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Back to school in Souderton

The youthful excitement and apprehension synonymous with the first day of school was on hold in the Souderton Area School District until yesterday.

The youthful excitement and apprehension synonymous with the first day of school was on hold in the Souderton Area School District until yesterday.

More than two weeks after striking teachers walked off the job, the school doors opened and class was in session.

"It's wonderful. Finally," Karen Peterson said as she dropped off her 11-year-old son, Nikolas, at West Broad Street Elementary School in Franconia Township. "I'm sorry it took this long."

Schools in the Montgomery County district opened yesterday after the teachers union and the school board agreed to nonbinding arbitration in an effort to resolve an impasse in contract negotiations. Teachers then voted to return to the classroom, less than a week before the union would have been required by state law to end the strike, which began Sept. 2.

Throughout the 6,900-student district yesterday, students and their parents waited at bus stops, drove to school together, or walked hand in hand to the school's front door.

"I was getting bored at home," said Cole Landis, 9, a fourth grader at West Broad Street Elementary School.

Cole and his 5-year-old brother, Gunnar, spent the strike playing miniature golf, participating in church activities, and at the playground, said the boys' mother, Sheila Landis.

"I'm just glad they decided to go back," she said. The teachers "showed they really cared about the children," added Landis.

The teachers and the school board are deadlocked on wages and health care. The union has proposed a four-year contract with successive average salary increases of 5.98 percent, 9.40 percent, 7.14 percent and 6.90 percent. The school board is proposing an 2.5 percent annual salary increase over the course of a three-year contract.

Arbitration could start next week and might take several months. Each side will submit a proposal to a three-member panel, which will hold hearings. The panel will then issue a proposed agreement, which each side can accept or reject.

Union president William Lukridge, a ninth-grade social studies teacher, was among the district faculty back in class yesterday.

"We're happy to be back in the classroom, but we wish we could have come back with a contract," he said. "We are looking forward to the arbitration."

The school board plans to submit its "final best offer" within 10 days, said district negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik. The board will argue that its proposal is the most reasonable given the district's financial position, Sultanik said.

Union negotiators contend that their proposal is the most fair, considering that "especially in the beginning years, Souderton teachers are very underpaid," said Rob Broderick, a staffer with the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

The district's 512 teachers could go back on strike, but must return to work in time for students to receive the state-mandated 180 days of instruction this school year.