With teachers’ strike, parents adjust plans
Peters Township School District teachers walk a picket line in front of Peters Township High School on Wednesday.
Giana Campagna, 9, left, and Savana Waldman, 8, normally would be in their third-grade class at Bower Hill Elementary School. Instead, they spent an unseasonably warm Wednesday afternoon playing at Peterswood Park because Peters Township teachers are on strike.
Giana, 9, and Gino Campagna, 5, students at Bower Hill Elementary School, spent Wednesday afternoon playing at Peterswood Park.
Peters Township students who otherwise would be in school spent Wednesday afternoon playing soccer at Peterswood Park.
McMURRAY – Jennifer Kelly is the mother of a first-grader and a third-grader in the Peters Township School District. She is also a nurse.
And as a working mother of two young children, Kelly said she had to have her mother, who lives in New Jersey, come and help her care for her children since district teachers went on strike Oct. 28.
“I think it has gotten inconvenient for parents and the community,” Kelly said Wednesday, a week after 285 teachers walked off their jobs after being unable to come to a contract agreement with the district.
Unless an agreement is reached, they could remain on strike until Nov. 27.
This, in turn, will force the district to use designated vacation days to make up the lost time. About 4,300 students are affected by the strike.
Kelly said she is sympathetic to the teachers’ demands, despite the inconvenience the work stoppage has caused her.
“They are not asking for anything new,” said Kelly, adding the salary increases and assistance with health care costs are “necessary to maintain” their standard of living.
“They don’t want things taken away,” said Kelly, who resides in Venetia.
Issues between the district and teachers include salaries, health care costs, class size and the length of the work week.
The district has offered raises of $500 annually for teachers on steps 1-16, and $200 a year for teachers on step 17, the district’s highest salary tier. The teachers, meanwhile, want $2,500 annual raises during the life of the new contract.
The district has offered health care contributions of $185 a month for the first year of the contract and $345 a month for the family coverage during the contract’s fifth year.
The teachers want no increase in health care contributions and full health care benefits for all retired teachers until they reach Medicare eligibility or the age of 65 with no contributions from retirees. Under the expired contract, teachers pay $70 a month for individual health care coverage and $145 a month for family coverage.
The district also wanted to increase the work day from seven-and-a-half to eight hours.
Kristie Nowlan of McMurray, a teacher in the Chartiers Valley School District and mother of two young children, said the strike is serving a purpose. Teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31.
“They are fighting for what they deserve,” said Nowlan, who is on maternity leave from her teaching job.
McMurray resident Nicole Shadel is the mother of two teenagers, both of whom attend Peters Township High School. She said life has to continue during the strike.
“The kids want to know how things will work out school-wise, like how the days missed will affect Keystone state tests,” Shadel said.
“They still have to take the tests on the days marked, but will they have enough time to prepare for the tests? They want to know how they will learn all they should before the end of school. What happens now if they have a snow day? Will they have other school vacation days taken away? They are slightly stressed about what will happen and how things will work out.”
Kimi Forse of Venetia is the mother of a 16-year-old junior at the high school. She said she is frustrated the district and the teachers can’t come to an agreement despite meeting 17 times since January.
“I think they should meet every night,” Forse said. “They should have met at least three times already.”
The two sides are meeting today in downtown Pittsburgh in yet another attempt to end the work stoppage.