June 23rd, 2016 by WCBC Radio

WCBC News has learned that the union representing non certificated food service, maintenance and other operational employees of the Allegany County Public School System met to consider a contract offer from the system Wednesday evening, and turned down the proposal.

Our source tells us there were about 30 members of Maryland Public Employees Council 67/Local 1633e on hand for the discussion of the offer , which included a one half percent increase in pay, but a substantial increase in the cost of insurance.

For 8 of the 11 months in the current fiscal year, ACPS has had to dip into the fund balance to cover higher than expected insurance costs, which have run about 17 higher than budgeted.

Superintendent Dr David Cox told us in an earlier interview that the fund balance has approximately $3.5 million, but would be depleted during the upcoming year if insurance overruns were taken out of the fund.  

State law prohibits systems from operating in the red.

The current contract expires on June 30, 2016.  The three year agreement was not officially ratified until July 9th, 2013.

NOTE:  An earlier version of this story included "teachers" in the opening line.  We regret the error…