Pottstown teacher contract talks stumble - Daily Local News 2/20/2011

The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA

Pottstown teacher contract talks stumble
Sunday, February 20, 2011
By Evan Brandt

POTTSTOWN — With the second rejection of a fact-finders report by the Pottstown teachers union, contract negotiations are entering uncharted waters, and both sides seem to be sharpening their rhetoric.

Positions are becoming less veiled, with the school board granting raises Thursday night to administrators and support staff in exchange for their acceptance of a less expensive health care plan that is at the center of the teacher contract impasse and which the teachers union has repeatedly rejected.

On the union side of the equation, Beth Yoder, president of the Federation of Pottstown Teachers, again suggested that the district’s negotiating team may not be bringing the full breadth of the union’s proposals back to the school board.

Yoder, who two weeks ago said the union has “no intention whatsoever of striking,” said that statement holds, but noted that “some of the members have started asking about having a strike. We don’t want to do that. We know it’s not good for the kids, it’s not good for the community, it’s not good for us.”

She also took a poke at administrator salaries, pointing out that Business Manager Linda Adams, who is on the district’s negotiating team, “has received a 66 percent raise over the last four years.”

Yoder said the second vote to reject the fact-finding report, held Wednesday after school, was “overwhelming,” which is how she described the Feb. 4 vote.

The first time, Yoder said 95 percent of the union membership was present to vote and that about 85 percent was present for the second vote on Feb. 16.

However, she said the union’s by-laws prevent her from revealing the actual vote total.

“It’s confidential. Our members don’t even know what the numbers are,” she said.

As for what’s next, Yoder said “hopefully, we can head back to the table for further negotiations and hopefully, our offers will go to the full board. We would welcome having some board members come to the table because we feel like the board has not heard any of our offers.”

Asked about what offers she does not feel the board is aware of, Yoder noted that in order to keep its current health care plan, the union had offered “pay cuts to our co-curricular stipends” and to hold constant reimbursement for continuing education.

“We can recoup as much as $3,000 for continuing our education, which we have to do to keep our license current,” said Yoder. “The administration gets $7,500.”

“We’ve made as many concessions as we can,” she said, noting the union tried to reach an agreement with the district with an offer to “doubling the teacher contribution, but it just wasn’t good enough for them.”

Coincidentally, that phrase was the exact same one used by district Solicitor Stephen Kalis, who also sits on the negotiating team.

“Although this is the same core plan now in effect for every other employee of the district,” Kalis said, “the federation for whatever reason doesn’t believe the insurance plan offered as the designated core plan to be good enough for them.”

The fact-finder’s report backed the district’s offer for a new plan and in exchange offered a higher raise for the teachers than either side was proposing.

Kalis added, “although the recommendations contained in the report of the fact-finder reflect, in my opinion, the best offer the federation will ever receive for the two years noted in the report, the bargaining team for the board is nevertheless ready to meet again with the federation’s bargaining team, if directed by the state-appointed mediator.”

News of the rejection was met with “disappointment” at the school board meeting Thursday night.

“I’m disappointed in the federation not accepting the fact-finding report, but that’s all I’ll say about that,” said school board President Rick Huss as the meeting came to a close.

Kalis, who reported to the board publicly Thursday night after a closed-door executive session, agreed.

“To say the least, the board’s bargaining team, and I’m sure all the board members, are disappointed that the federation elected not to accept the recommendations of the fact-finder, as the request to proceed through the fact-finding process was one that the federation, and not the board, initiated in order to receive recommendations from a neutral third party,” Kalis said.

He said the rejection “concludes” the fact-finding process but that “the parties are encouraged to resume negotiations with the assistance of the state-appointed mediator who has been overseeing the negotiation process since the spring of 2010.”

Kalis suggested, and the board agreed, it might be wise to have an insurance consultant provide a comparison of the plans at a future board meeting.

URL: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2011/02/20/news/doc4d618e9a36fc9851974440.prt
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