Kudos to Trinity teachers, administrators

With reference to the Observer-Reporter’s Dec. 8 article announcing the successful, early-bird agreement between the Trinity Area School Board and its teachers union, the Trinity Area Education Association (TAEA), Dana Ledger, the union’s president, said the association’s members “were willing to make some concessions because they wanted to resolve the contract before it expired at the end of the 2015-16 school year. Considering the current economic climate, we believe this settlement is fair.”
Kudos first should go to the Trinity School Board and the TAEA. The greatest level of recognition should go to the teachers for their dedication to preserve the continuity of their teaching responsibilities, as opposed to what appears to be the unrealistic demands from those teachers who walked the picket line in the Peters Township School District.
It appears we have two separate planets in play here. The Trinity teachers agreed to a one-year salary freeze for the 2016-17 school year, and teacher salaries will increase at an average rate of approximately 1 percent each year. The Peters teachers are holding out for raises of $2,300 for all teachers annually for the life of the contract. Health care costs are dramatically increasing, yet public school teachers have benefits far exceeding those that prevail elsewhere. But they are reluctant to pay a fair share.
School administrators need to remember the the following admonition: “What you will allow is what will continue.”
Conrad Rossetti
Eighty Four