Dover, Ohio - Dover school staff and administrators are temporarily forgoing pay raises as the district works to improve its financial outlook.

Superintendent Carla Birney says the union representing the district’s classified employees has agreed to accept zero-percent pay raises for next school year to help the district make up for recent funding losses. 

“We are very appreciative of our OAPSE Local 392 staff that given the current financial situation of the district proposed that we would roll over the contract for another year, which means that their wages and insurance will remain the same in the 2019-2020 school year as it was in the 2018-2019 school year," she explains. 

Birney says the board of education signed a memorandum of understanding with the union Monday to make the agreement official. She says district administrators and non-union staff members have also agreed to make the same concession.

"Our administrators and non-bargaining employees will not have a pay increase for the 2019-2020 also. The board of education approved a wage freeze for those employees also," she says.

Birney says this will amount to a significant savings for the district at a time when revenue has been declining significantly due in part to the phasing out of the Personal Tangible Property Tax. 

"This cost savings will help us to make reductions and get our budget in line with our current revenues," she says.

The district has placed a 6.9-mill, five-year levy on the May ballot in an effort to make up for some this lost revenue. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home around $20 a month and would generate more than $2.6 million annually for the district.  

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV