Greenon district to keep salary freeze

Action will mark 2nd year without raises. Leaders say the move has saved the district $460,000 so far.

ENON — Greenon school board members plan to vote Thursday to freeze pay for district administrators and central office employees, a continuation of a two-year wage freeze for all district employees that has saved an estimated $460,000 to date.

“It’s not a new crisis or a new issue,” said Treasurer Ryan Jenkins. “It’s just us following through with everything we said we would do.”

In the spring of 2011, the district’s two labor unions — the Greenon Federation of Teachers, representing certified staff, and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, representing classified staff — agreed to take a two-year pay freeze for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years.

The freeze covers both base pay raises and step increases, which are raises given for additional experience or education.

Nonunion employees also took a two-year cut. The second of those two years will be voted on by board members Thursday for 16 employees, including Jenkins and Superintendent Dan Bennett, at an estimated savings of about $27,000 a year.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Indian Valley Middle School.

Freezes for all employees reportedly saves the district about $230,000 each year.

“We all, for the sake of budget issues, agreed to a true freeze, a wage and step freeze,” said Jenkins. “It was put in place as a way for district employees to say ‘Hey, we’re also willing to do our share to meet our budget needs.’ ”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0373 or megan.gildow@coxinc.com.

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