N. Penn teachers, district agree to arbitration
The school board and teachers' union in Montgomery County's North Penn School District agreed to nonbinding arbitration of their contract dispute yesterday, ensuring that no strike will take place soon, school officials announced yesterday.
The school board and teachers' union in Montgomery County's North Penn School District agreed to nonbinding arbitration of their contract dispute yesterday, ensuring that no strike will take place soon, school officials announced yesterday.
The process normally takes months before a settlement is proposed. Either side can then reject it; if that happens, the union could strike.
On Friday, the North Penn Education Association, the teachers' union in the 12,700-student district, Montgomery County's largest, rejected the board's latest offer. It said teachers would not be at work Tuesday, the first day of school, unless new negotiations took place. Their contract expired Sept. 1.
The board sought an injunction in Montgomery County Court Friday night against a work stoppage. On Saturday, the union agreed to delay a walkout until a hearing on the request was held.
In the meantime, the board also proposed the nonbinding arbitration, during which no strike could take place. Yesterday, the 1,070-member union accepted, ending the need for court action, said Stephen Hladik, spokesman for the board negotiating committee.
"I'm very pleased. I think it's an excellent result for the students, who can continue to go to classes," Hladik said.
Union president Alan Malachowski said: "We've seen this process work; it gives us the opportunity to get to a compromise - to the middle ground. We see this as a positive development. . . . Our teachers are glad to be in the classroom."
Nonbinding arbitration is one of the methods for resolving school labor disputes under state law. It creates a three-member panel, with one member chosen by each side and a neutral third member selected from a list. The panel will receive each side's proposals, which will be made public, and hold hearings. Then it will propose an agreement.
The board's last proposal called for a two-year contract with pay raises averaging 2.4 percent in the first year and 3.0 percent in the second.
The union had proposed a three-year agreement with annual salary increases averaging 3.5 percent in the first year and 4.0 percent each in the second and third.
The district and union are in agreement on health-insurance copayments, which would remain at 10 percent the first year and increase to 11 percent the second year.
Starting pay in the district is $42,870; a teacher with a master's degree, 30 additional college credits, and 16 years in the district gets $92,550.
Along with North Penn, teachers' contracts in Philadelphia and seven other districts in the Pennsylvania suburbs remain unresolved.
So far this school year, there have been no teachers' strikes in Pennsylvania, said Pennsylvania State Education Association spokesman Wythe Keever.
