{"id":519,"date":"2010-10-20T11:40:28","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T15:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=519"},"modified":"2010-10-20T11:40:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T15:40:29","slug":"prices-school-tax-projections-disputed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=519","title":{"rendered":"Price’s school tax projections disputed"},"content":{"rendered":"

School district works to put out numbers after board member issues his own projections; no new teacher contract talks until Nov. 10<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Paul Price has gone rogue again on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board \u2014 and don\u2019t hold your breath waiting for another teacher contract negotiation session.<\/p>\n

While there won\u2019t be any further talks in the contentious contract negotiations between the school board and the Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association until Nov. 10 because of \u201cscheduling difficulties,\u201d board members and administrators were moving swiftly this week to put out a potential fire caused by one of their own: Price.<\/p>\n

This time, the controversial school director issued his own set of projected tax rates at Monday night\u2019s school board meeting based on the district\u2019s long-term planning efforts \u2014 showing three rates, one showing no change in the current teachers contract, the board\u2019s four-year proposal and the union\u2019s four-year proposal. Price handed out copies of his projections prior to the meeting, saying that they were based on the district\u2019s complex matrix of financial planning \u2014 discussed at last week\u2019s work session, but the numbers were not made public at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s been a lot of misinformation out there,\u201d Price said. \u201cAt the finance committee meeting last week we were given numbers that were a bit hard to understand, so I took those numbers and put them in a format people can understand what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is, says Keith Knauss, the chair of the board\u2019s finance committee, Price\u2019s numbers are for the wrong four-year period, which changes the math.<\/p>\n

According to Knauss, Price\u2019s numbers cover the 2011-15 period, while the contract under negotiation right now covers a four-year period starting in June, 2010. Right now, the district is working to put out the correct numbers \u2014 but want to make sure the entire calculating process is explained in detail. The concern here is that Price\u2019s handout \u2014 the director has been a vocal critic of the teachers union and its contract proposals \u2014 will escalate tensions in what has already been a difficult negotiation process with the teachers\u2019 union.<\/p>\n

Price said Monday night that he disagreed and stands by the numbers he issued.<\/p>\n

The district is expected to issue its own official projections later this week \u2014 and will cover much of the same projections as Price\u2019s handouts, but likely with different numbers. Knauss said he thought it was important that all of the numbers be put in perspective and that community residents be able to understand how the projections were developed.<\/p>\n

Price continued his attacks on the teachers\u2019 union Monday night, arguing that claims that the district could agree to the teachers\u2019 proposals without a tax increase were \u201ctotal fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile board director Frank Murphy said that negotiations were on hold until Nov. 10 because the two sides couldn\u2019t find dates that worked for the entire negotiating teams on both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a priority for both sides,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI would be willing to bet that a lot of the teachers are as frustrated by the process as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy said that \u201cWe just couldn\u2019t make dates work before Nov. 10. This is through nobody\u2019s bad faith, it just didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n{Editor\u2019s note: <\/strong>we have decided not to publish Price\u2019s numbers, as there remains some serious doubt as to whether the numbers are accurate \u2014 or taken for the proper period. Although we appreciate the public\u2019s right to know \u2014 and recognize that this may place us at a competitive disadvantage, we feel it would be irresponsible to knowingly repeat inaccurate information that would serve to further inflame the community in regards to an already difficult issue. We welcome your comments and thoughts on this matter, and will appreciate any feedback you might have.}<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School district works to put out numbers after board member issues his own projections; no new teacher contract talks until Nov. 10 By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 Paul Price has gone rogue again on the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board \u2014 and don\u2019t hold your breath waiting for another teacher contract negotiation session. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[39,38,33,44,43,42,24],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-chadds-ford","tag-east-marlborough","tag-high-school","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\/519","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=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}