Retirements+Help+McKeesport+Avoid+Staff+Furloughs

=By Patrick Cloonan= =//Published in the McKeesport Daily News//= =//6/8/11//= = = = = = = =McKeesport Area School District's board of directors has accepted the retirement of 35 professional employees wiping out all but one furlough in the process.= =In a brief special session Tuesday, the board accepted early retirements received through Thursday from teachers and other certified professionals who took an incentive with health insurance or a lump sum payment.= ="I consider it a win-win," said McKeesport Area Education Association vice president Julia Cooper, one of those to retire. "We have retirees and we saved jobs at the same time."= =It is part of a process that will help MASD weather cuts in state funding. On May 25, the school board passed a preliminary $57.5 million 2011-12 budget and trimmed at least $2.5 million from the 2010-11 spending plan.= =There is a tentative 0.34-mill tax hike to 17.05, with each mill netting approximately $750,000. Final action on the budget is scheduled June 22 at 7:30 p.m.= ="We still have a bleak financial future," superintendent Dr. Timothy M. Gabauer said.= =Those cuts may have been eased with state House action on a budget originally proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett. District business manager David Seropian said the House budget may restore $1 million of Corbett's cuts from the basic education subsidy and $400,000 in Accountability Basic Grants used for full-day kindergarten.= =More changes are possible as the budget moves through the state Senate.= ="We're encouraged because the House started this," Seropian said. "Everything points to our getting more money."= =Seropian said the incentive was payment of the current health insurance premiums for "up to 10 years ... or until they reached 65" or a $30,000 payment.= =The incentive next year is either 90 percent of the premium or $15,000. Two years from now it's 80 percent of the premium.= =The district used what Gabauer called "checkerboarding," moving teachers around to save as many positions as possible.= ="We worked closely with our union leadership," Gabauer said.= =One post could not be saved as the board furloughed art teaching itinerant Craig Slafka. There was one support staff furlough, of groundskeeper Edward Haberjak, but he was picked up for a custodian's post for $30,140 a year.= =Accepting early retirement in addition to Cooper are Robert Pupich, Candice Ursiny, Margaret Jefferson, Nada Klimek, Vida O'Neil, Maria Katsakis, Nancy Mols, Virginia Dobos, Linda Herrmann and Sherry Skiba.= =Also, Doreen Brooks, Joan Burns, Edna DeCroo, Marian Gregg, Margaret Sigler, Doris Martino, Linda Kistler, Karen Pavlik, Donna Meneely, Lil Bator, Deb Burnett and Bonita Haver.= =Also, Barbara Spivak, Charlotte Jones, Jackie Thompson, Heather Watson, Jackie Andrews, Nancy Williams, Chris Starry, Margot Minor, Renee Shaw, Paula Robinson, Diana O'Donnell and Deborah Parknavy.= =The board eliminated a category 5 bookkeeper, to be replaced with a category 5 bookkeeper and purchasing clerk; a category 4 special education secretary, to be replaced with a category 5 special education/curriculum and instruction secretary; and a category 4 grant secretary, to be replaced by a category 5 federal programs/grant secretary.= =The board hired tutors for a summer math and reading recovery program, with Tom Bauman as lead tutor, Derek Pavlovic, Robin Canova, Kathy McCormack and James O'Neal hired as math tutors, Diane Metz and Michelle Richardson as English tutors and Lori Hegedus as a substitute tutor who can handle English or math.= = Read more: [|Retirements help McKeesport avoid staff furloughs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] =

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