North Penn teachers' strike has parents scrambling

Students in the North Penn School District voiced varied opinions Monday about the teachers' strike that has suspended classes. But one thing they agreed on: Snow days plus strike days equals a threat to vacation days.

"I don't mind the strike as much as some," said Blase Porretti, 16, a sophomore at North Penn High School, in Towamencin Township. "But I mind staying in school until June 30."

Porretti spent Monday skateboarding with friends at White Road Community Park in Lansdale, while other students spent their day off shooting basketballs, sleeping in, or staging their own counterdemonstration.

The strike shut down classes in Montgomery County's largest school district, leaving 12,700 students and their parents to find alternate plans for their days.

Officials representing the school district and the North Penn Education Association (NPEA), the union representing teachers, are tentatively scheduled to return to the bargaining table Tuesday, said union president Alan Malachowski. Talks broke off Sunday.

The walkout can last only through next Tuesday because state law requires students to have 180 school days before June 30. Each missed day adds another to the end of the school calendar.

The union proposed no salary increase in the first year and raises of between 2.50 and 2.85 percent in each of the next four years.

The union recommendation was initially suggested by a three-member panel during nonbinding-arbitration proceedings. While the union accepted it, the school board did not, even though the agreement was recommended by its representative on the arbitration panel.

Instead, the school district proposed a zero percent increase in the first year and a 2 percent salary increase in each of the next four years.

School Board President Vince Sherpinsky argued that the district must pay additional millions to finance salary increases, due to changes in seniority.

When those figures are considered, the district's last offer amounts to an 18.81 percent cumulative pay raise; the union's proposal is 22.74 percent, Sherpinsky said.

The union offered to reduce its proposal by $1.25 million to address the seniority issue, but that, too, was rejected by the school board.

"We realize what's happening with the economy," Malachowski said while picketing at Penndale Middle School in Lansdale. "We've offered to smooth out the increments in the [seniority] steps."

Meanwhile, students and families planned their own strategies.

For nurse Tamyra Reser of Upper Gwynedd Township, the strike meant taking her twins to the park at a time when she would usually be sleeping after three 12-hour weekend shifts.

Reser, 41, sat curbside while her 6-year-old twins, Morgan and Cella, students at Gwynedd Square Elementary School, played at Parkside Place in Upper Gwynedd Township.

"I think people have forgotten that it wasn't too long ago that banks were failing and we were facing this economic devastation," Reser said. "Now things are a little better, and we just want."

Laura Apple, a sixth grader at North Wales Elementary School, said she understood both sides of the issue, even though she didn't want to delay her vacation to make up strike days.

"Teachers should be able to strike if they're not getting paid what they need to protect their families," said Apple, 12.

Parent Stephanie Pyne said she blamed neither the teachers nor the school board.

"I can't point a finger," said Pyne, 44, of Lansdale, who has three children in the district. "But nobody wins: parents, teachers, staff, and, most importantly, the kids."

At Penndale, six students at the school conducted their own demonstration. Yelling "Strike the strike," the students walked the block across the street from their teachers.

"We love our teachers," said Ali Corr, 15, a ninth grader. "But there is not enough money for their contract."

Back at Parkside Place, a weary Reser just wanted it to end.

"We've had a hard winter, lots of snow days, vacation days taken off of spring break," Reser said. "Let's just put this behind us and work together."