Click here to subscribe today or Login.
DALLAS TWP. — A claim that a new date for the end of the Dallas School District teachers strike needs to be calculated is false, according to the state Department of Education.
And Dallas Superintendent Thomas Duffy confirmed the district will be ready for the return of teachers and students on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association Northeastern Region sent an email on Friday to the Times Leader, accusing the Dallas School District of changing its school calendar without approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
In the email, Paul Shemansky alleges a new end date for the strike needs to be calculated following a Dec. 6 school district announcement that the scheduled winter holiday break from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 will be honored and the last day of school tentatively has been changed from June 6 to June 26.
“Dallas teachers were set to go back to their classrooms on Tuesday, Dec. 13, but the school board changed the school calendar, which extends the strike six to seven days,” he said in the email.
John Holland, a lead union negotiator, said state law dictates a strike must end in time for the school year to end by June 15 and make-up days are then added to the school calendar as determined by the state Department of Education.
The Dallas School District teachers went on strike Nov. 14. According to the education department, Dallas School District teachers must be back in the classrooms on Tuesday.
A letter from the education department refutes the union’s stance. There is no reason to recalculate the strike end date because the district rescheduled the last day of school to June 26, wrote Stephen Fisher, director of the department’s School Services Office.
“The department notes that, as of the date of this letter, the Dallas School District School Board has not voted to revise its school calendar,” Fisher said in the letter. “Therefore, the previous courtesy calculation of Dec. 13 as the date by which teachers must return to work in order for the district to offer 180 days of instruction by June 15 remains the same.”
Vito DeLuca, the solicitor for the Dallas School District, called Holland’s argument “weak.”
The state Department of Education set a date for teachers to return to class, and “if the teachers do not return, there will be consequences under Act 88,” DeLuca said. “They (Dallas Education Association) want to stay out on strike as long as they can.
“They are trying to disrupt the district and the families.”
The state Department of Education was consulted before the school board decided to keep the scheduled winter holiday vacation, Duffy said.