Health insurance costs bog down contract talks at Career Center

ASHLAND – The union representing teachers and staff at the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center points to the cost of health insurance as the major sticking point in contract negotiations that have been ongoing since April.

The Ashland Vocational Teachers Association, which has 39 members, wants the school system to pay the bulk of the cost for insurance premiums, according to Julia Subler, union president and a science teacher at the school.

She said the board wants to change the percentages so the teachers pay a rate of 15% rather than the 12% rate each union member paid under the expired contract.

Subler said teachers have been working under the terms of the old contract, which expired on July 31.

"Technically, we're working without a contract," said Subler, who noted both sides met with a federal mediator on Sept.15 to try to reach an agreement.

"Our big thing is that our school is extremely financially stable and the board would like for staff to pay more of a higher insurance premium. And we just feel like with the school being so, thankfully, financially stable, that there's no reason for that," Subler said.

Federal mediator involved

In a statement read to the Board of Education at its Sept.16 meeting, Subler said the school "has the fourth highest 'days of operating cash' of any vocational school in the state of Ohio," and the association "can't see why the Board's negotiating team continues to demand that the staff live with less."

Superintendent Rodney Cheyney called the negotiations a "confidential process" and declined to comment specifically on the issue.

"We are diligently working on a contract that we believe recognizes the tremendous jobs that our teachers and staff do on a daily basis," he wrote in an email.

Subler said the union approached the district months before the contract expired in an effort to have a new contract in place sooner.

With the mediator's help, she said, both sides have tentatively agreed on some areas, such as tuition reimbursements and supplemental contracts for special education teachers, but are continuing talks on other contract areas.

Subler believes both sides will meet with the mediator for a second negotiating session soon.

"It just all goes back to the fact that our district is very financially stable," Subler said. "...So we feel like taxpayer money should be used to pay our workforce to educate our students."

Reach Rachel Karas at rkaras@gannett.com.

On Twitter: @RachelKaras3.