Shared from the 7/13/2017 Mon Valley Independent eEdition

EF board rejects fact-finder report – again

The school board accepted the resignation of director Robin Miller during Wednesday’s meeting.

The Elizabeth Forward School Board rejected – for a second time – a fact-finder’s report related to contract negotiations with the teachers’ union. The board met Wednesday in a packed Elizabeth Forward Middle School cafeteria.

At a special meeting July 6, the board voted 5-1 against acceptance of the report.

The board voted 5-2 Wednesday, with directors Thomas Sharkey, Douglas Dyer, Ryan O. Hemminger, Richard Cummings Jr. and Megan Ferraro, who was absent last week, in opposition. Charles Bakewell and Jamie Evans voted to accept the findings. Evans changed his vote since last week.

Director Dorothy Wycoff, who was also absent last week, said she had just received the report early Wednesday and abstained from voting.

After months of negotiations, the district filed for fact-finding May 16 with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, which appointed Florida attorney Christopher Miles as fact-finder. His job was to make recommendations to both parties on disputed issues.

The average teacher salary in the district last term was $65,660 Miles reported. He recommended the average salary increase to $74,520 over a five-year period.

Teachers with master’s degrees would see salaries increase from $66,025 in 2016-17 to $90,150 during the 2020-21 school year.

Miles predicted $8.3 million would be needed to fund the contract.

The directors who voted to reject the report indicated the district couldn’t afford it.

In a press release, Superintendent Dr. Bart Rocco said the proposal would have resulted in a hardship to the district.

“All property owners in the Elizabeth Forward School District could see their taxes increase by 3.4 percent each year over a five-year period,” Rocco indicated. “The district prides itself in its educational programs and wants to maintain its current curricular offerings and staffing. Based on Mr. Miles’ findings, the district would struggle to do so.”

The Elizabeth Forward Education Association voted overwhelmingly July 6 to accept the recommendations. “The association was and is still puzzled as to how the board can call for fact-finding, get an impartial third party who is incredibly experienced in doing this and then vote it down 5-2,” State Education Association spokesman Matt Edgell said Wednesday.

“That question was answered tonight when we found out it was a political ploy to simply stave off any kind of action by the association and not an attempt to solve the problem. That is a waste of taxpayers’ money right there.”

Edgell said it appears the board has “backed itself into a corner.”

“They’ll resolve it in the end, and both parties will come to an agreement,” Edgell said. “But, unfortunately, I fear that the end, because of the board’s actions, got pushed back quite a bit.”

Numerous residents and current and former teachers and students attended the meeting.

Patricia Stanton, who has lived in the district for 30 years and raised two Elizabeth Forward graduates, including a district teacher, said she was hopeful those at the meeting had quality of education for children in mind. “If this continues on, we are going to divide a community,” she said. “I don’t think this is what we want to teach our children.”

Stanton questioned part of the report that touched on professional compensation, which indicated the parties are reasonably close.

Stanton asked the board to provide information on the salary gap.

Evans said only that the sides were close and that approval of the fact-finder’s report would result in annual property tax increases for five years.

Other residents and district employees brought up topics such as the district’s financial condition and the need for a solicitor and special counsel during negotiations.

“I bleed red and black and have my whole life invested in this school district,” retired teacher Mika Long said. “I was a student here, I own property here and in Forward Township and I was a teacher here.

“We have so many assets to this community. Our schools and all that work there are at the top of the list. EF is a very special place.”

She said the district’s reputation is great, thanks to the work of Rocco, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Keruskin and the teachers.

“Why, in a labor dispute, are we tearing this relationship down, and why are we causing problems?” Long asked.

The district’s 130 teachers have been working without a contract since Aug.

31.

The teachers voted overwhelmingly April 19 to authorize a strike, but a strike date has yet to be set.

Sharkey said Wednesday the board’s primary goal for requesting fact-finding was to avoid a strike at the end of the school year.

“The second goal of fact-finding is to try and get to an agreement that both parties can agree on,” he said. “That doesn’t always happen. That’s why they call it nonbinding arbitration.”

Rocco said the district will resume negotiations and is hopeful the sides can come to a resolution quickly that doesn’t negatively affect students.

A negotiating session has yet to be scheduled.

In other business, before the vote, the board accepted the resignation of director Robin Miller.

Rocco said Miller’s resignation did not include a reason.

The board directed the administration to advertise for candidates, until 2 p.m. Wednesday, to replace Miller, whose term will run through December 2019.

“Certainly Robin was a good board member and a nice person,” Rocco said. “(We’re) sorry to see her go off the board, and we appreciate her work when she was on the board.”

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