POTTSTOWN PA – Members of the Pottsgrove Education Association – the union representing Pottsgrove School District teachers – showed up Tuesday night (Sept. 13, 2011) at the Board of School Directors’ meeting to voice dissatisfaction over what they claimed was a lack of contract talks, following their agreement months ago to a one-year wage freeze the district acknowledges saved taxpayers more than a half-million dollars.
A group of about 40 teachers sat silently in chairs at the back of the Pottsgrove Middle School cafeteria as union negotiations team spokeswoman Megan DeLena faced school board members and charged, “you have not come back to the table.”
Reading from a prepared statement, DeLena said the district had refused “to commit to formal negotiations until January or March” 2012. The association “is asking you, in the best interest of the students, staff, and community of this district, please come back to the table,” she added.
In comments at the end of the meeting, board President Michael Neiffer replied the district found it difficult to discuss a new contract when it had no idea what its financial situation would be in the coming year. He also said the district was unwilling at this point to separately discuss economic and non-economic issues.
By then, only a handful of teachers remained to hear his remarks.
The teachers’ plea reportedly follows almost two weeks of increasingly strident and lengthy back-and-forth letters between the district and the association, over what its members believe amounts to the district’s back-tracking on a promise to continue contract discussions after the teachers “bailed it out,” as one put it.
Association members volunteered during May (2011) to accept a one-year pay freeze, along with all other district employees, to help Pottsgrove approve its 2011-2012 budget with a 1.8-percent tax hike under trying economic circumstances statewide. The district said the gesture saved it $515,000.
There were caveats, though. In return, the district agreed it would not lay off or demote any teachers and it would continue to discuss labor agreement proposals at the bargaining table.
- Watch a video (above) of statements made during Tuesday’s board meeting, or see it at The Post’s YouTube user account.
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ meeting of Sept. 13):
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[...] Teachers Challenge Pottsgrove Board: ‘Return To Talks’ Pottsgrove’s teachers’ union members made it clear Tuesday to school directors they were unhappy with an alleged lack of progress on labor agreement negotiations since accepting a one-year wage freeze in May. [...]
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