District, Teachers Disagree on Report

Contract negotiations between the West Chester Area School District and the West Chester Area Education Association couldn't agree on a report from the state's Labor Board last week.

Both the district and the teacher's union voted on a stat-released fact finder report regarding the district, which included recommendations for a teacher's contract that would have run for three years and included a wage freeze and salaries increase of up to 2.9 percent.

The school board voted to accept the report at their meeting on Monday, Sept 9.

“The board set out to negotiate a fair contract that would maintain the integrity of our programs, improve achievement through staff development, implement market-driven health care benefits, and develop a compensation program that is affordable to our community," board President Vince Murphy said in a statement. "I believe this fact finder’s report will achieve those goals.”

The Education Association voted to reject the fact finder's report at their meeting on Thursday, Sept 12, saying that there were "a number of concerns" that prevented the group from favoring the report.

"There were numerous places in which the language that would be used in the contract was unclear," the group said in a release. "After all this time and work, WCAEA could not accept vague language that would result in future problems for both parties."

The Education Association is in the middle of a 10-day revision period, at the end of which the teachers ill vote again to accept or reject the fact finder's report.