Seneca Valley teachers strike closes nine schools

Seneca Valley schoolteachers were set to begin picketing all of the district's nine schools this morning, in the start of the district's first teacher strike in 22 years.

No negotiations were conducted Sunday, and none are scheduled, officials said yesterday. Pickets were expected to go up at 7 this morning.

The district had announced last week that all schools would be closed today, regardless of whether a contract was reached during the weekend.

"This one will be taking off (Monday) morning," Butch Santicola, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said yesterday. "We didn't want to be here, but we're here."

A state mediator said he would call a meeting if there was a belief one would be productive, but he did not, said Seneca Valley labor counsel Tom King.

"I don't blame him, based on Saturday night with no movement from the teachers. There's nowhere to go," King said yesterday. "Without them making any move, there's nothing for me to take back to the board. The board already made its best offer."

The district has nearly 600 teachers for 7,600 students.

E-mails espousing the positions of the district and the teachers are being forwarded among parents and residents, said Chris Bench, 39, of Cranberry, who has a 12-year-old son in seventh grade and a 10-year-old daughter in fifth grade.

"I think there's a lot of misinformation out there," she said. "At this point, I just feel we have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully, if they go on strike, they can settle it quickly and not be out too long. At this point, I think they might be."

State law gives the state Department of Education power to order the teachers to return so that students will complete 180 days of school by June 15. King and Santicola each estimated the Seneca Valley strike could run about a month. Seneca Valley teachers have not gone on strike since 1985, district spokeswoman Linda Andreassi said.

"You're basically living day-by-day." Bench said. "Are they going to school tomorrow• You can't make any plans on doing anything. It isn't free time for anyone. They can go back to school at any time."

Depending on the length of the walkout, students could lose vacation days and see their school year extended into next summer, King said.

The district will send a revised calendar home with students when the strike ends.

According to the district, during the strike:

• Transportation for students enrolled in private, parochial, special needs and early intervention schools outside Seneca Valley buildings will continue. An alternate bus schedule will be used to transport students to the Butler County Vocational Technical School.

• The YMCA day care program will run a full-day program, and students attending should report to Rowan Elementary School. It is open only to those already enrolled in the YMCA's before-and-after school program.

• All extracurricular activities and athletics, including practices and games, will continue as scheduled. The 5:45 p.m. activity bus will run Monday through Thursday, and at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

• All community activities planned within school buildings will continue as scheduled.

• The Haine Middle School trip to the McKeever Environmental Learning Center for next week is postponed.

• The PSAT test on Oct. 20 will be given as scheduled.

• The Seneca Valley preschool program at the senior high school will be canceled, but will resume when the strike ends.

The PSEA represents teachers at 483 of the state's 501 districts. Teachers at the Lake-Lehman School District in Luzerne County are set to strike today, and teachers at Reynolds Area in Mercer County have been out for a week, Santicola said.

Other districts where teachers are working without contracts include Ambridge, Beaver, Shaler, Hampton and Montour.