Nov 6, 2015 3 min read

It was hoped a change of venue might expedite a contract between Peters Township School District and its 285 striking teachers.

It didn’t.

The two sides had met 17 times since January at the district’s administration building on East McMurray Road. This time the setting was the state Bureau of Mediation on the third floor of Piatt Place, the former Lazarus building, in downtown Pittsburgh. Representatives from both sides beat the rain and were in the lobby before 9 a.m., when talks began. Jeannine French, school superintendent, who had not participated actively in negotiations since the teachers announced their Oct. 28 work stoppage, was part of the district delegation.

“We are very disappointed,” said Paul Homer, staff representative of Peters Township Federation of Teachers Local 3431, following nearly five hours of discussions.

“Today was a waste of time,” he said.

The district offered to move immediately to nonbinding “final best offer” arbitration to end the strike. The teachers union ended negotiations. Under that form of arbitration, both sides would submit a best and final offer. An arbitrator would choose one of the proposals, and both sides would have to abide by its provisions.

”We came here hoping to return our children to the classroom on Monday,” French said. “The district again offered the PTFT the opportunity to do that through arbitration without them having to compromise their position, and they again refused.”

The two sides will return to negotiations at the same location at 10 a.m. Monday.

The issues in the dispute include salary, health-care costs, class sizes and the length of the work week. The teachers had been without a contract since Aug. 31, the first day of school in the district.

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 average teacher’s salary in Peters is $71,000.

The district has proposed 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.

The work stoppage, which could continue until Nov. 27, has left 4,300 Peters Township students with a lot of free time on their hands and parents of younger school-age children scrambling to find day-care options. A number of local organizations have opened their doors for parents, including the South Hills YMCA and local churches.

But as the strike drags on, the financial toll on parents and frustration of the students is mounting.

Katherine Karolick of Venetia, a single mother of a third-grader and a fourth-grader, said she has already spent $1,000 that she had not planned for.

“This is not a temporary inconvenience,” Karolick said in an email, adding the effects may be lasting.