The latest offer from the Neshaminy school board to district teachers would cost taxpayers "far less" than the latest proposal from the union, according to board President Ritchie Webb.
The proposal was crafted to mirror the recently signed teacher contract in the Council Rock School District. That deal was approved by the Council Rock school board in June and was offered to Neshaminy teachers by school board negotiators last week.
The board has said that if the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers doesn't accept the deal, the offer will be pulled. No deadline has been set regarding for the NFT to make a decision. The two sides are scheduled to meet on Wednesday evening.
In recent negotiations, the board provided answers to 44 questions from the NFT about the offer. However, union leaders said many answers were vague and incomplete, which indicated the school board didn't consider the proposal to be a serious one.
?Questions that elicited a simple ?yes or no? response were met with answers so convoluted that they provided no clarification whatsoever,? NFT President Louise Boyd said after Thursday?s talks. ?As a whole, the responses provided by the district were essentially worthless.?
The full list of questions and answers ?- as well as information regarding the Council Rock deal -? are posted on the district?s contract negotiation blog at www.nsdboard.blogspot.com.
Webb said Friday that the board's answers were detailed and supported by documentation. In its response, the district repeatedly directed NFT officials to a recent analysis of the offer conducted by the union and emailed to teachers for answers to many of the questions.
In the email, NFT officials said the offer appears to have been made ?solely to create dissention? within the union?s ranks.
?Taking all the documentation together, it makes sense,? Webb added. ?Without all the documents it does not, which is the root of the NFT?s spin.?
Said Webb: ?The only question that we were purposely vague on is what Council Rock?s CBA (collective bargaining agreement) would cost Neshaminy taxpayers. It would depend on when the contract was signed, what savings the district would realize from part year insurance change, and contributions to the healthcare plan. Another important issue is how many retirees would no longer be entitled to healthcare benefits going forward? I can assure you that the cost to Neshaminy taxpayers will be far less than the $32 million the NFT is requesting in their current proposal. Why? Because Council Rock?s CBA does not include a retirement bonus of $27,500, free Rolls Royce healthcare now and in retirement, retro pay, etc.?
He added that the board is open to providing the union with as much information as it needs about the proposal.
?It sounds as though the NFT does not want this contract,? Webb said. ?Instead, they appear to be choosing a path that paves the way for another strike while denying teachers a chance to vote on the board?s offer.?
Webb has said the contract offer is fair and notes that Council Rock consistently outperforms Neshaminy in several areas, such as PSSA results. He added that he would like to see union leaders allow the entire membership to vote on whether or not to take the deal and end the dispute.
According to union officials, the Council Rock contract includes ?an impressive salary schedule,? but fails to address many financial and non-monetary concerns expressed by NFT members, such as class size and student/teacher ratios.
The CR contract calls for monthly healthcare premium contributions from teachers, escalating from 11 percent in the first year to 16 percent by the last year of the three-year pact.?The NFT has offered to increase its health care contributions from the fixed rate of 8 percent included in its most recent offer to fixed rates of 8.5 percent in the second year of the proposal and 9 percent in the third year.
Neshaminy teachers, who have been working under the terms of the previous contract since 2008, contribute nothing to their healthcare contributions. Teachers have had their salaries frozen since that time and have received no salary step increases, which are based on service time and additional education credits.
Teachers are seeking 80 percent retroactive pay to compensate for the raises they would have earned during the four-year-long impasse. The board has said from the outset that retroactive pay is not affordable and is off the table. The most recent board offer doesn't include any retro pay.
Council Rock teachers agreed to a salary freeze in the first year of the deal and a half-percent salary bump in the final year.
Teachers have sought to retain an equal say in education committees as stated in the previous deal, but the Council Rock contract doesn't include such a clause.?The Council Rock agreement also doesn't include longevity pay for educators.
Neshaminy teachers get an early-retirement incentive payment of $27,500. This is not included in the board?s proposal.
Throughout negotiations, the board has sought to prohibit the master?s degree equivalency programs that are used to advance on the salary step matrix. The latest offer from the board doesn't recognize master?s equivalencies gained after June 30, 2015.
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49038127/ns/local_news-delaware_valley_pa_nj/
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