Tonight the Bristol Borough School Board will vote on a new contract for its district’s teachers.
The buzz in and around town over the last 36 hours indicates the Thursday night meeting might be a standing room only public event.
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Although exact details about the contract have yet to be released, the deal to be voted on tonight, has led to questions about transparency by one board member.
School Board members voted on the contract, and failed to pass it, on March 21 in a 4-2 vote with one abstention, the motion didn’t carry. Five votes are required for a motion to pass the nine-member board.
Board Member Charles Groff said last night the vote was taken with little time to examine the actual contract.
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“I think I had it my hands for no more than 40 minutes, and I think we need a little more time to examine a document that is binding for five years.”
Groff also questioned why details of the contract have not been made public so “taxpayers of the borough can evaluate it for themselves.”
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He pointed out that teacher furloughs are not part of the proposal.
Groff said, “this is what I can also tell you from memory about what we’ll be voting on.”
The deal is for 5-years. Years 2-5 there are raises of 1 percent (2 and 3) and 2 percent for years four and five. But here’s the kicker, year one of the deal there are no raises supposedly, but teachers will work two days less, cut from 189 days to 187 for the school year. “Isn’t that a raise of sorts?” he asked.
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“It’s been three weeks since we took the first vote, don’t you think we could have still be negotiating during that time? The hands of future school boards are going to be tied by this if it passes, and I’m not comfortable with that since I don’t know all the details yet,” said Groff. “We couldn’t even take a copy of the contract home with us,” he said.
An e-mail was sent to Bristol Borough Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe III for comment and at press time a reply has not been received.
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If the buzz on the street is right, questions about the contract might very well be raised in the public comment part of the meeting.
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