5M News

September 17, 2009

Northwest Area board OKs proposed contract; teachers to study it

The offer, prepared by a mediator, eliminates $2 million in retro pay.

RALPH NARDONE Times Leader Correspondent

UNION TWP. – The Northwest Area School Board voted Wednesday to accept a proposed contract agreement with the teachers union.

The vote was 7-0 with two board members absent: Michael Kreidler and Robert Hagenbach.

The settlement was crafted by William Gross, director of the state’s Bureau of Mediation, according to district solicitor Richard Galtman.

Galtman singled out the four board members who negotiated directly with the union: Peter Lanza, Albert Gordon, Charles Brace and Daryl Morgan. The meeting applauded Galtman’s praise.

The next step in the process involves an evaluation period by the teachers union, which will have to notify the district within five days if the teachers accept the board’s offer, Galtman said.

He would not predict the outcome, and he advised board members to avoid predicting the union’s acceptance or denial of the offer.

Board President Peter Lanza said the new offer “eliminates retro-pay” provisions, which amount to about $2 million. It added up to so much money due to the five-year stalemate, he said.

Board Secretary Albert Gordon said after the meeting he had reservations about the offer, hoping it does not constitute “too much of a burden.”

“At this point is if the best we can possibly do,” he said.

Superintendent Nancy Tkatch said she hopes this offer will be acceptable so both sides can finally move on.

Board member and negotiator Morgan said after the meeting he did not like parts of the contract offer. He said the board agreed to allow the teachers to pay 1 percent of their health care family plans and he thought it should be around 5 percent.

He said raising the early-retirement incentives to 75 percent of income is too generous. And, he did not like the “top-loaded” restructuring of the salaries, raising some to $80,000, which will never go back down, he said.

The $1.8 million contract is significantly less than the $3.3 million the teachers wanted, Morgan said. However, the district only has about $1.7 million to spend, he added.

“We’re not saving money but we’re spending less,” he said.

This new contract would be good until the end of the 2010-2011 school year, Galtman said.

Union lead negotiator Matt Gruenloh on Wednesday was careful to not call the proposal a “tentative agreement,” noting that it was presented by the mediator who “has requested that both parties vote on it.” Gruenloh said the teachers are trying to schedule a meeting to do so.

The two sides have been at odds primarily over health insurance costs, raises and retroactive pay covering the long stretch without a new contract. The board insisted teachers pay part of their health insurance premium, a concession the union agreed to in March 2008 after three years of rejecting the idea.

But board members argued the amount teachers wanted to pay for premiums was not enough considering the raises they sought.

In June teachers threatened to strike and the state intervened, arguing they could not strike for even a day and still get the minimum 180 school days in by June 30 as required by law. The state sought an injunction to block the strike, and during a pre-hearing conference the two sides agreed to court-ordered negotiations at least three times a week.

The two sides announced a tentative agreement that the union approved but the board rejected, insisting it could not afford the retroactive pay.

The judge upped the mandate to six-times a week, but suspended them as it was clear no progress was being made.

Times Leader staff writer Mark Guydish contributed to this story.

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