NFT Plans June 3 Ratification Vote; School Board to Act Within 10 Days

LANGHORNE, PA (May 28, 2013) — Leaders of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers and the Neshaminy School Board announced today that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for members of the certified staff in the Neshaminy Public Schools.

The agreement – which comes after nearly five years of difficult negotiations – must be ratified by a majority of union members and the school board. Union and district leadership deferred discussion of specific terms of the agreement until members of the NFT could be briefed. If ratified, the agreement will replace the previous contract, which expired at the end of June 2008.

“It has been a long and challenging process that brought us to this point,” said NFT President Louise Boyd. “The tentative agreement we are announcing today addresses some professional issues that are important to teachers and their students.”

She credited NFT Vice President Anne Schmidt and School Board President Ritchie Webb for working vigorously over the Memorial Day weekend to resolve some final questions. 

“The tentative agreement we have worked out secures what both sides needed to move ahead to a new contract,” Webb said.

Schmidt agreed, “This has been a tough process, but we believe the agreement will be a new beginning in our relationship. It is time for our community to stop looking backward and focus on the future of our schools and our students.”

Webb and NFT leaders also praised the involvement of the state mediator, Bill Gross, who had guided formal bargaining sessions over the last year.

NFT President Boyd said a ratification vote on the agreement will be taken at a membership meeting scheduled for Monday, June 3.  Members will receive information detailing the terms of the tentative agreement.

School Board President Webb said he expects the tentative agreement will be on the agenda for a special Board meeting to be held within 10 days.

As you may have heard, at a May 16 meeting attended by 75 percent of the membership, Neshaminy teachers voted by secret ballot to decline the latest contract offer made by the School Board. This meeting was monitored by three AFT National representatives and legal counsel. This was not an easy choice: No matter how any individual teacher voted, all teachers want to see an end to this contract stalemate.

The Board’s latest offer, for professional reasons, was too extreme for teachers to accept. In its most recent proposal, the Board refuses to preserve class size limits in the existing contract. The Board is also demanding that teachers give up key contract provisions that enable us to have a voice in our classrooms and how our students are educated. The Board wants to take away longstanding rights that enable teachers to advocate for a quality education for every child in Neshaminy. Many of our members expressed that they find these demands very troubling.

You may have heard some of the rumors and misconceptions that are being circulated. We want to set the record straight:

• First, the students and families of this district deserve to have this resolved, and soon. After five years of difficult negotiations, teachers and school staff simply wish to end this stalemate and move our district forward.
• Second, we believed until early last week that we were close to a contract with which both sides could live.  Meetings between NFT Vice President Anne Schmidt and Board President Ritchie Webb were very promising. Unfortunately, it appears that the Board as a whole was not willing to agree to the fair and sensible compromises Ms. Schmidt and Mr. Webb had discussed.

We remain hopeful that a contract is in sight; nearly every financial issue has been resolved. The only major items left on the table involve the Board’s puzzling insistence on taking away a professional voice and curtailing the role of the educators who teach your children. Contrary to some public assertions, our concerns have nothing to do with who runs the Neshaminy schools—teachers are too busy in their classrooms to want to take on that job. If the Board will make some rather fair accommodations on its radical demands, we believe a path to a contract still exists.

Out of 500 school districts in the Commonwealth, the Neshaminy School District is the only one that has dragged out negotiations with teachers for five years. Teachers have met this Board more than halfway. We once again urge the Board to continue our discussions, hammer out an agreement with us, and let our schools move forward.

AFT National has prepared a presentation on the Affordable Care Act (ACA).   The health insurance exchanges are due to be in place by October of 2013.  ETF will probably be sharing information this summer on how it will impact state employees and retired state employees. 

AFT National's ACA Slideshow

The following blog post from a teacher about the link between student testing and teacher evaluations is poignant. 

Welcome to the new Astor Staff Association website!  It is my pleasure to inform all our members that we will now be accessible online!  Webmasters Dan Flanagan, Laura Decker, and Cheryle Hansen will be posting information, articles, and items important to our members.

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2013 MATC Part-time Teachers' Union, Local 6100 Annual Membership Meeting Agenda and 2012 Annual Membership Meeting Minutes for approval.

• View agenda.
• View 2012 meeting minutes.
• View 2013 meeting minutes

Hello Faculty - I'm happy to report that your negotiating team - Tracy Furutani, Don Bissonnette, Ed Ciok, Dave Eberhardt, Brian Holt, Robin Tartow and me - concluded negotiations today with a contract we feel good about presenting to you for ratification.  What a great group of colleagues to work with, and I don't want to leave out Nancy Adelson and Kimberly McRae who were team members last year.  I also want to thank all of you who wrote emails, made phone calls, spoke at BOT meetings, picketed, and wrote to the team with support and appreciation - your actions mattered.

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