STRIKE AVERTED

Eleventh-hour effort halts potential strike

A tentative teachers contract is reached in the Belle Vernon School District.

The Belle Vernon Area Education Association and the Belle Vernon Area School District reached a tentative agreement just prior to midnight Friday.

Both sides met Thursday evening for a second marathon negotiation session lasting nearly six hours in a “last-ditch” effort to avoid a strike.

Details of the agreement remain confidential until both sides have an opportunity to formally vote to ratify the final contract. The ratification will take place in the coming weeks.

“Our teachers were passionate about reaching an agreement with the Board, and our negotiations team worked to get it done at the last minute,” BVAEA President Daneen Watson, a Spanish teacher with 20 years in the district, said in a news release. “We are very pleased that we could get this hammered out for the benefit of everyone involved.”

“I am very happy that the two sides came together for the benefit of the students,” Belle Vernon Area Superintendent Michele Dowell said in the news release.

The education association, which represents 161 teachers, nurses, counselors and education specialists, issued a strike notice last week.

A work stoppage would have begun Friday if the sides did not reach an agreement on a contract.

The association and the school district have been negotiating a contract since January 2019. Teachers have been working without a contract since June 30.

The sides met for nearly eight hours earlier Wednesday, but they could not reach an agreement, according to a statement from district solicitor Ira Weiss.