School board defends offer as teachers strike looms
The New Kensington-Arnold school board Friday defended its position on health care premiums a day after the district’s teachers union said it planned to strike primarily because the sides could not reach an agreement on the issue.
Health care premiums remain the lone roadblock to a new contract following 19 negotiation sessions over a span of 14 months between the district and union.
The school board said in a lengthy statement that its latest contract proposal is fair to all stakeholders and that it is its final offer to the New Kensington-Arnold Education Association.
“The current offer places the teachers in the middle of the pack for salaries and health care contributions compared to other Westmoreland County school districts,” the board said. “If asked, the board is ready to return to the bargaining table. The district has the last reasonable offer on the table, so whether or not a strike can be averted is in the hands of the association’s membership.”
The union, which has been without a contract since Sept. 1, said it will strike Monday if an agreement cannot be reached. A work stoppage would cause classes to be canceled, according to district Superintendent Christopher Sefcheck.
A representative for the union said the organization had no comment on Friday. On Thursday, the union said the district’s proposal on health care premiums would increase members’ payments by upward of 100%, essentially forcing them to take a pay cut, something they could not accept.
The union said it is still willing to work toward a resolution with the district in order to avoid a work stoppage. But the board saidthe district and union cannot evenagree on a middle ground on thehealth care premiums.
Normally, the board said, when negotiations reach an impasse, the sides split the difference from where they ended.
“That was not how the union saw meeting in the middle,” the board said. “The union wanted to ignore a year’s worth of negotiations, hit a reset button and say the middle was between where bothsides started on day one.”
In the last written offer, the union said it would pay 11% of the total premium and the district proposed 15%, according to the board. That would have made the middle 13%, the board noted.
The board said it would accept the 13% payment of the premium, but the union rejected the offer.
“The union’s position Wednesday night was that its initial offer, going all the way back to December 2020, was roughly 8% (or the amount they are currently paying under the old contract) and that the district was at 15%,” the board said. “Splitting those numbers, the union reasoned, set the middle at 11.5%.”
After more negotiating, the district offered a proposal that would have union members pay average premiums of 12% over the life of a five-year contract, slightly less than the 12.25% that fell between each side’s definition of middle, the board said. The offer was met with the union’s letter of intent to strike, according tothe board.
The board said it was disappointed that the union would not take the proposal to its membership for a vote, especially because the sides are only 0.5% apart during years two, three and four of the contract and 1% apart during year five.
The district has not changed class size limits and will accept the union’s salary proposal if the teachers “pay a fair share of the health insurance cost,” the board said.
The union’s salary proposal, which the board called “the largest in Westmoreland County in recent years,” averages 3.78% per year over the course of the entire contract. The total increase in salaries over five years is just above $1.9 million, approximately 19% above the current costs for salaries, according to the board.
The increase will force the district to raise taxes a minimum of 3 mills per year for the next four years, the board said.
“This is a dispute over the teachers’ unwillingness to pay a part of their health care as most Americans have to do,” the board said. “If we can get agreement on this point, this matter will be concluded.”