COAL TOWNSHIP - The Shamokin Area School Board released its most recent teacher contract proposal publicly Thursday, revealing an offer of raises totaling $4,900 to $5,900 over the next three years.
The publication of the proposal came after the board and teachers union issued statements criticizing each other for failing to schedule additional negotiation sessions before a scheduled Tuesday strike.
"Our association offered the board two meeting dates in an attempt to avert the strike," the Shamokin Area Education Association (SAEA) wrote on its Facebook page Thursday morning. "The school board declined both dates, without reason."
A short time later, Antonio Michetti, the board's representative, issued a statement on behalf of the board.
"Contrary to the union's statement, the board did offer to meet with the union by coming in on a holiday, Monday, Sept. 7, to continue negotiations and hopefully avoid a strike," he said. "No response was received from the union."
An interaction between board member Charlie Shuey and the administrator of SAEA's Facebook page reveals the union offered to meet on Friday and Sunday.
"Those dates were selected by you, knowing that members and administrators would probably be away for the holiday, and therefore not available," Shuey wrote.
"Our team members were willing to cancel plans to attend on either or both days, as we see and understand the urgency of settling this contract," SAEA responded.
Definitive proposals
Michetti also said in the statement the board has attempted to engage in negotiations via email, with no success.
These negotiations include "repeatedly requested a concrete responsive proposal from the union to the board's offer, setting forth the exact amounts of wage and benefits compensation the union was seeking for its membership," he said. But instead of providing a proposal, the union has stuck to a fact-finding report issued in June, he said.
SAEA voted to accept the report. The board rejected it, saying it was feasibly impossible for the district.
"The union has failed to give specific financial requests, other than continuing to refer back to a flawed and unanimously rejected fact-finding report," Michetti said in the statement. "With the present uncertainty over education funding in the state and federal budgets, and the already overburdened taxpayer, the board needs definitive proposals from the union to evaluate given its budgetary constraints and respond accordingly."
Raises, health coverage
Michetti said in the statement the board hoped to "assist the parents, taxpayers and union in evaluating the board's proposal" by posting it on the web.
The board is proposing a wage freeze for the two retroactive contract years, 2013-14 and 2014-15. In exchange, teachers who were employed by the district by those years will receive a $500 per year raise in 2015-16. All teachers will also receive a $2,500 raise.
In 2016-17 and 2017-18, all teachers will receive a $1,200 raise, an average increase of 2.74 percent and 2.67 percent, respectively.
In exchange for the raises, the board is asking the teachers to pay 5 percent of their medical insurance premium costs. Currently, teachers pay 1 percent of salary toward medical insurance.
The board estimates an employee with single coverage will pay $15.67 per check, an average annual increase of $2.37. A family coverage recipient will pay $43.82, an average annual increase of $734.36, the board said.
The proposed plan has no deductible.
Teachers who opt out of plan receive a stipend of $2,500, up from $1,000, the board proposed.
The board also proposed an alternative with even higher raises, if the teachers agree to raising the maximum elementary school class size by seven students.