Oct 28, 2020 2 min read

Negotiations continue between West Greene School Board and the district’s 68 teachers seeking a new contract.

West Greene Superintendent Brian Jackson said Monday the teachers, represented by West Greene Education Association and Pennsylvania State Education Association, have been working under a previous three-year contract that expired June 30.

“They are receiving the same salary, benefit packages, sick days, everything that was there under the previous contract, since July 1, which will be in effect until a new contract is approved,” Jackson said.

Jackson said negotiations have been ongoing between the two sides since February. The school board proposed an offer to the teachers earlier this month, about a week before the board’s Oct. 22 meeting.

Matt Rychtarsky, a teacher at West Greene Junior-Senior High School, spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and expressed the teachers’ dissatisfaction with the most recent proposal.

“During all of this in the spring, for the first time on such a large scale, we felt truly respected, appreciated and valued as educators by the board and administrators, as a whole, not just individual members or just for the things we do to go above and beyond our contractual obligations,” Rychtarsky said of the teachers’ work during the pandemic. “This most recent contract proposal is insulting and disheartening and makes many of us realize all of the praise and appreciation we received just a short time ago were merely words, worth nothing more than the letters which make them up.”

Rychtarsky said with the denial of a contract extension and the length of time between proposals, the teachers continued to do everything expected of them, “and more … much more, in fact.” He said faculty members spent “countless hours” outside of the school day designing new curricula, developing virtual learning activities, being trained on new equipment, developing new department programming, hosting virtual field trips, “all while risking their health and safety during a worldwide pandemic.”

Jackson said the school board is awaiting a counterproposal from the teachers to the current offer.

No meetings have been scheduled between the teachers and district.