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Negotiations set to resume amid Ringgold strike

3 min read

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Negotiations between Ringgold and the district teachers union were set to resume this morning after teachers began striking last week.

The state Department of Education determined teachers must return to the classroom Nov. 21 for students to receive the 180 days of required instruction by mid-June.

The 200 district teachers who are members of the union had been working without a contract since July 1. They previously rejected a fact-finders recommendations for a new five-year pact.

Superintendent Karen Polkabla said negotiations are set for 10 a.m.

“We are hopeful that progress will be made that will allow teachers and students to return to the classroom,” Polkabla said in an email.

Teachers walked off the job Wednesday.

“I would have to say I hope that they’re ready to bargain,” Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan said. “But so far, every time we’ve expected an offer, we haven’t received one.”

On Tuesday, the day before teachers started picketing, a last-minute session failed to resolve the impasse when Degnan said the union presented a comprehensive proposal, but received no such offer in return. District officials declined when the union offered to meet again at 10 p.m. that day.

It is possible for teachers to call a second strike and extend the 180-day instruction period to the end of June.

Salaries are the main sticking point in negotiations.

The fact-finder’s proposal would have raised teachers’ 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 on the job. The union noted the proposed contract would have frozen all of the teachers at their current salary steps, keeping them from advancing.

So 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, acccording to the union.

“This is about teachers getting the respect they deserve,” Degnan said. “And the fact that they’re so poorly paid shows that they haven’t been getting the respect that they deserve.”

Degnan previously said Ringgold teachers are the lowest paid among the 105 districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The district has disputed that assertion. In materials on its website, the district said starting salaries were the 17th highest out of the 25 districts in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties as of 2013-14.

The same materials state the district wouldn’t be able to meet teachers’ demands without yearly tax increases above the state-set Act 1 index.

Ringgold school board President William Stein said he couldn’t go into details about negotiations but said the board is “absolutely committed to resolving” the contract standstill.

“We want to give (teachers) the best contract we can give them that’s fair to the taxpayers,” Stein said.

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