News and information of interest to the Seven Fields Borough area including Cranberry, Mars and surrounding towns.
Gabriel Stellar, a senior at Seneca Valley Senior High School, will be doing an informational presentation for his senior project. The subject is how teacher strikes in Pennsylvania hurt students and the community. The event is at the Cranberry Municipal Center on Tuesday, April 29th at 7:00 P.M. If you'd like more information, contact Gabriel at gfstellar@zoominternet.net.
The Seneca Valley Teachers approved the latest contract proposal. KDKA has the first report. More tomorrow.
Teachers in the Seneca Valley School District accepted their new contract.
The school board gave its approval to the deal earlier this month.
The five-year contract provides teachers with annual salary increases.
It also limits how much teachers would pay "out-of-pocket" for health care coverage.
Seneca Valley School District teachers accepted an agreement recommended by a state arbitrator by a vote of 499-9.
"I have talked to about five parents so far, and we are very happy that this thing is over," said Ken Dash of Cranberry, the parent of two students in Seneca Valley, which endured a 24-day teacher strike last fall. "It never should have come to this. I am grateful to both sides, but I wish this had happened earlier."
Union officials were surprised by the lopsided approval in Seneca Valley. "I'm happy if they are happy," said Patrick Andrekovich, a Seneca Valley elementary school teacher and lead negotiator.
"Nobody has to worry about what's going to happen in the next several years," said Butch Santicola, a spokesman with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. "This was a very tough struggle in Seneca Valley. This had to be passed, or there was going to be difficulty."
The contract includes average annual wage increases of 4.3 percent and new health care contributions. Teacher salaries will increase 3.9 percent in the contract's first and second years, 4.3 percent the third year, and 4.7 percent in the fourth and fifth years.
The agreement calls for new health care contributions of $10 per teacher every two weeks starting in the contract's second year. The contribution would increase to $20 by the contract's fifth year.
"I think that everyone looks forward to returning to the prime directive of educating the students of the district," said Seneca Valley board President Dean Berkebile in a release.
Now that the Board quickly approved the Arbitrator's report, the Teachers will spend the next week considering it. The Tribune-Review has more.
Teachers in Seneca Valley will need at least a week to consider a state arbitrator's report that recommends a contract with wage increases higher than the Butler County district offered.
The school board approved the proposed agreement, which includes average annual wage increases of 4.3 percent and new health care contributions during a five-year contract.
"I think it's a fair proposal," board President Dean Berkebile said Tuesday. "It's not the same as any of the proposals that have been put forward so far. It's clearly up to the teachers at this point. I hope they accept the proposal."
The teachers' union, which staged a 24-day strike in October and November, has until April 17 to accept or reject the factfinder's report.
"We have no comment on it at all. The proposal has to be looked at by several committees before a vote. We will need the next 10 days to consider it," said Butch Santicola, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which represents the district's 575 teachers.
If this round of arbitration is not successful, teachers could strike a second time this year, although the number of days they would be allowed to strike is limited. The last day of classes in the district is June 27.
The Seneca Valley School District website has details on their decision, as well as a pdf link to the Arbitration report.
From across the internet:
WPXI
Board members met Monday night after receiving the report from the state arbitrator.
The contract talks went to non-binding arbitration after teachers walked the picket lines for nearly five weeks.
The report suggests a 4.7 percent salary increase over five years, no healthcare contributions the first year and $20 per paycheck by the fifth year. The panel also voted no on giving teachers a $2,500 bonus for getting board certified.
School district attorney Thomas King said, “If in fact this is approved by the teachers, the district would have a new five-year contract retroactive two years.”
The Seneca Valley strike is back in the news again. Both sides of the dispute presented their best offer to an arbitrator yesterday. If this process fails, the teachers could strike again this Spring. The Post-Gazette has a quick writeup.
Both sides in the Seneca Valley teachers contract dispute met with an arbitrator yesterday morning as part of state-mandated nonbinding arbitration following the Oct. 15 strike by teachers that lasted 24 days.
