{"id":1902,"date":"2011-02-23T09:30:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T14:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2011-02-23T09:41:29","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T14:41:29","slug":"teacher-contract-talks-resume-after-second-rejection-of-fact-finders-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"Teacher contract talks resume after second rejection of fact-finder’s report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Structure and health care plans seen as major hurdle to new deal<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>PENNSBURY \u2014 And so the negotiations continue.<\/p>\n

After district teachers rejected for a second time the framework of a proposed settlement offered by a state mediator, contract talks between the Unionville-Chads Ford School District and its teachers resumed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Although both sides have publicly talked about numbers \u2014 it appears to be structure that is the biggest hurdle right now to getting a deal done. The teachers are fighting to maintain their \u201cstep\u201d system \u2014 the typical grid that gives teachers raises based on seniority. State mediator Mariann Schick adopted a district proposal to make the steps half as large and double their number \u2014 half-steps.<\/p>\n

Sources close to the negotiation say that while the teachers are willing to negotiate on pay increase numbers, they aren\u2019t willing to be the first district in the state to accept a \u201chalf-step\u201d salary grid. Such a plan would double the time it takes a teacher to reach full seniority from 16 to 32 years, if it were to become the norm.<\/p>\n

Another roadblock: the health care plan. Union sources say they\u2019ve made offers to cut costs on their health care plans, but say that the district\u2019s offer on health care would be a big cost increase for teachers and their families. The district counters by arguing that the district\u2019s self-insured health care plan has seen spikes in costs and the numbers need to be better contained \u2014 a minor tweaking won\u2019t be enough, especially in light of diminished real estate tax income and limits on tax increases \u2014 and are asking the teachers to accept a health care plan similar to what the district\u2019s administrators agreed to last year.<\/p>\n

In the fact-finding process \u2014 one requested by the teachers\u2019 union \u2014 Schick largely sided with the district on pay and health care, while siding with the teachers on work rules and other non-economic issues.<\/p>\n

School Board president Timotha Trigg added some urgency to that discussion Tuesday night, suggesting that if a deal weren\u2019t in place by the end of the July, the school district would be looking at much larger health care costs for the 2011-12 budget year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we cannot get that health care agreement by the end of July, it will be much harder to get an agreement done,\u201d Trigg said.<\/p>\n

While talks continue, both sides say they recognize growing frustration in the school community and have stepped up the pace of talks, working to find a deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Structure and health care plans seen as major hurdle to new deal By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com PENNSBURY \u2014 And so the negotiations continue. After district teachers rejected for a second time the framework of a proposed settlement offered by a state mediator, contract talks between the Unionville-Chads Ford School District and its teachers resumed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[45,44,24],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-negotiations","tag-school-board","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","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=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}