Pennsbury School Board Unanimously Approves Teachers’ Contract

With a unanimous school board vote in favor of a new teacher’s contract, the impasse in the Pennsbury School District has ended.

The entire school board voted Wednesday evening in favor of ratifying a new contract with the 848-member Pennsbury Education Association (PEA), which includes teachers, counselors, nurses, social workers, librarians and psychologists.

The PEA membership voted Monday in favor of the contract.

The contract includes significant changes to the language, a slight increase to employee contributions to their health insurance premiums, changes in tuition reimbursement and increases in the salary matrix that would see teacher raises. Click here to read Monday’s story on the details of the contract. 

The new deal will run retroactively from July 1 until June 30, 2021.

The new contract and related expenses are expected to cost close to $3.5 million over its lifetime.

“This is an historic agreement both in its breadth of change and its success balancing care for our professional staff and the fiscal responsibility we owe our taxpayers,” board member Alison Smith said.

Board member Josh Waldorf agreed with Smith and said “our community’s collective focus can be solely on the education and not on labor/management issues.”

“After months of collaborative and productive talks, we are pleased to have achieved a contract that is both respectful of staff and fiscally responsible. Special thanks go to our Board Negotiating Team – School Directors Jacqueline Redner, Alison Smith, Josh Waldorf, and John Palmer – for their hard work and perseverance at the negotiating table,” board President Gary Sanderson said.

“I’m excited about having a five-year contract,” said board member Jacqui Redner. “To me that’s huge; it means all of us – from the Board, to the administration, to the teachers – can now settle in, do what is best for our kids, and continue to work together to make Pennsbury the best school district it can be.”

Board member Debra Wachspress said she believed the contract is “respectful to our teachers” and “financially manageable.” She added that the contract keeps Pennsbury competitive in regards to teacher pay.

“I want to thank the board members who came to this board with a mentality that we needed to talk,” said Lucy Walter, PEA spokesperson. She added that she hoped the district, teachers and community could work to boost moral and “mend fences.”

Always outspoken Lower Makefield resident Robert Abrams raised concerns about the true cost of the contract and voiced worry about the financial future of the district.

Lower Makefield resident Doug Marshall said he wished the public played a bigger role in the contract negotiations.

The school board and the union has negotiated since February. In summer, they rejected a fact-finder report that could have laid the framework for a new contract.