Checks on the way for teachers' back pay

FRANKLIN TWP. | Nearly $300,000 worth of retroactive paychecks hit the mail Thursday on their way to current and former teachers at Warren County Technical School.

About three weeks after administrators approved the long-awaited contract, the school board signed off Wednesday on back pay for 56 staff members covering the period between July 1, 2006, and July 15, 2008, Chief School Administrator Robert Glowacky said. The new contract runs until June 30, 2010.

A typical staff member is receiving about $6,200 before taxes and pension contributions are taken out, he said. The technical school expects to send out smaller checks in the coming weeks for back pay associated with "extra hours" work, such as hall and cafeteria duties, Glowacky said.

The Warren Tech Education Association had criticized the school district for postponing the back-pay checks, but Glowacky said the district had to first review the new salary guide.

"It's just procedural," he said. "No one's intent is to delay."

Ed Yarusinsky, the teachers union president, only added, "We got them and that's it. In another year, we'll be negotiating again."