Central Greene teacher negotiations continue
WAYNESBURG – Tensions appear to be rising at Central Greene School Board meetings as teacher contract negotiations continue with little progress.
The board held its regular meeting Tuesday where Mark Kramer, a parent of a Central Greene student, asked the board for a “status update” on how negotiations are going.
Board President Andrew Corfont responded that the negotiations are ongoing, although he declined to comment further on the issue.
“Until we have an agreement, we will not be releasing anything publicly,” he said.
Melissa Wilson, president of the teachers’ union, said the board asked her this week not to talk to the media about the contract negotiations. She responded to the board’s request in a public comment Tuesday by telling them the union won’t be silenced and “we have nothing to hide.”
More than 100 teachers in green shirts as a show of solidarity cheered her on from the audience.
The negotiation table teams from the union and the district met the Sept. 14. Wilson said the board made a proposal, but the teachers rejected it. She said the last three offers have been regressive and the two sides are not making progress.
“We cannot accept a negative contract for our teachers,” she said.
She said the only progress made at the meeting was the scheduling of two more negotiations meetings on Sept. 27 and Oct. 6.
“We’re planning on trekking through these two meetings and we’re hoping see some positive movement from the board,” she said.
If those meetings don’t go well for the teachers, Wilson said a strike isn’t out of the question.
“It would be wrong of me to say that we’re not preparing for a strike,” she said. “We want to be with the students but we’ve been negotiating this for two years now. How much longer can we keep this going?”
The teachers have been without a contract since August 2015. Wilson said the union membership has already given the negotiating committee permission to strike, if that’s what it comes to, but the committee won’t make a decision whether or not to strike until after the next two scheduled meetings.
“That doesn’t mean that Oct. 7 we are striking,” she said. “We’re prepared for all possibilities, and we don’t want to strike, but with how the negotiations have been going, that’s something that can happen.”