Mary Alice reporting – After one day of negotiations, a contract is set for roughly 30 employees for the next three years.
Nathan Kamban, Superintendent of the Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, attended Monday’s Tuscarawas County Commissioner’s meeting to go over the contract and get their approving signatures.
The agreement is between OAPSE and AFSCME local 4 and its local 103, and within, a pay increase was approved from August 31, 2022, to August 31, 2025.
“Pretty standard contract with three percent increases each year, which what we’ve typically done in the past but we did make some wage adjustments to make sure that we’re competitive with the public school districts, especially as we serve more and more children with intensive needs, especially around autism, continuity of staff is hugely important.”
Additionally, staffing is at full capacity for the New Philadelphia-based school and Kamban said a new classroom is also being added this year for kids who have more aggressive behaviors due to their disability.
“Really thought we’d get a lot of referrals for high school-aged kids but the past three years, we’ve seen more and more referrals for early elementary children, especially children with autism, and so because of that increase in the younger referrals we’ve need to open up a new classroom. It will be kindergarten through first grade approximately.”
Kamban pointed out that for staff that serve adults, there is a large staffing issue seen across the state and he said that one hurdle is to increase the wage rates available through Medicaid have not been bumped in many years.
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