There will be no teachers’ strike in the Pennsbury School District this year.
On Thursday evening, a new contract for the roughly 850 members of the Pennsbury Education Association (PEA) was approved 6-2 by the school board.
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The new one-year contract is retroactive and will cover July 1 to June 30, 2016.
The contract for teachers includes one column movement for all eligible PEA members, a 1 percent pay increase and a less expensive healthcare plan for new hires and long-term substitutes. The remainder of the deal is largely similar to the previous contract.
Business manager Dan Rodgers said additional retirements over the 20 the district expected last year and healthcare savings will cover most of the $660,000 in additional costs that come along with the new contract. Compensations for column movement and additional education by teachers will total more than $693,000, according to Calkin’s Media reporter Joan Hellyer.
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New teachers in the district will start at $45,628 (lowest step on the new salary matrix) and $99,204 (highest step), officials said.
“I am pleased that we were able to reach a resolution to these negotiations,” School Board President Gary Sanderson said. “This contract represents a significant turning point in the way labor negotiations are conducted in the Pennsbury School District. This is a contract that is good for our students, respectful to our teachers, and fair to our taxpayers.”
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Board solicitor Michael Clarke said on Tuesday that the one-year deal is mainly due to the “budget uncertainty” in Harrisburg.
“The vote tonight culminates ten months of negotiations between the District and the union,” Clarke said Thursday. “The negotiations were intense at times and covered a wide range of issues. With the passing of this contract, we’ve agreed to return to the bargaining table to continue those discussions. The budget uncertainty in Harrisburg necessitated the short term of this contract.”
Residents Doug Marshal, Robert Abrams and Amy Nolan asked the school board to post the contract in advance of the vote so the community can review it. He also asked if the community could have more time to comment on the contract proposal.
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Board member Howard Goldberg, who stated he liked the contract, unsuccessfully made the case that the board should vote on the deal next week to allow the public time to look over.
Lucy Walter, PEA spokesperson and Pennsbury teacher, said the new contract “brings a sense of peace not only to the community and children but to the teaching staff.” She also said the union voted no three times before authorizing a strike vote in summer.
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District officials said the proposed agreement was reached after 10-months of negotiations and with the help of state-appointed mediator John Cairns.
As recently as mid-August, the PEA requested a fact-finder be appointed. Under Pennsylvania Act 88, appointing a fact-finder is an option for both the district and union when contract negotiations are at an impasse. The state-appointed fact-finder looks at contract proposals and makes recommendations based on them.
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The most recent contract for PEA expired on June 30 and went into place in 2013. The five-year deal was retroactive and covered from 2010 until this summer.
Negotiations for the next contract are expected to resume in the coming weeks.
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Correction: The starting salary figures in this article were updated after publication. The numbers in the previous version of this article were off by about $1,000.