The teachers' offer included a 4 percent increase on base payroll of $30.8 million for the 2005-06 school year. That figure would be used to determine increases for 2006-07 and 2007-08.
The district's offer includes a 4 percent average salary increase per teacher per year, with contributions to health care premiums.
It could take up to 20 days for the arbitrator to issue a report.
If that recommendation is rejected by either side, negotiations can continue or teachers can strike for a second time.
Update: You should be able to see the calendar at Seneca Valley's official website (www.svsd.net) but the site has been down all day. In the meantime, see the link below for the Post-Gazette.
The school board agreed on a revised 2007-08 school year calendar last night to compensate for the five week strike that completed last week. The highlights are as follows:
[Superintendent Donald] Tylinski said a second revision of the school calendar could become necessary should teachers choose to strike a second time this school year. A second strike could last five days but would not be allowed to commence during the non-binding arbitration period, which generally takes up to 45 days to complete.
After nearly five weeks of striking, the Seneca Valley teachers are set to go back to school tomorrow without a contract. Though no resolution was achieved, state law is forcing them back to class. The Post-Gazette has a quick summary of the situation:
Teachers yesterday conducted a membership meeting aimed at encouraging a smooth resumption of classes, said Butch Santicola, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
"They're happy to be back, make no mistake about that," said Mr. Santicola. "Whether they're happy to be back without a contract is another question."
Although the contract dispute has not been resolved, state law requires the teachers to return to work in time for 180 days of instruction by June 15.
The state Department of Education computed that date as tomorrow, considering only the four state-mandated holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day and Memorial Day.
State law now requires both sides to submit to mandatory nonbinding arbitration. If that doesn't result in an agreement, the teachers could strike again, and the school year could run as late as June 30.
The school board will vote on a revised calendar at a special meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the intermediate high school.
Both the Post-Gazette and KDKA report that Sunday's meeting between the board and union, without either side's professional negotiators, failed to accomplish anything. No new talks are scheduled and the strike looks to extend to its maximum length. By law the teachers must report back to work this Friday.
The Tribune-Review takes a look at how the internet is being used by the public to deal with the Seneca Valley teacher strike. Besides our little mention in there, there's also some interesting quotes from the public and both parties involved in the strike. (For more internet sites that aren't mentioned in the article, view our links page.)
"It's the first time we have dealt with blogging it at this level in any strike. Of course, we monitor the blogs. We have to," said Butch Santicola, who acts as spokesman in any Western Pennsylvania strike in which teachers are represented by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, as are Seneca Valley's teachers.
The impact of such online buzz on labor strife is unclear, as it is in politics, where political blogs tend to preach to the converted, said Jeffrey Cole, director for the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School For Communication and an expert on online communities.
"The Internet changes the rules of everything -- politics, dating, news. So there is no reason why it should not change the rules in a labor dispute," Cole said.
Despite all the postings, Cole said, the impact of the Internet on labor disputes may not be substantial.
"As in almost anything else, the Internet's impact is not yet transformational, though it plays some kind of role. It's certainly creating a grapevine of information, misinformation and nastiness. No one is vetting information, though," he said.
UPDATE: Proposal rejected
According to several sources, including the union's site (pdf), the teachers would like the board to negotiate this weekend without either side's hired guns. If so, the teachers would go back to work Friday saving strike days from next week that could be used as Christmas vacation days.
Here's KDKA's take:
A new proposal in the Seneca Valley School District could have teachers and students returning to the classroom as early as Friday morning.
Officials with the teachers' union say they are willing to continue the negotiations with the district as long as mediators are not present.
In a letter to the teachers' union earlier this week, the School Board agreed to weekend-long negotiating sessions as long as the teachers return to class this Friday.
Officials say that if the teachers agree to the proposal, the students would still get a holiday vacation, but if the strike continues it will have to be canceled.
