After last week's notice by the district of a strike if a new contract isn't reached by Feb. 19, Mars Area teachers continue negotiation with district officials.

According to district negotiations solicitor Thomas Breth of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, extra sessions were added to the negotiation schedule.

“We're actually meeting this evening,” Breth said Monday, noting he expected the session to last several hours.

The session will start with the board's latest proposal, which it released Thursday to the public and teachers simultaneously.

The district's decision to publicly highlight parts of the proposal was surprising, according to high school teacher Peter Black.

“That was very shocking,” said Black, who is involved in external communications for teachers. “The board just started that strange precedent.”

But Breth said the district decided to release the proposal in that manner because the union notified the district of the strike the same time it notified the media.

“They've made this a very public issue with the strike notice,” Breth said. “It's not usually done that way.”

Teachers originally authorized the negotiation team in November to issue a strike notice, if needed. The team at that time chose to participate in good-faith negotiations.

“We've been working very hard to not go down this path,” Black said.

Joe Graff, middle school teacher and president of the Mars Area Education Association, said he learned about the proposal shared Thursday from the district community.

“I got texted by parents,” Graff said. “That was frustrating.”

The district's proposal as of Monday is a four-year contract that maintains current fringe benefits and early retirement incentives.

Additionally, the board proposed salary increases for the school years from 2021 to 2024.

Wages for this year would remain the same, with a one-time $1,500 bonus.

The proposal offers a 3% increase for salary step movement in 2021-22, with $1,000 on the top step. The document estimates this equals an average salary increase of $2,011.

For the remaining two years, the proposal is a 3.75% increase for each 1.5 salary step. The district estimates this increase averages $2,589 in 2022-23 and $2,686 in 2023-24.

The district did note the numbers are subject to “mutually acceptable salary schedules.”

The fourth major proposal detailed in the released document would revise supplemental contracts to include compensation for non-athletic advisers for “post-season play.”

For instance, this would cover advisers who take qualifying students to Pennsylvania Music Educators Association competitions.

Previous proposals from both sides of the aisle weren't released to the Eagle as of Monday evening.

However, Black and Graff said they didn't offer teachers much incentive.

“There was just nothing to work with,” Black said.

Graff said recent negotiation sessions were sidebars that didn't provide much opportunity for delving into deeper issues.

Though Graff couldn't say if teachers would be accepting Thursday's proposal, he noted it was better than the documents the district provided teachers with before.

Breth said the district isn't responsible for any strike that takes place. Whether or not one happens is up to teachers, according to Breth.

“That's a decision that's 100% theirs,” Breth said. “The board doesn't want to see a strike.”

Graff and Black said teachers don't want to strike. Despite how negotiations have gone, they said they're still hoping to make significant progress before Feb. 19.

Though he didn't like how the district released it's latest proposition, Black said it is a place to start.

“We just got a proposal,” Black said. “That's negotiating.”

If the process still leads to a strike Feb. 19, Black said teachers are already preparing for safe picketing. They're aware of COVID-19 concerns.

“I've never seen us more prepared,” Black said.

A negotiation session originally scheduled Feb. 17 should be taking place as planned.

Graff said additional sessions are now planned for Thursday, Feb. 16 and Feb. 18.

A call made by the Eagle to Brooke Witt, PSEA Region field director, on Monday wasn't returned by the time this edition went to press.