Striking Ringgold teachers rally at school board meeting
Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan, far left, greets striking teachers and supporters at a rally before a school board meeting in this October 2017 photo.
Scott Beveridge/ Observer-Reporter
Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan, right, walked on a picket line last month at the entrance to Ringgold High School in Carroll Township as district teachers went on strike.
Hundreds of striking teachers in Ringgold School District rallied before a board meeting Wednesday, joined by parents and neighboring public educators, to urge for negotiations to resume that night and continue until a fair contract is reached.
However, board President William Stein Jr. said both sides will negotiate again at 10 a.m. today, moving up the meeting by a week.
“We’re not going to negotiate in an atmosphere where it’s not conducive to getting anything done,” Stein said regarding returning to the table immediately following the meeting at Ringgold High School in Carroll Township.
“Emotions are high,” he said before the board meeting began.
The 210 teachers walked off the job Oct. 18, with the proposal to freeze them at their current salary step for five years as one of the biggest challenges preventing a new 5-year contract. The union has claimed that its members are the lowest paid schoolteachers in southwestern Pennsylvania, that many new hires stay for a few years to gain experience and then leave for other teaching jobs that pay them $10,000 more a year.
“Sadly, we believe striking was the only option to get a fair contract,” Ringgold Education Association President Maria Degnan said.
She said the teachers will not accept pay freezes.
“Everyone in this room deserves better,” Degnan said during the meeting’s heated public comment session.
Earlier, former Ringgold math teacher Tim Booth said he resigned the past summer because of the “disparity in compensation.”
He said he “struggled month-to-month” while working at Ringgold and that he saw a $10,300 increase in earnings a year by taking a teaching job in another district.
The union was joined at the rally by teachers from the Washington, Baldwin, Bentworth, Brownsville, Belle Vernon Area and Canon-McMillan school districts.
“We are extremely grateful for the community and parental support that we have received since we began our work-stoppage,” said Degnan.
“Many parents have expressed their frustration to me with the board’s seeming unwillingness to reach a fair and equitable agreement with the teachers, she said prior to the rally.
The teachers have been directed by the state to return to work November 21 in order for the district’s nearly 3,000 students to receive 180 days of instruction by mid June.
The union also rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation that would have take salaries from between $36,000 and $78,508 a year last term top between $41,439 and $83,947 a year by the end of the contract.
The school board moved rapidly through its agenda Wednesday before taking comments from teachers and taxpayers.
The comments included praises for the teachers and questions about how the board can spend $42 million on new middle school that is under construct without finding money for teacher salary increases.
The directors were booed as they walked off of the stage in the high school auditorium.
A parent quickly walked to the lectern asking why the board didn’t say anything about the strike.
“Excuse me. I know you adjourned, but why aren’t you saying anything,” said Maria Capicotto, a mother of two Ringgold Middle School students from Finleyville. “You said nothing.”
Stein told reporters after the meeting the directors are “custodians of taxpayer money,” that the decision to strike was made by the teachers.
He said he believed both sides made progress during negotiations Monday.
“We can’t break the bank,” he said.