{"id":4325,"date":"2011-08-18T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=4325"},"modified":"2011-08-17T16:44:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T20:44:49","slug":"some-progress-seen-as-teacher-contract-talks-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=4325","title":{"rendered":"Some progress seen as teacher contract talks resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evidence of some thawing as parents push for both sides to compromise and get a deal done to end 15-month dispute<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>PENNSBURY \u2014 The often contentious talks between the Unionville-Chadds Ford School district and its teachers union seem to be again picking up some momentum \u2014 although it remains unclear as to whether there\u2019s any resolution in sight.<\/p>\n

During Monday night\u2019s Board of Education meeting, board member Frank Murphy \u2014 the board\u2019s point person in the talks \u2014 summed up the negotiations to date, noting that the two parties had met for 5 \u00bd hours on Aug. 11, and if not finding common ground, at least appeared to have a meaningful dialog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeas were exchanged, cordially and affably,\u201d he said. \u201cBut a wide gap still remains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy told the audience, which included roughly 200 of the district\u2019s teachers, that he felt that both sides ultimately had the same three goals \u2014 and cited the interview process of Dr. John Sanville, the district\u2019s newly hired superintendent. Murphy said the new schools chief surprised board members by asking them a question \u2014 to identify the\u00a0 top three goals of the contract negotiation.<\/p>\n

Murphy said board members were fairly uniform, all expressing variations on the same themes: 1. negotiating a fiscally workable contract; 2. having work rules that were logical and didn\u2019t get in the way of student learning; 3. having happy, satisfied employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think those are the same goals that the teachers have,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the devil is in the details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy noted that the board stands ready to continue talks as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

One board source, on condition of anonymity since the source is not empowered to speak on the board\u2019s behalf on the talks, though, did express optimism that real progress was being made, finally \u2014 and that the meeting of Aug. 11 established an improved dialogue between the two sides, who have been working without a contract since June 30, 2010.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that after weeks of acrimonious exchanges between the two sides, a thaw of sorts may in the process, if Monday night public comments by officials of the two sides are an indication.<\/p>\n

Pat Clark, the president of the Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association \u2014 the teachers\u2019 union \u2014 told the board that the mass gathering of teachers in their navy blue union polo shirts should not be misinterpreted as a hostile act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here as a show of force,\u201d Clark said. \u201cBut out of sense of unity, the unity to serve our community again this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents called on both sides to work together to close the gap and finally put the contract talks behind them. One noted that she had learned how much extra work the district\u2019s teachers perform unpaid, since they began to \u201cto work to the contract\u201d in the fall of 2010, or just performing those duties as specified in the contract and how much extra effort parents have had to put it to fill the gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have taken all of you teachers for granted,\u201d said Jennifer Wardius of Newlin. \u201cI think you finally made all of us realize all that you do. But I don\u2019t think that the board recognizes it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evidence of some thawing as parents push for both sides to compromise and get a deal done to end 15-month dispute By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com PENNSBURY \u2014 The often contentious talks between the Unionville-Chadds Ford School district and its teachers union seem to be again picking up some momentum \u2014 although it remains unclear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[45,44,24],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-negotiations","tag-school-board","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325","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=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}