Negotiations fall apart again between Ringgold, teachers

Another round of negotiations Thursday between striking teachers and Ringgold School District failed to resolve the labor dispute that mostly centers on a proposal to freeze teachers at their current salary steps for five years.
Ringgold Education Association said the board presented the union with a proposal that devalued the teachers and added steps to their salary schedule.
“We countered with an offer to return to our classrooms if they would agree not to devalue and not add steps with everyone moving through the schedule. They declined,” the association said Thursday on its Facebook page.
Negotiations are expected to resume Nov. 1.
The district has indicated the five-year contract the teachers are seeking would cost taxpayers $11.2 million, and that the board is limited in options to raise new revenue.
“The association is well aware if the schedule if not repaired it will cost the taxpayers even more down the road,” the district said on its website.
The 210 teachers began striking Oct. 18. The union has claimed that its members are the lowest-paid schoolteachers in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and that many new hires stay for only a few years to gain experience and then leave for other teaching jobs that pay them $10,000 more a year.
The teachers have been directed by the state to return to work Nov. 21 in order for the district’s nearly 3,000 students to receive 180 days of instruction by mid-June.
The union rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation that would have take salaries from between $36,000 and $78,508 a year last term to between $41,439 and $83,947 a year by the end of the contract.
Ringgold Superintendent Karen Polkabla said the district increased its financial offer to the teachers again in the hope of allowing students to return to the classroom during negotiations.
“At 2:20 p.m. (Thursday), the district was informed that the REA was done and they would meet again on November 1,” Polkabla said.