Keystone Oaks, Teachers Approve 3-Year Contract Extension; Dormont Elementary Principal Retiring

The School Board and the district’s teachers agreed on a three-year contract extension two years before the current one expires.

The district’s negotiator and the union president said the contract was good for education and finances.

The contract includes a step freeze in the first year, a reduction in raises for teachers at the top pay scale of more than $600 each year and more than doubling the teacher’s health care co-pay during the life of the contract. The contract will expire at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

“These are difficult times for school districts across the commonwealth. Our budgets continue to shrink while our costs continue to rise,” said Gwen Walker, the district's fiscal services director.

“This important step will provide us with labor peace and some cost certainty and it will go a long way toward helping us to address some of the severe structural budget deficit challenges the continue to face our school district," said Walker, who said she'll retire next June.

The school board is expected to vote next month Aiken and Myrtle elementary schools and send students to Dormont Elementary.

John McCarthy, president of the Keystone Oaks Education Association, said the contract “sends a clear message that the teachers and the school board are committed to the students and the taxpayers of the Keystone Oaks School District.”

A statement from the union said the contract allows the teachers to focus on educating students.

The union also thanked school board President Dennis Fuga, Superintendent William Urbanek and Walker.

"Through this contract extension they provided the Keystone Oaks School District with stability during these very uncertain times," the union said in a statement.

The board also accepted the retirement of Dormont Elementary Principal George Shevchik, who will leave at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

Shevchik had been the assistant principal at the middle school before helping to open Dormont Elementary in 1996. He’s been the elementary school’s only principal.

It was a privelege to work in the district for the past 18 years, he said.

"I have been fortunate to work with dedicated administrators, teachers, school board members and support personnel, and I will truly miss the current administrative team and especially the students, parents, teachers and community of Dormont that make Keystone Oaks a very special place,” he said.

The district also approved a two-year contract extension to Assistant Superintendent Kathy Foster, through the 2015-16 school year.