West Chester Teachers' Union Agrees to One-Year Pay Freeze

The voted to approve a contract extension for all of the school district’s employees instituting a pay-freeze and saving the district $1.4 million.

“In my 27 years in public education, I have never seen anything like this,” said Superintendent Dr. Jim Scanlon.  “It’s a tribute to the kind of people we have working in the district.”

The school board’s contracts with district employees were set to expire at the end of June.  However, the teacher’s association as well as the district’s other unions put forward a proposal to extend the current contract one more year.

“We were collaboratively looking for ways to save money,” said teachers' union president Debbie Fell.  “This decision was voluntary and pro-active.”

Fell added, “We hope that this shows that our members are willing to share the burden.  With this action, we are demonstrating that we care.”

School board member Sean Carpenter said that he applauds the pay freeze, but that it will only get the district through this year.

“We can’t raise taxes or freeze salaries forever,” Carpenter said.  “We need to continue to operate on the principal of sustainability.”

Dr. Maria Pimley also serves on the school board, but said the contract extension made her happiest as a parent.

“It puts a lot of worries that parents have to rest,” Dr. Pimley said.  “It shows what our teachers are made of, and that they put students first.”

Dr. Pimley added,” There are a lot of parents who can sleep a little easier until next year.”

Dr. Scanlon said that the pay freeze allows the talk around budget cuts to change.

“I said last Monday that in the emotional time surrounding budget cuts that we are losing focus on our kids.  This allows us to refocus.”

Dr. Scanlon added, “I am honored and proud to be the superintendent of this district with these people who are this dedicated to our children.”

The school district is still facing a $3.4 million deficit, and the school board hopes to have a balanced budget in place and ready to vote on by the end of May.

While the school board expects to have the budget balanced for the 2011-2012 school year.  The district faces an almost $8 million deficit in the 2012-2013 school year.

"I hope it [the budget freeze] will aid the budget situation and help us to keep our level of service," said Fugett Middle School principal Le Roy Whitehead.