{"id":17259,"date":"2017-04-13T10:17:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T14:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=17259"},"modified":"2017-04-13T10:17:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T14:17:26","slug":"coatesville-teachers-reject-fact-finding-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=17259","title":{"rendered":"Coatesville teachers reject fact finding report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talks to continue, after health care, work rules prevent deal<\/em><\/h2>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>CALN \u2014 Close, but no cigar.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Coatesville Area School District Board of Education moved quickly to approve a fact finder\u2019s report Tuesday night to resolve a long-standing contract dispute with its teachers, the district\u2019s teachers \u2014 who had requested the report \u2014 while saying they largely agreed with the report, rejected it on the basis of what it termed was some \u201cvague and unclear\u201d language in the proposed settlement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the teachers \u2014 among the lowest paid in Chester County \u2013 got much of what they were looking for in terms of salary, they were unhappy with open questions on health care costs and work rules, saying the terms were an effort by fact-finder Ralph H. Colflesh, Jr. to get the two sides back to the negotiating table. <\/span><\/p>\n

The rejection by the teachers set into motion a process which led to the public release of the findings \u2014 Wednesday \u2014 as well as a new window for both sides to accept or reject the report, not less than five days nor more than 10 after it is published.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Coatesville Area Teacher\u2019s Association (CATA) agrees with most of the Fact Finder\u2019s recommendations, but several key pieces are vague and unclear,\u201d said CATA President Audra Ritter in a statement.\u00a0\u201cCATA believes these broad areas were done intentionally by the Fact Finder to draw both sides back to the bargaining table to settle a fair and competitive contract.\u00a0 Our contract expired August 30, 2016.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The district, through a statement by Board of Education President Dean Snyder, expressed disappointment that the teachers rejected the proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the recommendations, while more costly than what the board would like, give a significant boost to the ability of the district to better serve our students,\u201d Snyder said in a statement.\u00a0 \u201cIt is the recommendation to allow the district to control the school day in accordance with proposal we submitted, and the attendant cost reductions that would occur, that have resulted in the school board accepting the fact-finder\u2019s report at this time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The district argued that teachers were more concerned with the work rules \u2014 and who controlled the work day. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the district\u2019s understanding that a major reason for the union\u2019s rejection of the fact-finder\u2019s recommendations was the recommendation to give the school district control of the work day, though it preserves inviolate planning time and lunch,\u201d said the district\u2019s chief negotiator, Michael Levin, in a statement.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a major part of the school district\u2019s efforts to improve student achievement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ritter said that the health care plan was key, although admitting that there were concerns on the work rules, as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCATA voted almost unanimously (456 No to 12 Yes) against the Fact Finder\u2019s report due to a lack of specific information regarding costs associated with the prescription drug plan, out-of-pocket maximums and other components related to health benefits,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cWe also have serious concerns regarding the proposed language on the teacher work day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ritter elaborated on the teachers\u2019 concerns relating to work rules:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe current language regarding the teacher work day takes away necessary planning time,” she said. “This is time to collaborate with colleagues and, most importantly, time to meet the specific needs of our students.\u00a0 The language restricts teacher\u2019s flexibility to meet directly with students on an as-needed-basis or time to develop differentiated lessons that uniquely support all learners.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The district attempted to offer some clarification of the issues in dispute by offering a \u201cMemorandum of Understanding\u201d \u2014 but the document was not widely circulated until after the teachers took their initial vote, so it remains unclear whether it might have impacted the teachers\u2019 vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u2014 based on dueling statements \u2014 the two sides seem to disagree about meeting and further negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have requested to meet with the School Board and our Superintendent to create specific language that finalizes these remaining issues, but they have ignored our requests to negotiate,\u201d Ritter said in a statement issued Wednesday. \u201cWe hope that the Board will come back to the table so we can use the Fact Finder\u2019s recommendations as a path forward.\u00a0 The Board\u2019s time and energy would be better spent utilizing the Fact Finder\u2019s report to work with CATA to find a fair compromise and end this year and half-long standoff.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But the district issued a statement Wednesday saying: \u201cMembers of the School Board Negotiating Committee and CATA met again on April 12 to attempt to bring clarity to the fact-finder\u2019s recommendation in an effort to have both sides accept the report.\u00a0 Constructive dialogue was exchanged and the school district intends to submit another proposed Memorandum of Understanding,\u201d and offered a Web link to a proposed Memorandum of Understanding.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Both sides stressed that it would be good for the district to put this issue to rest and be able to focus on the other challenges it faces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a great gift it would be to our students and taxpayers if we can iron out an agreement so that we can focus on our educational mission and put contract talks behind us,\u201d Snyder said.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the terms of the proposed settlement wasn\u2019t entirely clear, Colflesh had some harsh words for previous school administrations’ obvious mismanagement of the district, as well as for poor state funding \u2014 especially in terms of of special education \u2014 and the impact of charter schools and pension costs on the district\u2019s finances. He did note that recent interventions by the current administration had stabilized the district\u2019s finances \u2014 which had been running at a deficit until the 2013-14 school year after being in the red for six straight years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also lambasted previous administrations for a near total to maintain the district’s buildings: \u201cto make matters worse, due to what can only kindly be called \u2018mismanagement,\u2019 the District\u2019s physical plant is (in) sore need of repairs after years of negligence and no oversight.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talks to continue, after health care, work rules prevent deal By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times CALN \u2014 Close, but no cigar. While the Coatesville Area School District Board of Education moved quickly to approve a fact finder\u2019s report Tuesday night to resolve a long-standing contract dispute with its teachers, the district\u2019s teachers \u2014 who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29,4918,5170,6423,3912],"class_list":["post-17259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-coatesville-area-teachers-association","tag-contract-talks","tag-fact-finders-report","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17260,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259\/revisions\/17260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}