Teachers face tough talks

Teachers face tough talks


Both sides here expect difficult contract negotiations

Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Sep 13, 2010 09:40 EST

By BRIAN WALLACE, Staff Writer
Media Center

School districts engaged in, or about to be engaged in, contract negotiations with their teachers.





Teachers and school district officials are bracing for what could be a bruising year of negotiations over new contracts for about 3,000 teachers.

Both sides say the weak economy and increasing financial pressures on schools will likely make contract talks more challenging in 2010-11 than in years past.

"It will be very difficult," said Paul Gottlieb, a negotiator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. "The economic situation puts pressure on everybody on both sides."

Gottlieb is the PSEA representative for Octorara School District, one of four districts — along with Warwick, Penn Manor and School District of Lancaster — that soon will begin negotiations to replace or extend teacher contracts that expire at the end of the school year.

Teachers with Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 and Lancaster County Career & Technology Center also are working under contracts that expire June 30, 2011.

Two other school districts — Manheim Central and Solanco — have been negotiating since last school year to replace or extend contracts that expired over the summer.

All of the teachers involved in talks are working under old contracts that, on average, boosted their salaries by 3.6 percent to 4.4 percent a year.

Those raises were negotiated long before the financial collapse of 2008. The economy has rebounded, but growth has been slow, unemployment remains high and per-capita incomes actually shrank last year in Lancaster County.

Despite the weak economic outlook, teachers in nine districts that negotiated new or extended contracts last year won fairly generous raises, averaging about 3.7 percent a year.

Those hikes, however, were partially offset by major concessions, mainly on health care costs, in the new multi-year agreements.

In negotiations this year, school districts are likely to ask for more concessions and offer lower raises — if any at all.

District officials say their ability to generate revenue in 2011-12 will be severely restricted by the state, which is expected to limit tax hikes for most districts under Act 1 to 1.4 percent — less than half of this year's 2.9 percent base limit.

They also cite rising costs in 2011-12 from the federal health care overhaul, increasing energy costs and pending spikes in pension costs, which are set to quadruple by 2012-13.

In addition, federal stimulus funds that pumped millions into school budgets the past two years are running out, and the state is likely to rein in education spending in 2011-12 as it grapples with a multibillion-dollar deficit under a new governor.

SDL school board member Michael Rowen said teachers and unions need to understand that school districts are operating in a changed economic environment.

"The money's not there to sustain the direction we were in," he said. "To simply go on assuming you're going to get increases may not be a reasonable expectation."

SDL estimates it will pay an additional $2 million in pension payments in 2010-11 and nearly $8 million more in 2012-13.

With next year's stricter property tax constraints, the district will be able to generate about $1 million in additional revenue, compared with $2.3 million in 2010-11, officials said.

Teacher salary increases alone this year are costing SDL $2.1 million.

Dave Calendar, president of Lancaster Education Association, said teachers are aware of the economic situation and will work toward reaching a settlement "that's fair to teachers, fair to the district and fair to taxpayers."

He declined to discuss possible contract proposals.

Gottlieb said teachers "are not unrealistic people."

"Of course (the economy) influences what we come to the table with," he said. "School boards will have to decide where to prioritize and where to put their money."

Here is a synopsis of the status of current and upcoming contract talks. Districts that have not started negotiations must, under state law, begin talks by Jan. 10.

•Lancaster County CTC (83 teachers) — Teachers don't want to renegotiate their contract but want it to "roll over," union president Samuel Betancourt said.

Under that provision, which is unique to the CTC, all terms of the agreement would remain unchanged except salaries, which would be adjusted each year based on the average of pay hikes in the 16 districts that send students to the CTC.

The union plans to meet Sept. 16 with CTC executive director Dave Warren to discuss the rollover plan, which would require the approval of both sides.

•IU 13 (500 teachers) — The IU has met with teachers to discuss the possibility of extending the current contract by two years, IU 13 spokeswoman Shannan Guthrie said.

If an agreement on an extension can't be reached, negotiations on a new contract would begin in November, she said.

•Manheim Central (239 teachers) — Talks are scheduled to resume the week of Sept. 20.

•Solanco (259 teachers) — Negotiations will continue in mid-September.

•School District of Lancaster (1,000 teachers), Penn Manor (366 teachers), Warwick (325 teachers) and Octorara (210 teachers) — Talks have yet to begin.

bwallace@lnpnews.com