Teacher contract talks ongoing

Board member Tim Kerr ‘confident we can get it done’; teachers vow to start classes on time

A new school year is rapidly approaching, and North Penn’s school board members say they are still optimistic about reaching agreement for new contracts with the district teachers and support staff.

“We plan on being back in and getting the kids started on time, and doing what we do best,” Sean Devlin, President of the North Penn Education Association, said Friday.

“Our team’s going to continue working, regardless of whether it gets done next Wednesday, or five Wednesdays from now. We’re going to keep working, and get this thing done, and parents can rest assured that the kids are starting on that first day,” he said.

School board member Tim Kerr, who leads the board’s negotiations committee, said much the same after the board’s meeting Thursday night.

“We continue discussing with them. We are, I think, moving forward. We still have a lot of issues to conquer,” said Kerr.

“Keep in mind that the current contract is coming to an end very soon, and that maybe puts a little pressure on both sides to work a little harder to get it done,” he said.

Discussions began in February on the next contract between the school board and the North Penn Education Association after both sides reached an agreement in April 2016 to extend the previous agreement for one year. The 2016 agreement covered roughly 975 district classroom teachers, special area teachers, speech clinicians, school nurses, and special education teachers, and Kerr and board President Vince Sherpinsky said after Thursday night’s school board meeting

that both sides held a productive meeting in early August and plan to meet again next week.

“The next time we talk, we’ll probably have better information. I think next week will tell us whether or not I should be as optimistic as I am,” Kerr said.

“I’m confident we can get it done. I’m hopeful one of the last things I can do to help the board is to give them a little labor piece over the next period of time. I’m not sure what that period is,” he said, referring to his impending retirement from the board in November.

Devlin said Friday he thought the two sides could

be closer if a meeting scheduled for earlier this summer had not been canceled, but the last meeting between both sides was a productive one.

“I’m hopeful that every meeting we have draws us closer together. I think at the last meeting, we made some really good strides, so I’m hopeful that we’re at least on the right path to getting this accomplished,” he said.

Kerr said he did not want to discuss specifics, but the district’s financial picture is always a part of the discussions.

“It’s always comes down to dollars and cents. They’re looking to protect their

folks. I understand that, and we respect what they do and how hard they work. It’s just that we also recognize that we only have so much that we can spread around,” he said.

Kerr and Sherpinsky both said they think the negotiations for an agrement with district support staff are closer to being concluded than with the teachers, but added they don’t expect the planned start of school on Aug. 29 to be affected.

“I don’t think the union and their members will do anything other than come into work and do a good job,” Kerr said.

Teachers have already

started getting used to their new classrooms, Devlin said, and if a tentative agreement is reached, the association’s bylaws require a period of several days before it is finalized.

“The first day we present (an agreement), the next day we answer questions, and then the meeting after that is the vote, so essentially it actually happens over three or four days,” he said.

“If you introduce it on a Monday, there’s what we call a cooling-off period, then Wednesday would be any questions, and that Thursday would be a vote,” said Devlin.

The North Penn School

Board next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 5, and Kerr and Sherpinsky said the board could take action that night to approve a new contract if one is ready by then.

That meeting will be held at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St.

For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.NPenn. org or follow @NPSD on Twitter.

For more information on the North Penn Education Association, visit www. NPEA.PSEAlocals.org or search for “North Penn Education Association” on Facebook.