Talks to continue on seeking new pact with teachers’ union
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
KENNETT SQUARE — The Kennett Consolidated School District Board voted unanimously to reject the findings of Diana S. Mulligan—the state-appointed fact finder — at Monday night’s School Board meeting, meaning contract negotiations between the district and its teachers will continue.
KCSD and the Kennett Education Association (KEA) have been meeting since January of this year to negotiate a successor contract to the Collective Bargaining Agreement that expires on June 30. The parties met on numerous occasions during the ensuing months and exchanged several proposals with the objective of both sides reaching an amicable settlement.
By the beginning of April, however — with a number of issues in dispute including salary, benefits, time, and tuition reimbursement — the district opted to request a formal Fact Finding through the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
On April 10, the PLRB appointed Mulligan as the Fact Finder to oversee the fact finding process between the District and the Association. During a May 7 hearing held at the District Office, both the district and the association presented testimony and introduced documentary evidence.
The major issues raised in the hearing were salary, medical insurance, school day, preparation periods, tuition reimbursement, reduction in force/demotions, parent teacher conferences/night meetings, clerical duties/classroom readiness, in-service days, and work day/work year.
On May 21, Mulligan issued her Fact Finding Report. The district and the KEA then had 10 calendar days from the issuance of the report to accept or reject it. Acceptance hinges on approval of the report in its entirety and on an unqualified basis.
The KCSD Board rejected the Fact Finding Report based on its alleged failure to achieve two standards established as district negotiating priorities: first, the successor agreement must ensure that the district has the flexibility to improve the quality of educational and instructional programs while enhancing the safety and welfare of our students and secondly, the successor agreement must be financially sustainable under Act 1 and the district’s current economic climate.
“It is the opinion of the Board that the Fact Finder based her recommendations solely on comparable data of Chester County school districts and ignored the supporting statistics presented by the KCSD to illustrate the dire financial crisis affecting our ability to maintain existing programs, salaries, and benefits, especially critical data highlighting the massive future expenses mandated to fund the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System. We, the Board, cannot afford the luxury of the Fact Finder’s oversight,” District Business Administration Mark Tracy said. “With 60% of our operating budget tied to employee salary and benefits, the collective bargaining process that governs the working conditions of our teachers is our only opportunity to control long-term costs. “
The district claims that the Fact Finding Report is deficient in identifying the total cost of employment (TCE). KCSD further claims that implementing the fact-finder’s salary increase recommendations would drive the district deeper into the red.
“The salary increases recommended in the report may appear to be austere on the surface: 0% year one and 2.6% year two,” Tracy said. “However, the total cost of employment for the District includes everything from base salary, educational credit adjustment increases, and healthcare inflationary costs, as well as the increase to the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System (PSERS), all of which have been omitted in the Fact Finder’s calculation. PSERS alone will cost an additional 3.5% of each employee’s salary in 2012-2013 and 4.5% of each employee’s salary in 2013-2014.”
Despite the rejection of the report, the board made it clear that their decision was not based on any negative bias toward the district’s teachers.
“Working with this board I can tell you that we hold our teachers in the highest regard and truly value their contributions to make Kennett an extraordinary place for our students,” Board member Heather Schaen said. “As board members, though, we must look past our personal biases for teachers and look at what is the best balance for the District as a whole…we are looking for an agreement that is more in line with the current economy and our current budget.”
