Mediator calls for talks in Downingtown teachers strike

Downingtown Area School District residents will likely find out tonight whether three days of a teacher strike generated enough movement to produce a settlement.

State mediator Jill Leeds-Rivera has summoned the school board and the teachers to restart negotiations at 7:30 tonight at the Chester County Intermediate Unit headquarters in Downingtown.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education told the two sides yesterday that even if no settlement is reached, the district's 850 teachers must return to work by Feb. 14 in order for students to get 180 days of instruction by June 15, as required by state law. The two sides would then go through nonbinding arbitration; if either rejects the findings, the teachers could go on strike again.

The teachers walked out Tuesday after hours of negotiations on Sunday failed to produce an agreement; the strike is the first in the district since 1980.

The main remaining issue is wages: The two sides are about $1.9 million apart over four years. The district has offered a 4.4 percent increase in the first year with increases of 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.6 percent in the next three; the teachers say they want 4.85 percent increases in the first three years of a five-year contract and 4.6 percent in the last two.

Starting salary in the district is $43,300, with the top wage at $81,815. The average is $58,915.

At the end of the Sunday bargaining session, the union said it would not strike if both sides agreed to submit the remaining differences to binding arbitration by a neutral third party, which would mean that both sides would have to accept the arbitrator's ruling.

The school board refused, saying it did not want an outside party making decisions for it. Instead, it asked the union to hold off on a strike and go through nonbinding arbitration, in which each side could accept or reject the arbitrator's findings. The union, saying that nonbinding arbitration might not lead to any resolution, opted to go on strike instead.

Many parents want the strike to end soon. "They both need to give in a little bit and come to a contract agreement," said Jen Maggiore, co-president of the Home and School Association at East Ward Elementary School. "I don't think anybody wanted this, and I don't think anybody's really to blame," she added. "But it took two sides to come to a standstill and it will take two sides to come to an agreement. . . . The most important thing is our kids and the disruption of their education. That has to stop."

The school district Web site and hotline will provide updates on the negotiations. According to the Web site, the community will be informed by 10 p.m. today whether schools will be open tomorrow.

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