The Penns Manor School Board received official notice from the union representing the district’s educators that they intend to strike starting Monday, February 27th.
The Penns Manor Education Association announced a strike authorization in November of last year. The contract between the district and the teacher’s union expired on July 31st of 2022 and both sides have been in negotiations since January of 2022.
In a brief statement, Negotiations Committee Chairman for the school board Jill Eckenrode said the union ultimately rejected a request from the board concerning another negotiation method.
Annie Briscoe, PSEA Western Region Advocacy Coordinator, said that teachers have conceded on several issues before tonight’s decision to strike was reached, and said that one of the major sticking points was retirement incentives.
Other sticking points include healthcare costs and wages.
Both sides have said that they are willing to continue to meet to reach an agreement before the strike takes place.
The full statement issued last night by the district is reprinted below:
“At the negotiations meeting held tonight, the Superintendent and Board of School Directors for Penns Manor Area SD were notified that the Penns Manor Education Association intends to strike effective Monday, February 27, 2023.Despite the Board’s efforts to navigate the issues in an amicable way, PMEA unfortunately rejected the Board’s request at this meeting to participate in Fact Finding–a process for parties to resolve remaining issues by utilizing an impartial third party. They have instead elected to strike.The District will be releasing additional information at a later time regarding the pending strike and what it may mean for students and/or their programming. ”
To read the statement from the PMEA, please click on the link below:
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