Skip to content
Education
Link copied to clipboard

Neshaminy's 5-year teacher impasse over?

The longest teacher contract impasse in recent state history may be at an end. On Tuesday - after a marathon negotiating session over the Memorial Day weekend - the Neshaminy School District and officials of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers announced that they had reached a tentative contract agreement after five long years.

The longest teacher contract impasse in recent state history may be at an end.

On Tuesday - after a marathon negotiating session over the Memorial Day weekend - the Neshaminy School District and officials of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers announced that they had reached a tentative contract agreement after five long years.

The union could vote on the proposed contract as early as next week.

School district officials said they could not go into specifics of the contract before rank-and-file union members get a chance to read it. But school board president Ritchie Webb said it was similar to a deal proposed in December, with "the addition of some contract language changes."

Union officials also declined to offer specifics on the agreement, citing the need to brief members before a ratification vote, scheduled for Monday.

Webb said the tentative contract was modeled after that of nearby Council Rock School District and would include higher pay for Neshaminy teachers to compensate for the five years they spent without a contract or a raise.

After the vote, fuller details of the proposed contract will be released to the public, Webb said.

The teachers' previous six-year contract expired in 2008, kicking off the prolonged stalemate. District officials said they could no longer afford what Webb called an "extremely generous" contract, but teachers then went five years without a raise.

In 2012, the union held two strikes within six months - in January and May - that canceled classes for 15 days. The class time was made up by extending the school year and canceling scheduled off days.

Anne Schmidt, vice president of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers, said Tuesday that teachers were "just really looking forward to doing what we do best, which is to teach the kids."

Webb said: "I am hopeful, and would be grateful, that this would be all over. It's good for our community. It's exceptionally a good thing for our children."

Union and school district leaders met formally 68 times, often with a state mediator, before coming to a tentative agreement this weekend, Webb said.

He and Schmidt met face-to-face on Friday and spent much of the holiday weekend back and forth on the phone.

"I'm kind of amazed we got it all done over the holiday weekend," Webb said. "It made it a little more difficult, but we did it."