Northwest Dispute Grows

North­west State Com­mu­nity Col­lege and the North­west State Com­mu­nity Col­lege Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, both claim they were forced to can­cel a fact-finding ses­sion that each had hoped would help resolve dif­fer­ences over cen­tral­iza­tion of power and a new con­tract agree­ment.

The edu­ca­tion asso­ci­a­tion said, in a press release, that the rea­son for the can­cel­la­tion was the college’s fail­ure to iden­tify its posi­tion in con­tract form prior to the hear­ing, and also a fail­ure to iden­tify a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to act on its behalf. They claim that made it impos­si­ble for the third-party ‘fact finder’ to deter­mine what case the col­lege intended to present.

The NSCEAA says it’s will­ing to resched­ule for Feb. 27th how­ever. They also say that the col­lege has a reserve of 35 per­cent of the total bud­get and a bank bal­ance of more than $9.3 mil­lion after total expen­di­tures of about $26.8 mil­lion for the fis­cal year 2014.

North­west State responded, say­ing that the bud­get num­bers are accu­rate and are the rea­son that the state of Ohio con­sid­ers North­west State Com­mu­nity Col­lege to be on solid finan­cial foot­ing. The fact finder, NSCCEA and col­lege rep­re­sen­ta­tives are sched­uled to recon­vene on Feb. 27.

Mean­while, the college’s board of trustees meet today at the school’s main cam­pus in Archbold.