Peters Township teachers on strike
Peters Township School District teachers walk a picket line in front of Peters Township High School on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015.
Some Peters Township School District teachers began their walkout by picketing Wednesday at the high school.
McMURRAY – After talking for more than seven hours Tuesday night, 285 Peters Township teachers went on strike Wednesday morning when their union and the school district failed to reach an agreement on a new contract.
The teachers were without a contract since Aug. 31.
The walkout, the district’s first since 2000, will last until Nov. 27, when teachers and students must return to the classroom under state law and the matter will be turned over to a state-appointed arbitrator for resolution. The district must get in 180 days of instruction by June 15, which will now be its last day of school. Vacation and holiday break days will be used to make up lost time.
”I want to do what is best for the district,” Superintendent Jeannine French said following the unsuccessful talks, which ended around 11:30 p.m. “I am very disappointed.”
No new talks have been scheduled, but a mediator could call the two sides back to the bargaining table.
On Wednesday morning, the teachers, clad in blue rain ponchos, lined both sides of East McMurray Road in front of Peters Township Middle School and McMurray Elementary, and received numerous supportive honks from passing motorists. They will be outside those buildings, as well as Peters Township High School and Pleasant Valley Elementary, from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday for the duration of the strike. Teachers will also be holding informal coffee klatches with district parents to explain their position, the union said.
The two sides met 17 times since January in an effort to avert the strike, which will affect 4,300 students at the five district schools; three elementary, one middle and one high school. Teachers will not be paid during the strike, but will be made whole once a settlement is reached, the district said.
“We were simply unable to reach an agreement,” said Paul Homer, staff representative for Peters Township Local 3431 of the American Federation of Teachers. Homer said he was disappointed French did not participate directly in negotiations and that Jamison Hardy, a school board member and one of the lead negotiators for the district, was not present at Tuesday’s talks. French said Hardy was available for consultations by phone.
“We greatly value our teachers and cannot put a value on what they do,” she said.
The issues and differences between the district and the teachers are salaries, health care costs, class size and the length of the work week. The district offered raises of $500 annually for teachers on steps 1 through 16 and $200 a year for teachers on step 17, the district’s highest salary tier. The union, meanwhile, wanted $2,500 annual raises for the teachers during the life of the contract.
The district offered health care contributions of $185 a month for the first year of the contract and $345 a month for the family coverage by the contract’s fifth year. The union countered with 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 7.5 hours to eight hours and increase the work year by four days to 197.
The salary range for a teacher in Peters is $45,900 to $104,864 and the average teacher pay is $71,540. The union said 62 percent of the district teachers make between $45,000 and $63,000, ranking it 15th in Western Pennsylvania.