Seneca Valley School District, union enter nonbinding arbitration
A year after Seneca Valley teachers' contract expired, representatives of the teachers and the school board have entered nonbinding arbitration.
"We are so far apart, and it did not serve any purpose to keep negotiating," said Tom King, a labor lawyer hired by the school board to help reach an agreement.
The district's 575 teachers have been working under the terms of a contract that expired June 30, 2006. Negotiations started in April 2006, King said.
In 15 months of bargaining, teacher and district representatives reached an impasse over salaries, health care benefits and retirement, raising the specter of a strike.
"That's always a possibility," Joy Conley Kacik, a New Castle-based representative of the Pennsylvania State Education Association who is negotiating for the district's teachers.
Strikes are not permitted during nonbinding arbitration.
The state-appointed fact finder is scheduled to present the two sides with a proposal July 29. They have a week to accept or reject it.
Teachers at Seneca Valley do not pay for health insurance, and the district wants teachers to contribute toward their health-insurance premiums, King said.
He said school officials would like to do away with an early retirement option for teachers, although Conley Kacik said that subject has not been discussed.
The average teacher salary in the district is $53,508, while a starting teacher earns $37,000, Conley Kacik said. However, the district's highest teachers' salaries are lower than what is paid in comparable districts.
"That's one of the reasons that we are having difficulty getting this resolved," Conley Kacik said. "A lot is expected of teachers in this district. It's a fast-growing district with lots of demands."
The maximum salary in Seneca Valley is $70,400. The average maximum salary in the Butler, North Allegheny, Shaler, North Hills, Fox Chapel and Moon Area districts is $83,537, she said.
Union and district officials said they are optimistic about the chance of reaching an agreement this summer.
"We still have distance between the parties on the economic issues," said Dean Berkebile, president of the Seneca Valley school board. Berkebile said that once the fact-finding process started in the nearby Mars Area School District a contract was signed within weeks. "I hope we have the same good fortune."
"I am always optimistic about any process," Conley Kacik said.
