Negotiations on a new three-year contract between the 341-member Hopewell Valley Education Association (HVEA), or teacher’s union, and the school board have broken down. The current contract, also for three years, expires June 30.
By: John Tredrea
Negotiations on a new three-year contract between the 341-member Hopewell Valley Education Association (HVEA), or teacher’s union, and the school board have broken down.
The current contract, also for three years, expires June 30.
HVEA President Bernadette Shetler said the impasse between the union and the board involves "issues dealing with professional development." She said she could not be more specific.
Interviewed in the hallway of the school district administration building Monday night after she addressed the school board while it was in public session, Ms. Shetler said the board and HVEA have "come to terms on the salary guide and insurance package." She said that on staff development issues, however, the union has "hit a bottom line from which we can move no more … and the school board’s attorney (Robert Martinez) has stated very clearly the board will move no more."
In a dramatic moment at Monday night’s school board meeting, scores of teachers from every grade level who had helped pack meeting room to standing-room-only capacity rose to their feet in unison as Ms. Shetler read a brief prepared statement to the board.
"We stand as one – we are a unit," Ms. Shetler declared. "The contract negotiations are now stalled. We ask the board to speak to its negotiating team" about "the impasse that the association’s bargaining team has been forced to call."
No members of the school board or administration responded to Ms. Shelter’s statement while the board was in public session. Just before the board went into closed session about 90 minutes after Ms. Shetler’s statement, board President Sally Turner was asked to comment on the impasse.
"We are willing to sit down at the at table if everyone is willing to negotiate," Ms. Turner said. Like Ms. Shetler, she said issues of confidentiality precluded her from being able discuss the specifics of the stalled contract negotiations.
Ms. Shetler and William O’Brien, also of the HVEA, said the declaration of an impasse is, under state law, an official act that already has been reported to the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), a state agency. "The procedure now is that they find a mediator that will get the two sides back to the negotiating table," Mr. O’Brien said.
Ms. Shetler estimated it could take "three to eight weeks to find a mediator – PERC says this is a difficult time of year to find one."
Contacted Tuesday morning, Ms. Shetler said an impasse was declared in Hopewell Valley "two contracts (or six years) ago." No state mediator was needed to end that stalemate, however. "The superintendent of schools intervened," leading to a signed contract between the union and school board, Ms. Shetler said.
"I think we are very close" to agreement with the board, she said. "But we’ve hit a bottom line from which the association feels it cannot move."