POTTSTOWN PA – With its business manager acknowledging that the cost of a new labor contract during 2011 could have a significant effect on future budgets, the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors entered into a closed-to-the-public session Tuesday night (Oct. 12, 2010) to further plan upcoming negotiations with the Pottsgrove Federation of Teachers.
The current labor pact between the two is scheduled to end in June (2011) unless extended by mutual agreement. Contract talks are expected to begin in earnest sometime during January.
“A big issue” in board deliberations over the 2011-2012 district budget – the planning for which will soon get under way – “is what we factor in for compensation,” district Business Administrator David Nester told directors during the board’s meeting at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, Buchert Road, Pottstown PA. “Guessing what that will be is a large question mark,” he said.
Shortly after the public portion of the meeting opened, with district Solicitor Kyle Berman seated as usual to his left, board President Michael Neiffer announced directors planned to enter into an executive session to contemplate and set parameters for the district’s negotiating strategy. Such closed meetings are permissible under state law for the private discussion of topics like personnel matters, legal issues and real estate purchases.
It is unknown how long the executive session, which began at about 8:25 p.m., lasted or if the board returned to a regular session later to publicly discuss and vote on any matters. The latter was possible but unlikely.
Neiffer figured prominently during March (2010) in tensions that arose between the district and the federation, its teachers’ bargaining unit, over his suggestion that all district employees accept a pay freeze during the current budget year. Neiffer was seeking to balance what at the time was a district spending plan with too much expense and too little revenue.
Some members of the public promptly sided with Neiffer. In website comments and forums like the “Sound Off” column of The (Pottstown) Mercury newspaper, they essentially claimed teachers were paid too much already and should embrace the pay freeze. They did not, and their union also declined to respond to Neiffer’s challenge.
Before the budget was finalized directors cut several staff positions, including those of some teachers, to make the numbers work.
The federation has not broken its silence but is known to have already had several discussions, like the board, over how it will approach negotiations with the district.
In addition to Neiffer’s past comments and the staff cuts, some union members last spring said they were rankled by the district’s change from a commercial health insurance carrier to a self-insured plan. Nester told directors Tuesday, in response to a question from Neiffer, that district-wide premiums for the new plan cost about $4.5 million during 2009-2010, and might be expected to rise 5-percent annually.
Berman, who in part specializes in counseling school districts in management, labor, governance, and personal issues, is himself a former president of the Wallingford-Swarthmore Board of School Directors. He practices with the Fox Rothschild LLP law firm from its Blue Bell PA office, and is a regular contributor to its Education Law blog.
Related (to Pottsgrove School District labor negotiations):
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 12 meeting):
- Labor Contract Planning Prompts Pottsgrove Closed Session
- Lower Pottsgrove School Presented With Its ‘Star’
- Confidence Supplants Sweats Wednesday At Pottsgrove
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