Downingtown school talks to resume Sunday
Nine hours of negotiations between striking Downingtown Area School District teachers and the school board ended at 4:30 a.m. today with no settlement.
Nine hours of negotiations between striking Downingtown Area School District teachers and the school board ended at 4:30 a.m. today with no settlement.
The two sides agreed to resume talks on Sunday.
District spokeswoman Patricia McGlone said she could not discuss whether the two sides had made progress during the talks.
In an announcement on its Web site, the teachers' union also did not say whether progress had been made. But the union did cancel picketing for today.
The teachers walked out Tuesday after negotiations last Sunday failed to produce an agreement; the strike is the first in the district since 1980. The 11,730-student district is Chester County's largest.
Classes are canceled, on a day-to-day basis, while the strike continues. Athletic events are still being held.
The contract expired Aug. 31; the teachers are working under the terms of the old one.
The main remaining issue is wages. Going into last night's negotiations, the two sides were about $1.9 million apart over four years. The district had offered a 4.4 percent increase in the first year with increases of 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.6 percent in the next three; the teachers said they wanted 4.85 percent increases in the first three years of a five-year contract and 4.6 percent in the last two.
The starting salary in the district is $43,300, with the top wage at $81,815. The average is $58,915.
Even if no settlement is reached, the district's 850 teachers must return to work by Feb. 14 so that students can get 180 days of instruction by June 15, as required by state law. The two sides would then go through nonbinding arbitration; if either rejected the findings, the teachers could go on strike again.
.