If the strike goes on, it can continue until November 15th when teachers will be required to go back in order to get 180 days of classroom instruction.
A final answer to the proposal could come in around 9 a.m. The teachers have been on strike since October 15th.
I've found it can get confusing keeping track of all the players involved in this ongoing strike. To help clear up confusion and know who is representing who, I'm going to maintain a participants list of the major contributors to both sides of this situation. In some cases, I've linked to sites that may have more information.
(Last Updated December 2007)
Seneca Valley School Board
Region 1 (Cranberry Township East I & II)
Dean T. Berkebile (President) - Serving 3rd term, expiration 2009
Region 2 (Cranberry Township West I)
Anthony J. Storti - Serving 2nd term, expiration 2011
Region 3 (Cranberry Township West II)
Robert J. Hill Jr. (Vice President) - Serving 3rd term, expiration 2011
(Re-elected)
Region 4 (Cranberry Township West III)
Anthony D. Evans - Serving 1st term, expiration 2009
Region 5 (Cranberry Township West IV)
Tom Roth - Serving 1st term, expiration 2009
Region 6 (Zelienople Borough)
Dr. Sally A. Hanley - Serving 1st term, expiration 2011
Region 7 (Callery, Evans City and Seven Fields Boroughs)
Joseph A. Scalomogna - Serving 1st term, expiration 2011
Region 8 (Lancaster and Forward Townships)
Kenneth R. Brennan - Serving 3rd term, expiration 2009
Region 9 (Harmony Borough and Jackson Township)
Jeffrey Widdowson - Serving 1st term, expiration 2009
Pat Andrekovich - Chief Negotiator for the SVEA and teacher at Rowan Elementary School
Teacher Negotiations Team - Polly Shaw, George Trew, Rich Norris, Lori Rehm
SVEA Officers
Butch Santicola - Spokesman and Negotiator
Joy Conley Kacik - Midwestern Region Field Director
Staff page
Bob Lavery - State Mediator
Matthew Franckiewicz - State-appointed fact finder
Ken Dash - Probably the most prominent parent involved in the situation
Tuesday morning updates on the aftermath of the proposal rejection. The Strike is expected to last through the legally determined deadline of November 16.
Post-Gazette: Seneca Valley strike goes on
The two-year proposal contained 10 points, which included a detailed explanation of salary increases. The teacher's union proposed a 4 percent increase on the base payroll for the 2005-06 school year, which is $30.8 million. That figure would be used to determine increases for 2006-07 and 2007-08. The teachers have said their proposal equals the district's "best offer" previously presented to the union.
However, the teachers also proposed that when teachers retire or resign from the district, the money that the district would realize in savings by hiring new personnel be distributed among the members of the teachers union.
Mr. King argued that because of the teachers' proposal to distribute additional savings each year among its staff members, the percentage increase actually ranged from 6.1 to 6.4 percent.
"If it really was 4 percent, they could come back to work tomorrow," he said.
"What they want us to do is say teacher A retires at $70,000 a year and her replacement comes in at $40,000 a year," he said. "They want us to take that $30,000 difference in salary and allow them to split it up among their remaining members. If we do that, it's not really 4 percent, it's closer to 6.4 percent."
The proposal, which was defeated by a vote of 8-0, was not an agreement on a new contract, but would have ended the strike, which is now in its fourth week. Board member Jeffrey Widdowson was absent.
"As of right now, it looks like we won't be back in school until next Friday," said Patrick Andrekovich, chief negotiator for the district's teachers.
"We offered them a 4 percent (salary) increase, which is what they said they wanted, and they voted no."
After six hours of negotiations, both sides reached tentative agreements on four minor economic issues. But salary and benefits remained a problem.
From the Post-Gazette:
The Seneca Valley School Board tonight rejected a proposal by striking teachers that would have ended a strike that began Oct. 15.
School board members voted unanimously against the proposal from the teachers, who by law must end their strike by Nov. 16.
