Parents became chauffeurs and school principals pulled custodial duties Thursday after Hempfield Area School District’s 240 support workers walked off the job. Hempfield Area Educational Support Personnel Association went on strike at 6 a.m. yesterday. The labor union represents 80 bus drivers, 60 custodians, 55 food service workers and 45 nurse assistants, building and classroom aides, and paraprofessionals. As the striking workers spent the day manning picket lines at each of the district’s 11 school buildings, principals and assistant superintendents wiped down cafeteria tables, swept floors and swabbed toilets. Students dined on brown-bag lunches, and at least three departmental supervisors took seats behind the wheels of school buses. Bundled in layers of clothing as temperatures hovered near freezing, about a dozen pickets greeted hundreds of vehicles as they snaked in and out of the high school campus along Route 136, dropping off children in the morning and returning to pick them up later in the day. Some of the striking workers hoisted signs that read, “Millions for sports, pennies for support staff” and “Equal pay for equal work.” With no bus service, some 6,600 students had to find their own way to school. Most were driven to classes by relatives; some at the high school drove themselves, taking advantage of a temporary rule granting driving privileges to any student with a valid license and vehicle. Although some parents reported waits of up to 20 minutes in the morning and another vowed not to bring her child to classes today, Superintendent Dr. Wayne Doyle said morning drop-offs at all schools went well. “I was very pleased,” Doyle said. “The parents did as we asked. Many of them car-pooled. Our backups were nowhere near what we thought they would be.” The heaviest congestion occurred at about 7 a.m., with dozens of vehicles backed up along both lanes of Route 136 near the approach to the high school and nearby Harrold Middle School. Some parents dropped off their children as they waited in traffic on the highway, shaving some time off their commute by avoiding the drive onto school grounds. Doyle could not be reached for comment regarding the afternoon pickups, but the process appeared to move fairly smoothly, albeit lengthy, at the high school. By 2 p.m., vehicles already were lined up, two deep, on the circular road that fronts the high school, waiting for students to be dismissed beginning at 2:20 p.m. Most students quickly found their rides, but others said they walked around the school grounds several times before locating the person assigned to drive them home. Peggy Bolha, of South Greensburg, and her daughter, 11th-grader Heather Bolha, spent about 30 minutes searching for each other. Although Peggy Bolha appeared unperturbed by the wait, her daughter expressed frustration. “I got out at 2:20 and it’s 10 til 3,” Heather Bolha said when she finally found her mother. “I hate all this congestion.” One student who couldn’t immediately find her ride was heard talking on a cell phone, reminding her mother that she was supposed to have been at the high school 10 minutes earlier to pick her up. Shawna McCutcheon, a ninth-grader, briefly considered walking home when she couldn’t immediately find her father. She did eventually find him. Kathy Charlton, high school principal, said most students who were not staying for after-school events had departed by 3:15 p.m. She said fewer than five had to stay as late as 4 p.m. Charlton denied reports that some students who joined the pickets before heading indoors for classes were handed 10-day suspensions. She did say some students were told to leave the picket line and report to class. “We told the kids who were holding signs to get to school,” Charlton said. “They can picket before or after school.” Some students did receive suspensions, Charlton said, but they were for “unrelated disciplinary infractions.” Charlton declined to reveal the nature of the infractions. Attendance at all schools was relatively unaffected by the strike, according to administrators. At Harrold Middle School, Doyle said the difference in the number of students absent yesterday and in the days leading up to the strike was only one. Dr. Marin, assistant superintendent of elementary education, reported similar attendance figures at the elementary schools. All did not go entirely as planned, however. Doyle acknowledged reports that state police have been asked to determine whether Patrick Carnicella, transportation supervisor, has a valid license to drive a bus that transports school students. Carnicella and at least two other administrators drove up to the high school yesterday morning to take students to Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center in New Stanton. Several of the striking workers claimed that while Carnicella has a commercial drivers license, they alleged he does not have the additional training the state requires of anyone who transports school students. Carnicella could not be reached for comment. Doyle said although he has asked state police to verify Carnicella’s licensing credentials, he does not anticipate a problem. “As far as we know, he’s fine,” Doyle said. “But when someone raises a question, we check it out.” Michele Pitt, a high school food service worker who has children at Stanwood Elementary, said the school dismissed children who were walking home at 2:50 p.m., instead of at the previously announced time of 3 to 3:45 p.m. Pitt was on the picket line at the high school when she learned her mother, who had gone to retrieve her children at the school, instead found the youngsters, ages 8 and 10, walking alone on School Street, near Pagano Drive in New Stanton. “Doyle said he would look into it, but it never should have happened,” Pitt said. Reports that elementary-age students from other schools also were seen walking home without an adult escort could not be verified yesterday. Most workers yesterday cited two issues as their reason for rejecting at least two proposed contracts in favor of walking picket lines: a two-tier pay structure and health care. “I work alongside a lot of low-tier workers, and I don’t feel it’s right that I’m making a lot more money,” said Alanna Kubinec, a high school cook who said she is paid according to the high-tier schedule. Under the tier system, two salary scales determine a worker’s hourly pay, with new hires earning less under wage rates set by the low tier. Low-tier cooks and bakers, for example, currently earn $8.45 per hour. Those in the high tier are paid $11.20 hourly. The school district’s most recent contract offer did call for salary increases, but workers said the amounts were too small to bring the two-tiers closer together. According to a chart obtained by the Tribune-Review, the revised offer, in the first year of the proposed five-year pact, also scaled back many of the raises that had been proposed in an earlier offer that the union also rejected. Bonnie Schnupp, a production manager in the high school kitchen who earns high-tier wages, said she rejected the contract offers because they called for employees to contribute more toward their health care. “They want us to pay more now for health insurance, while they pay nothing,” Schnupp said, referring to administrators. Administrators do not contribute toward their health care, according to Doyle, but the superintendent said that likely will change when those employees’ current agreement expires in 2006. Gilbert J. Gall, a Pennsylvania State Education Association representative who is assisting the union, said the district’s revised offer proposed changes to health care that he believed the union would accept. But he said the revised offer wasn’t forwarded by the union’s negotiating committee to its membership for a vote because it failed to adequately address the two-tier wage structure. The two-tier system was introduced 12 years ago, according to the union, in a contract that called for long-term employees eventually to be moved into the higher tier. But that clause was removed from a contract approved five years ago, preventing long-term workers from earning the higher rates. Joyce Omlor, union president, said employees approved that contract only because they believed the district at that time was poised to fire bus drivers and custodians and replace them. Omlor said the district hasn’t yet said whether it will try to do the same with this contract. Even so, she said, workers are prepared for the worst this time because with the two-tier system, lower paid employees have no chance of earning the same wages as their high-tier peers. “You never catch up,” Omlor said. “You can work here for 20 years, and you never get near that tier. There comes a point when you have to stand up. What we are aiming for, at the most, is for them to have to work only two jobs, not three, to support their families.” Some workers said the district has told them it favors maintaining the two-tier system because of budget constraints. Several striking employees questioned that logic, pointing out some administrators earn six-figure salaries, including Doyle at $131,583. “It’s sickening,” said Tammy Barth, a food service worker. “I’ve been here eight years, and I make $8.45 an hour.” Doyle and several school board members have continually declined to comment on specifics of the labor talks. Classes were scheduled to resume again today, Doyle said, despite rumors the district is gearing up for a shutdown. “Why would they close if things went extremely well?” Doyle said when asked whether the reports held any truth. No new talks between the school board and labor union have yet been scheduled.

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