There’s been no breakthrough in
negotiations between the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District and the
teachers’ association, but talks are continuing. Budget talks continue also.

School Board Director Frank
Murphy said, during the Jan. 18 school board meeting, that the board faces a
difficult task in trying to balance the needs of the students, teachers and the
taxpayers.

“Costs for everyone are
rising,” he said. “This is a difficult time for everyone,” adding that it’s the
board’s job to make those difficult decisions.

He said while the teachers’
association canceled the last negotiation session, the previous two had been
productive.

“We’re asking for shared
sacrifice. No one will walk away from the table happy,” he said.

Murphy also took time to
address the comments from Michael Dillon, a student at Chadds Ford Elementary
School, who said there are adults who don’t have kids and “don’t want to pay
for us to have good teachers.”

Murphy said the lack of a
contract for the teachers is not because the teachers aren’t liked. The board
isn’t trying to be cheap, but to run an efficient school district.

Following Murphy’s address,
Director Keith Knauss reiterated several points made during the board’s Jan. 10
workshop.

He said the preliminary
budget—to be voted on in February—would be presented with a tax increase in
accord with the state’s Act 1 limits of a 1.4 percent increase with exceptions.

If passed with those
exceptions, the budget would increase school property taxes by 3.3 percent in
Chester County townships and 7.06 percent in Chadds Ford Township, the lone
Delaware County municipality in the school district.

He repeated something else as
well: “I have no intention of voting for those maximums.”

Knauss reviewed a series of
options in dealing with cost and revenue projections and whether or not the
teachers get the 5 percent increase in salaries and benefits being asked for.

He rejected most of those
options because they would either deplete reserves and delay the same difficult
decisions the board faces now, or force an increase in class sizes and
reduction in programs. Those options would include an early retirement program
or reduce the number of teachers by 3.5 percent per year for three years.

Another option he rejected is
raising school taxes beyond the Act limits, but that would require a
referendum. Two previous referendums on the high school renovation project were
defeated and Knauss said another referendum would likely also fail.

He said the best option would
be to come to a favorable negotiation with the teachers based on the Act 1
limits.

A preliminary budget is scheduled for a February vote. The final budget will be voted on in the spring.