School police union president to step down amid negotiations

Amid ongoing contract negotiations, the president of the school police union said Thursday that he will retire from the district and step down from his union role, effective April 1.

"Forty years is enough," Michael Lodise of the School Police Association of Philadelphia said of his career as a school police officer. His 40th year with the district would have been Oct. 1.

Contract talks began Jan. 31 between the union and the district's law firm, Blank Rome LLP, discussions that Lodise termed "intimidating."

"It doesn't look too good. It's not a good time," he said of the labor climate.

The district "wants everything back, same as they're asking from the teachers," Lodise said. Negotiations have changed over his 18-year tenure as union president. "The tone is much, much different, threatening in a way," he said. "It was never that way before."

Last year, the district failed to honor raises that had been called for in the union's contract as of July 1, which the Daily News reported in December. At an arbitration on the matter on Feb. 6, the district's lawyers told the arbitrator they were "not prepared," Lodise said.

The new arbitration date is April 26, Lodise said.