The teachers proposed a two-year agreement that would have provided raises of 4 percent each year.
The board's vote was greeted by a chorus of boos by the 200 people at the meeting.
News is spreading that the Seneca Valley teacher strike may be coming to a close as the board prepares to vote on a proposal. The two sites met for more than seven hours today and the potential agreement could put the kids back in school as early as Wednesday. From the Tribune-Review:
Under the proposal, made at the start of the fourth week of the teachers strike, teachers would accept annual pay raises of 4 percent for two years and one of three health care plans, two of which include premium payment and a third that includes higher co-payments and deductibles.The teachers’ proposal would require 10 bargaining meetings before Jan. 16 to sort out the terms of the remaining three years of the five-year contract, said Pat Andrekovich, chief negotiator for the teachers.
If the school board accepts the proposal, there would not be a second strike this school year, Andrekovich said. Under state law, the current strike could have lasted through Nov. 14.
A state mediator last week scheduled talks for today to hopefully end the Seneca Valley teacher strike, now entering its fourth week. The strike must end, by law, on November 16th, which would mark five weeks of striking.
The board had asked the teachers union to present their best offer at tonight's meeting with the promise it will, at least, be voted on.
This is an updating post of relevent links that will be kept throughout the strike. If you have other links to add, please contact me.
From the Tribune-Review, a state mediator will bring the two sides of the ongoing Seneca Valley strike together for a meeting Monday. All signs seem to be pointing to a strike lasting the maximum length, until November 15th.
From the YourCranberry blogs, concerned parent Ken Dash had managed to arrange a meeting between 18 fellow Seneca Valley residents and the teachers union for an informal, yet frank, discussion about the strike. The meeting, from most eyes, was a disappointment. Three proposals were presented and none will be voted on by the teachers. You can read more about the meeting's summary and responses here. Another response from the Seneca Valley Teachers Strike blog.
About 70 students and parents gathered outside the Seneca Valley School District main campus yesterday to pray for an end to the ongoing teacher strike, now two weeks old. More from the Post-Gazette:
Doug Raraigh, youth ministries director for Dutilh United Methodist Church in Cranberry, came up with the idea of a prayer circle around the flagpole as a way for students to feel they are doing something positive with the strike.
Various Seneca Valley students have come to him "confused and discontented," he said, with both the change in their daily routines and the heated rhetoric from both sides.
The church is remaining neutral in the contract dispute, he said, and he has urged students to consider both sides when they have expressed opinions during Bible study groups.
Adametz, the only Seneca board member who has spoken publicly during the strike, sparked a furor earlier this week with the release of an e-mail in which he said the district has "more than a handful of useless, incompetent, deadwood teachers that I wouldn't want anywhere near my kids."
A new contract should give the board the right to fire 1 percent of the district's teachers at will, Adametz said in the e-mail, which he sent to administrators and other school board members.
Yesterday, he refused to back down from that position. "I do not think every teacher is dead wood, but there are probably more than a few who are not carrying their weight," Adametz said.
Andrekovich called the remarks outrageous and an insult to all of the district's teachers, who worked without a contract from June 2006 until walking out Oct. 15.
"This e-mail shows exactly why we are on strike. Mr. Adametz is pro-voucher and wants to run the Seneca Valley School District into the ground. He does not support public education and does not have the interest on the kids in this district on his mind," Andrekovich said.
Adametz's two children attend a private school.
We received this via email from KDKA along with this attached pdf this evening.
PRESS RELEASE
Please join KDKA Radio 1020 talk show host Kevin Miller tomorrow - Friday, Oct. 26 - for a "town hall meeting" on the Seneca Valley teachers strike.
The live broadcast will happen noon-3 pm at St. Ferdinand Church's Oldenski Hall, 2535 Rochester Road, Cranberry Township.
Negotiators, school board members, teachers, parents and concerned citizens will attend. The public is invited.
Thanks
Marshall Adams
Director of News/Talk Programming
kdkaradio.com
