Thursday, August 17, 2006

By KEVIN PARKS
ThisWeek Staff Writer

The Worthington City School District was among the six winners of this year's Governor's Excellence in Workers' Compensation Awards, it was announced last week.

"We were quite surprised when we were nominated," admitted director of financial operations Tracy DeMatteo.

The honor, according to an announcement from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, is given to employers focusing efforts on reducing workplace accidents and actively supporting injured workers through a return-to-work program.

This is the 11th year the awards have been given.

The other winners this year, according to BWC spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer, are the City of Marysville, Interstate Cold Storage with offices in Columbus and Napoleon, Messer Construction of Cincinnati, the Cleveland Plumbing Supply Co. of Chagrin Falls and Mack Iron Works of Sandusky.

"The Governor's Excellence Award winners are selected for their unique commitment to workplace safety," bureau administrator and chief executive officer Bill Mabe said in a statement. "Each organization honored this year has dedicated time and energy to implementing proper safety strategies and as a result of their hard work, their safety records are exemplary.

"I commend them for their dedication to what is truly important, the safety of Ohio's workers."

Mabe himself, on behalf of Gov. Bob Taft, presented the award to Worthington City School District officials on Friday afternoon.

District administrators have "been working diligently the past two years," DeMatteo said, to find different ways to help employees who do get injured on the job while at the same time reducing workers' compensation costs. This is the second year of a program that provides a transition for injured workers from recovering to returning to their job or some job they are still able to do, the director of financial operations added.

In part this involved helping workers manage the paperwork involved with their claims.

"We needed to find a way to get people back to work," DeMatteo said.

For example, a custodian who suffered a back injury might no longer be able to do any heavy lifting, but would be capable of coming back to the district in some other capacity. This showed the employees, according to DeMatteo, that district officials valued them and were concerned about their well-being, instead of resenting them for getting hurt and costing the school system.

"They actually appreciated that," DeMatteo said.

In addition, she credited a software program, which will be going into its third year, that helps with a multitude of things, but most importantly with safety training and compliance with safety regulations. From those who do physical labor to teachers, bus drivers, food-service employees and even office workers, the software package offers online training courses to create greater awareness of safety.

"The Bureau of Workers' Compensation has really recognized that we're making the effort, that we don't just pay our bill and move on," DeMatteo said.