Teachers ready to strike
Mars Area teachers are prepared to strike Feb. 19 if a new contract isn't negotiated by then.
Teachers have been without a new contract for more than 220 days.
The decision comes after months of unsuccessful negotiating sessions, of which both the Mars Area Education Association and the district have expressed their frustration.
Brooke Witt, Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) regional field director, said the last several sessions were terminated by the district even while teachers were still prepared to talk.
“We just feel like we've been pushed off,” Witt said. “You can't negotiate a contract if you don't put in the work.”
Witt, who has worked with Mars Area through PSEA for more than seven years, said the teams have been meeting on an almost weekly basis.
When negotiations that started in September 2019 were briefly paused last summer because of COVID-19, Witt said the services of a state mediator were required to get talks started again.
“We were really looking to get back together,” Witt said.
Thomas Breth, of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, is the district's negotiations solicitor and speaks on behalf of the superintendent. He said the move to strike is disruptive.
“The teachers' threat to initiate a strike to further their personal objectives is inexcusable,” Breth said.
Teachers authorized the negotiation team to issue a strike notice in November, if needed. At that time, the negotiation team chose to participate in good-faith negotiations.A proposal was submitted to the teachers Wednesday night during the latest negotiation session, Witt said. When teachers indicated they wanted to continue talks, Witt said the district closed the meeting.Saying the 14 in-person bargaining sessions resulted in “significant concessions on every major issue,” Breth indicated the district and teachers haven't been able to work together during the past year and a half.“(Teachers) have instead chosen to use the students and their families as bargaining leverage against the board,” Breth said.
One of the biggest points of concern for teachers, according to Witt, is a proposed wage freeze.Witt said teachers should be compensated for juggling both regular and virtual classes during the pandemic. She noted teachers are asking for a collaborative committee to be formed to revisit livestreaming practices.Witt said teachers also are concerned about ensuring elementary faculty having adequate prep time.She said this would be a step toward fixing scheduling issues when teachers are shuffled around to cover open time slots. Many times, the shuffling results in a canceled special class, such as art.Witt said other lesser points, like capping class sizes, were part of the original negotiations. However, these were forgone in favor of bigger concerns.On Thursday evening, Breth released a proposal prepared and sent by the district to PSEA and the teachers Thursday afternoon.The proposal is for a four-year contract that would maintain current early retirement incentives and fringe benefits.The board offered wage and salary increases for the school years from 2021 to 2024.This year would remain status quo, with teachers receiving a one-time $1,500 bonus.In 2021-22, the proposal offers a 3% increase for salary step movement, with $1,000 on the top step. The document said this equals a salary increase of $2,011, on average.For the remaining two years, the proposal is a 3.75% increase for each 1.5 salary step. This is projected to equal an average salary increase of $2,589 in 2022-23 and $2,686 in 2023-24.These numbers would be subject to “mutually acceptable salary schedules,” according to the document.Other tentative agreements weren't detailed in the document.
Several district parents have voiced their support for teachers in recent months by attending board meetings.Tuesday night's virtual board meeting was no exception.Several parents used the public comment period to ask the district to explain various practices and decisions relative to teaching and curriculum.Sean Pearson said Tuesday night his family moved to the area about three years ago and chose Mars Area for two main reasons.“Everyone I talked to had a great opinion about the school district,” Pearson said. “(And) compared to some of the other districts, we do enjoy a relatively low cost of living.”This year, Pearson said his children enrolled in a cyber charter academy due to “concerns with COVID-19 and continuity of education.”Pearson attended the board meeting specifically to ask members of the board to consider raising property taxes to the 3% cap.Noting he's “generally against higher taxes,” Pearson said he feels he needs to advocate for them to support the school.Concerned about things like last year's decision to eliminate the curriculum director position and fees imposed on families for extracurricular activities, Pearson said he's worried about the district's future.“Many people I've spoken to have similar opinions,” Pearson said.He told the board he's started an online petition in support of a 3% tax increase that collected 146 signatures in two days.
There is a negotiation session scheduled for Feb. 17.Witt said teachers are willing to participate in as many negotiation sessions as the district can muster over the next two weeks.It's too soon to tell if the Feb. 19 deadline will be met.“I don't know,” Witt said. “We're hopeful.”
