{"id":1773,"date":"2011-02-16T09:54:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T14:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1773"},"modified":"2011-02-16T09:54:50","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T14:54:50","slug":"unionville-board-to-teachers-please-reconsider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1773","title":{"rendered":"Unionville board to teachers: please reconsider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board members ask teachers union to rethink rejection of fact-finder’s report<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education seemed to have one message for its teachers Monday night: please reconsider.<\/p>\n

The Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association\u2019s rank-and-file members voted down a proposed settlement to the year-long talks for a new contract, as spelled out by a state-appointed mediator on Feb. 7. By state law, the teachers\u2019 union must again vote to reject the deal, approved by the school board on Feb. 7.<\/p>\n

The teachers\u2019 union sought the fact-finding process in Dec., 2010 \u2014 a process that school officials say cost the district thousands of dollars and numerous man-hours \u2014 a point a number of board members made Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy law, the teachers are required to vote on this again,\u201d said board member Frank Murphy, who has chaired the negotiation committee for the board. \u201cWe would hope that the association would approve it \u2014 to get labor peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the current economic environment and various local school districts being forced to furlough teachers and staff, some board members pointed out that most people in the private sector are working just to keep their jobs \u2014 and not looking for big raises.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere\u2019s a time for moving forward, and there\u2019s a time for hanging on,\u201d member Jeff Hellrung said. \u201cThis is a time for hanging on. It\u2019s very disappointing. If that view were recognized, we\u2019d be done and have peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it remains unclear when teachers will vote again \u2014 expected this week \u2014 sources suggest it is unlikely there will be much movement in the vote. The main hurdle appears to be the half-step provision in mediator Marianne Schick\u2019s settlement proposal, a provision that union insiders say would set a bad precedent and potentially double service-time requirements for a teacher to reach full seniority \u2014 which could have a major impact on teacher earnings over an entire career. There are also some issues regarding health care plans, but the step issue is seen as the major barrier to a settlement at this point.<\/p>\n

Association members say they were happy that Schick largely sided with them on virtually all non-economic issues, while board members said they were disappointed with that, but willing to compromise, if it meant getting a labor deal done.<\/p>\n

Board members made it clear, Monday night, that they, too were not entirely happy with the proposal, but opted to accept it to gain three years of labor peace and to allow the district to focus on what are likely to be very challenging fiscal issues in the near term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was very difficult for me and for some members of the board to accept,\u201d board president Timotha Trigg said. \u201cThis was a tough agreement for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the board expressed a sentiment of being willing to compromise, there appear to be some points of contention, largely surrounding Pennsylvania State Education Association negotiator Ruthann Waldie. Previously, Waldie filed and then withdrew an unfair labor practices complaint against the district, and now is coming under fire for her claims that Schick, a mediator with 35 years of experience, used inaccurate data in coming up with her proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some criticism that \u2018false information\u2019 was used by the fact-finder,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI see no false information. The data that was used is from the 2000 Census. I disagree with the allegation \u2014 it may be somewhat out of date, but it is the most recent data available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2000 Census data is the most current data \u2014 the new 2010 Census data is not expected to be released until later this year.<\/p>\n

Board members also questioned whether the union was clouding the issues with statements they don\u2019t feel can be supported by the facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim to have a plan in place that would allow the teachers the raise they want without a tax increase,\u201d the board\u2019s Finance Chair, Keith Knauss said. \u201cWe\u2019ve asked the union to explain how it\u2019s possible or take it down from the association\u2019s Web site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should the association reject the proposal for a second time, as expected, negotiations are expected to resume shortly, but it remains unclear whether Schick\u2019s proposal will offer a framework for a potential settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board members ask teachers union to rethink rejection of fact-finder’s report By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education seemed to have one message for its teachers Monday night: please reconsider. The Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association\u2019s rank-and-file members voted down a proposed settlement to the year-long talks for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[45,44,43,42,24],"class_list":["post-1773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-negotiations","tag-school-board","tag-schools-2","tag-teachers-contract","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}