Few strike worries as school nears

With the approach of fall, parents' and students' thoughts turn to new teachers and classes, new clothes - and, in some cases, whether the school year will be interrupted by a teacher strike.

That could be the situation in Montgomery County's 2,065-student Springfield Township School District, where teachers have notified the administration they will strike on Sept. 4 if no agreement is reached before then.

Of the 167 districts in the Philadelphia region, 24 are in contract talks that could linger into the new school year.

The two sides in Springfield had a lengthy bargaining session Wednesday that failed to produce an agreement. Another session is scheduled for tomorrow. Both parties agreed not to talk publicly about the issues. The teachers struck for four days in fall 2003 before an agreement was reached.

After the Wednesday session, the Springfield school board asked for fact-finding, a process that would have delayed any strike for weeks until both sides had presented their cases to an arbitration panel. The union rejected the proposal.

John Clark, a spokesman for the Springfield Township Education Association, said Friday that negotiations had been moving forward. "It's our belief that the request for fact-finding was simply a ploy used by the board to avoid a continuation of serious bargaining," Clark said.

He added that the move was "being used to force the association into a difficult and unpopular situation. . . . We are hoping a settlement can be reached . . . or that enough progress is made in negotiations where there will not be a need to commence a strike on Sept. 4. Our goal is to reach a settlement, not to engage in a strike."

Jeffrey Sultanik, the labor lawyer negotiating on behalf of the board, said in response: "We clearly were, in our opinion, at impasse on a number of the issues in dispute. We were clearly far apart."

He added: "To say it's a stalling process - that's as far from reality as possible. It is a fabrication to avoid the union's embarrassment about going on strike."

In most of the region's Pennsylvania and New Jersey suburbs where contracts were being negotiated, talks have either already concluded with agreements or are continuing with no declaration that a strike is imminent.

School starts today in Downingtown and after Labor Day in other districts.

Teachers in the Chester Upland district have been working under an expired contract since 2005; negotiations were complicated there by the poor financial condition of the district and by tensions between former superintendent Gloria Grantham and the union.

All that changed earlier this year, with Gov. Rendell's appointment of a new board to oversee the district, the hiring last month of former Philadelphia School District chief academic officer Gregory Thornton as superintendent, and an infusion of more than $9 million in state money.

Thornton said Friday that "a great opening gift to the staff would be if I could announce to them that we have a contract. We are very, very serious about wanting to get this matter resolved and move on. The bigger issue is around educating young people; that's the agenda."

Jerry Callahan, spokesman for the Chester Upland Education Association, said talks were going well. "We are talking, and talking on a very frequent basis; we have agreed to a lot of contract language and changes," he said.

In New Jersey, at least 18 districts in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties are expected to begin the school year without new contracts.

New Jersey has not had a teacher strike since 2003, when a state law took effect making them illegal and banning school boards from imposing their last-best offer to end stalemates. The law mandates a four-step process that begins with face-to-face negotiations and ends with fact-finding.

About this time last year, 14 districts in the three counties had open contracts.

Districts with unresolved contracts include two of the largest in the region: Cherry Hill in Camden County and Washington Township in Gloucester County. But officials say schools are expected to open as scheduled next week.

In Cherry Hill, the second-largest public school district in South Jersey, negotiations with a state mediator are scheduled to resume Thursday, district spokeswoman Susan Bastnagel said. The district has 11,600 students.

Washington Township Superintendent Cheryl Simone said last week that negotiations with teachers in the 9,200-student district were at an impasse. No new talks were scheduled.

Salaries and health benefits are the main stumbling blocks in negotiations this year, officials said.

New Jersey teachers are among the best-paid in the country, with an average salary in the 2005-06 school year of $57,707, according to the National Education Association. In Pennsylvania, the average was $54,027.

In contracts settled this year in New Jersey, the average raise negotiated has been about 4.6 percent, said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. A decade ago, the average was twice that amount.

New Jersey

Gloucester County

Clayton

Clearview Regional

Delsea Regional

Elk Township

Glassboro

Greenwich Township

Harrison Township

Pitman

Washington Township

West Deptford

Camden County

Berlin Township

Cherry Hill

Pine Hill

Barrington

Burlington County

Mount Holly

Pemberton Township

Springfield Township

Willingboro

Pennsylvania

Chester County

Coatesville

Downingtown

Delaware County

Chichester

Chester Upland

Village Charter School

Montgomery County

Springfield

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