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PLAINS TWP. —The Hanover Area School District teacher union has filed a grievance arguing the administration violated “past practice” by requiring teachers to stay longer than usual after bad weather prompted an early dismissal.
But the union is delaying any action on the grievance until both sides mull a recent fact-finder report issued in an effort to end contract talks that are now in their third year, union lead negotiator Virginia Cowley said.
The grievance was filed because it has long been the district practice to let teachers leave one half-hour after students leave when weather prompts an early dismissal, Cowley said, but in a recent instance they were told to stay longer.
Some teacher contracts explicitly require staff to be released 30 minutes after students when early dismissal is called. The Hanover Area contract lacks such language, Cowley said, but it has been “past practice” in the district, which can and often does make it legally considered a part of contracts.
Teachers get paid for a full day regardless of dismissal time in such instances. Cowley conceded the grievance may seem minor, but also said any change in past practice should have been brought up at the negotiating table or during the fact finder process. “They never mentioned it,” she said.
Attorney John Audi, who has been handling labor negotiations and issues for Hanover Area, called the grievance “frivolous.” He said the high school teachers filed the grievance “because they didn’t get released fast enough on a snow day.”
Audi didn’t know the date of the incident but did offer some details. Students had been dismissed early in anticipation of snow, but it wasn’t snowing at the time they left, so Superintendent Andrew Kuhl had the teacher stay one hour, rather than 30 minutes, Audi said.
“They were kept so they could do what they had to do,” Audi said, including helping assure students got home or additional preparations or changes for class lessons.
The two sides have been in contract negotiations since January of 2013. Originally the last contract expired in 2012, but teachers agreed to a pay freeze in exchange for pushing the terms of the contract to 2013, Cowley said.
The school board asked for fact finding earlier this year, and the union agreed that it could help resolve the impasse. The state appointed a fact-finder in February, and after hearing both sides issued a report March 27. By law the report is confidential until 10 days after it is released to the two parties.
Both sides must vote on the report. Cowley said the union met Wednesday so members could hear details of the report but did not vote on it. Audi said the board will vote on the report at its monthly meeting Monday.
If both sides approve the recommendations in the report, they essentially have a new contract. If either rejects it, the process is dead, though the report can often be a stepping stone to resolving disputes.
Both Cowley and Audi expressed cautious optimism that this report could lead to a deal.