Randy,

First off, I am not a teacher. Why should the public sit in on negotiations between SBCEA and the SBSB? Does the public sit in on negotiations with the police unions? Firefighter Unions? ect? Does the public sit in when our reps in Harrisburg and Washington discuss their Pay? Does the public get a say in local city councils changing pay rates for public employees? NO, why, becuase these are decisions that are to be made by the elected officials, not public opinion, If you want to be involved in negotiations, run for the school board!

Yes tax money goes to the schools, but if you do your research, the majority of a school disticts budgets come from state funding for education!

The solicitor for the SBCEA distict has been involved in every local school disctict strike and major stike threats in and around this area! People(including the Eagle) refuse to acknowlede that there have been multiple early bird agreements in our local area, some of which, Tom King's firm has been the solicitor for, but LOCAL SCHOOL OFFICIALS DID NOT INCLUDE HIM IN THE EARLY BIRD NEGOTIATIONS AND A CONTRACT WAS REACHED WITHOUT ISSUE, WITH TIME LEFT ON CURRENT CONTRACTS. Is that a coincidence? WHy do we never hear from the Superintendent of South Butler? Every other local disctict, the Superintendent is involved, but not in South Butler. The Board has NEVER claimed they do not have the funds(exept to the media and public) In both Fact Finding and Non-Binding Arbitratrion, (reports are on the Boards website) it was stated by both third party groups that the school distict is financially in good shape is is able to afford to pay the teachers on par with other teachers in this area, and in similar sized local districts.

This will never be resolved by both sides speaking with the biased media! Both sides need to come to the table, and lock the door until their is an agreement! The board likes to say that they offered to negotiate every tuesday all summer, this is the same board that only selected a few dates last summer when the teachers offered over 20 dates! They teachers offered during the last two weeks of school to negotiate EVERY DAY until the end of the school year! the board refused! why don't you ask them why?