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Ringgold teachers to strike after deadlock with school district

3 min read
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NEW EAGLE – Ringgold School District has canceled classes Wednesday as a teacher strike begins.

Ringgold teachers and the Ringgold School District failed Tuesday afternoon to reach a settlement for a new contract.

Teachers and the school district Tuesday entered into last-minute negotiations called by the state mediator in attempts to avoid a strike Wednesday as both sides appeared to be deadlocked over salary increases.

The Ringgold Education Association had been cautiously optimistic that a settlement would be reached after having opened a strike headquarters Monday night,

“We came to the bargaining session today ready to negotiate. Our members were and are ready and willing to consider a fair and equitable offer from the district. Unfortunately, the district did not come to today’s session prepared to make such an offer,” REA President Maria Degnan said. “They were unprepared to even begin discussion over key sticking points.”

The 200 teachers who are members of the union have been working without a contract since July 1.

The union rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation to raise the salary range from between $36,000 and $78,508 a year last term to between $41,439 and $83,947 a year by the end of a five-year contract, depending on education levels and years of employment. However, the union noted that the proposed contract would have frozen all of the teachers at their current salary steps, preventing them from advancing. That would have meant, said the union, that at the end of the contract, a first-year, newly hired teacher would be paid the same as a teacher who had been with the district for five years.

Teachers authorized a work-stoppage in August.

Degnan said the union had repeatedly told the district that it would bargain for as long as it would take to reach a fair agreement, but that its negotiators were unwilling to meet until Tuesday.

The next negotiations had been set for Oct. 23, but a state mediator was able to find an earlier time, district officials said.

“Our union has been forced into this position by the school district – it is incumbent upon them to demonstrate the respect that our teachers deserve,” Degnan said.

Ringgold Superintendent Karen Polkabla said in a statement that the salary proposal presented by the teachers’ union appeared to be about $150,000 higher than what was presented in fact finding, and that the district and REA decided they need to agree on the same salary numbers.

Polkabla said the district asked REA to put off the strike until Oct. 24, pending the outcome of the Oct. 23 negotiations, but the association declined.

Classes will be canceled until further notice.

Students who attend Mon Valley Career and Technology Center should still attend classes, and bus schedule information will available on the district website. Transportation also will continue for special education and alternative education students who attend schools outside the district.

Polkabla said in the statement, “Additional bargaining sessions are scheduled for Oct. 23 and Nov. 1, with the state mediator. The district is hopeful the current impasse between them can be resolved quickly.”

The district is awaiting a response from the state Department of Education on the number of days the teachers can be out.

Updates will be made through the district website, Ringgold Facebook page, and One Call system.

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