May 4, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Central Greene teachers and retirees clapped and cheered Wednesday evening as their union’s representatives entered the school district’s administration building in Waynesburg.

Inside, negotiators finally got back to the table in an attempt to reach an agreement on a new teachers’ contract.

“We don’t know what we’re walking into, but we hope it will be something positive,” said Melissa Wilson, president of Central Greene Education Association.

Negotiators from both sides have not met since Feb. 28, when a tentative agreement was reached by the union and sent to the board for final approval. However, the school board rejected that tentative contract by a 7-2 vote at its March 15 meeting. School directors John Jacobs and Sharon Bennett, the two members of the school board’s bargaining committee that negotiated the tentative contract, were the only board members to vote in favor of it.

The union has been without a contract since last June.

“We don’t want to draw this out any longer,” Wilson said. “We just want to get back to our jobs.”

Before negotiations started up again, the board added two more members – Kevin Barnhart and board President Andrew Corfont – to its side of the bargaining committee. In addition to those changes, Superintendent Brian Uplinger was pulled from the role as chief negotiator, but is still on the bargaining team.

The board also brought in William Andrews, a third party labor attorney from Pittsburgh, to help with the negotiations, although his contract has not yet been formally approved by the board. Board President Andrew Corfont sais the board discussed hiring Andrews during an executive session weeks ago.

Andrews said Wednesday, just before the negotiations began that, “Our expectations, as always, are to get a contract.”

Bill Speakman, chief negotiator for the teachers, said his expectations for the night were to find out why the board rejected the tentative agreement, which was said to be the district’s “last best offer.”

“It would make it hard to move forward without understanding their rationale for a 7-2 vote,” he said.

Wilson said the state and regional offices of the State Education Association purchased 300 signs that Wilson has been passing out to the community. They are green and white, like the teachers’ union shirts, and say “We support our teachers.”

The response to the signs has been “overwhelming,” Wilson said. She said so many people want the signs that they will have to order more.