Ringgold teachers reject new contract offer
NEW EAGLE – Teachers in Ringgold School District who are working under the threat of a walkout overwhelmingly Thursday rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation for their new contract, a move that will send them back to the table to negotiate with the district.
The main issue stalling the new contract involved the district’s proposal to end the practice of offering health insurance to certain family members of the teachers, said Fritz Fekete, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the union representing Ringgold educators.
“We’re always ready to continue negotiations over this contract,” Fekete said Thursday night.
The contract on the table that night was formalized May 20 by an independent negotiator hired in April to guide both sides to an agreement after the teachers authorized a strike in February, but never scheduled one.
Ringgold’s 227 teachers have been working without a contract since August. Negotiators for the teachers and district had agreed to withhold discussing their offers in public, an understanding that expired after the teachers voted Thursday.
Ringgold Director Williams Stein Jr., who is heading the school board’s negotiating team, said he will not comment on negotiations until after the contract offer becomes public.
Fekete said the salary offers will be posted online today, and they also were expected to be posted then to the
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He said teachers also rejected the May 20 contract proposal because 70-to-80 percent of them would not have received a salary increase.
State law requires the union to take a second vote on the contract offer, and that is set for June 2, Fekete said.