Members of the Coventry Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) accepted a pay freeze and rolled over their contract. The announcement was made at the school board meeting by Brian Smith, president. OAPSE represents clerical, support staff and bus drivers.
Closely related, a number of citizens attended the meeting expressing concerns about the future of busing and Coventry bus drivers.
School Superintendent Rusty Chaboudy has begun an exploration of Petermann LLC to provide bus transportation for the district's students. Coventry would give up their bus fleet and the cost of its maintenance in favor of buses dispatched from a Petermann terminal on Triplett Blvd.
In the public input portion of the meeting, comments focused on the possible negative impact of subcontracting on the kids and on Coventry's bus drivers.
A mother of a multiple-disabled child said that as her child has gone to four different schools in six years, the one constant for her son has been the driver. She was under the impression that Petermann could assign any driver from anywhere, any day to her son's route and she would lose consistency she values. She also questioned changing rates and providing of aides on the bus.
Coventry driver Linda Danko spoke similarly saying, “We have a vested interest in our kids in this community.
We see them from kindergarten to high school...we go to their plays...we are a part of the community and we care about these kids.”
Danko said Petermann would give out a one-year contract [driving for Coventry] then “anything can happen. You go to the terminal and they can tell you to go anywhere.”
The drivers are worried about their benefits and jobs as well.
Danko and and ex-Petermann driver who spoke each stated benefits are not guaranteed and there is no union. Also speaking against the switch was Rachel Jordan, OAPSE 131 Field Representative from the Canton office. Jordan was equipped with information packets for the board on bus subcontracting problems: “It is easy to find examples of districts negatively impacted by subcontracting."
She mentioned the Groveport Madison Schools who have a lawsuit filed against Petermann alleging among other things, failure to provide new buses, failure to report accidents and incidents, failure to cooperate with the district in determining routes, and failure to give fair market value for supplies and equipment to maintain buses.
Jordan said she was ”skeptical” of the Petermann representative's promises at the April meeting she attended. She asked if the company could provide the same benefits to drivers as Coventry Local Schools to which he replied, “We will try to match as well as we can.”
Jordan emphasized that drivers are “community members, taxpayers and parents” and in light of the pay freeze, hopes for “cooperation to be extended to OAPSE drivers.”
Board President Bob Wohlgamuth thanked Jordan for the packets and stated that the board has not met with any company and has not made any decisions.
Other notable items approved by the board: reinstatement of Kelly Kendrick, Supervisor of Technology (3-2 vote), Denzil Carothers to take over for retiring John Conant as Maintenance-Facilities Coordinator, purchase of a heating system for the Portage Lakes Fitness Center, Band/Choir Disney World trip in March 2010, and the resignations due to retirements of the early buy-out employees. Chaboudy gave special recognition to those with “a lot of years,” Geri Carroll, 29 years, John Conant, 25, Virginia Cook, 35, Debbie Knickerbocker, 27, Paula Prentice, 39, Pat Kolarek, 30, Pam Patterson, 29, Pat Perry, 30, Diane Popa, 29, and Sandy Richmond, 30.
The board recognized the Star Student Achievers for May with certificates and pins from the State of Ohio. Honored were: Aaron Simmons, an eighth grader from Coventry Junior High who loves science, helping the environment, and would like to become a pharmacist; Erwine's Allison Rankin, a talented and friendly hard worker, she plans to attend college in the future; Lakeview third grader Michael Stumpf, a responsible and bright student with a "magnetic personality" who enjoy the computer and music. Amanda Phillips of CHS and Turkeyfoot's Helen Goble were unable to attend the meeting.
Also, The Alumni Achievement Award inductees for this year's July banquet were announced: Milton P. Alexich, David Bulgrin, Kenneth Cox, Richard Palmer.
The board thanked David Scalise and the Coventry Junior High Jazz Combo for performing at the meeting and Principal Cindy MacDonald for hosting the meeting. They also thanked OAPSE and the bus drivers. The board congratulated the Senior Class of 2009 on their commencement June 5.
Member Bill Breitenbach announced that Coventry seniors have been awarded more than $42,000 in scholarships from local businesses.
At the end of the meeting, the board went to executive for 20 minutes then came back with a resolution to re-employ Chaboudy as superintendent from Aug. 5, to July 31, 2014 after his retirement.
The next meeting of the Coventry Board of Education is June 16, 6 p.m., at Coventry High School. The meetings are taped and played on Warner cable on Friday nights on Channel 16 and can also be viewed on the Web at www.coventryschools.org.
