negotiations.
The contract includes a salary freeze for the academic year that just concluded, with an increase occurring in each of the remaining three years. There are significant health care changes involving medical insurance in the new contract.
The agreement runs retroactively from July 2014 to June 2018 and affects 360 school district employees, including secretaries, paraprofessionals, clerks, and other support personnel.
The contract passed by a 7-1 vote. Board member Jim Pawelczyk was the lone dissenting vote.
“It represents the culmination of many months of respectful discussions, and will serve both the district and the association’s dedicated, hard-working members well in the coming years,” board president Amber Concepcion says.
The support personnel association “voted overwhelmingly” to accept the proposed contract earlier this month, according to co-presidents Shelbi Smeltzer and Trish Storch.
“We recognized that it is a fair contract and that the healthcare change was inevitable,” Smeltzer and Storch said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful to conclude the process after 18 months of negotiating and would like to thank the district’s team for their new collaborative way of negotiating.”
In other news, the board heard an update on the construction schedule for the high school renovation project. The first phase runs from this month to August, and a total of eight phases conclude in July 2018. This summer’s work will involve building a bus driveway and a paved student pathway that leads from the back of the South Building to a crossing at Westerly Parkway linking to the North Building.
Board member Penni Fishbaine expressed concern over the noise during school days. Construction management representative Tim Jones says demolition will need to occur during the day in order to keep with the schedule.
“It won’t be eliminating noise,” Director of Physical Plant Ed Poprik says. “It will be managing noise. That will be the reality we’re living for the next three years. … [The demolition] should be kind of peeling the building down as opposed to the old-fashioned wrecking ball.”
The heavier construction work will begin in the near future, as crews will be blasting bedrock for excavation at the South Building site as early as the end of this week. A total of five to six detonations will occur, with no more than one happening in a day. The crew will coordinate with the Welch Community Pool to avoid disruptions, and the staggered blasts come in lieu of constant jackhammering.
“It will be better for the neighborhood and people in the pool,” Poprik says.
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