February 16, 2011

Unionville-Chadds Ford Education
Association labor negotiations news took center stage at the U-CF School Board work
session when board members took exception to comments posted on the union’s Web
site.

The association’s Web site was updated Feb. 14 regarding the fact finder’s
report and the status of the proposed contract.

School board member Frank
Murphy took exception to comments regarding the fact finder’s report use of
2000 census data. Murphy said the 2000 census data may be somewhat outdated but
it is the most recent census data available.

Fellow board member Keith Knauss said
it was irresponsible for the teachers’ association to portray the union’s salary
demands as not generating a tax increase. Knauss challenged the association to
either document how its contract proposals would not increase U-CF school
taxes or remove this misstatement from the UCFEA Web site.

Board President Timotha Trigg said
it would be irresponsible for the board to accept economically unsustainable
contract terms. She added that the
economic terms of the fact finder’s recommendations were richer than the board
had believed were appropriate.

Corinne Sweeney, another board
member, said she hoped the association would carefully consider the school
board’s potential contract concessions indicated by the board’s Feb. 7 vote
that accepted of the fact finder’s contract recommendations.

School Board member Jeff Hellrung
said he was very disappointed in the association’s preliminary vote given the
weak economic climate.

The school board accepted the findings in the report on Feb. 7, but the union rejected them.

Teachers’ association President
Pat Clark was unavailable for comment during the meeting and did not return
phone calls.

The association will be meeting again to vote again on the
proposal, as required by Pennsylvania law. The result of the association’s pending vote should be
announced prior to the scheduled Feb. 22 school board meeting to be held at Hillendale
elementary school at 7:30 p.m.

The independent arbitrator’s Jan.
31 fact finder’s report, which included contract settlement recommendations
approved by the UCF school board, can be found on the district’s
Web site atwww.ucfsd.
The association’s response can be found at http://ucfea.psealocals.org/.

The arbitration report was
authored by appointed fact-finder Mariann Schick, of the Pennsylvania Labor
Relations Board.

In December 2010, the UCFEA
Negotiating Team and UniServ representative Ruthann Waldie, initiated the
fact-finding option which culminated in the fact finder’s report which was
prepared subsequent to the Jan. 19 comprehensive arbitration hearing.

It was more than a rerun of a
meeting held late last spring. Pennsbury Township residents objected strongly
enough to two proposed ordinances that supervisors tabled the measures to a
future meeting.

One ordinance dealt with
unregistered and abandoned cars while another concerned maintenance codes for
private buildings.

Residents in June argued
against an occupancy ordinance that would have required property owners to pay
$200 to the township to have their properties inspected when put up for sale.

The proposed maintenance code
change—the follow up to the rejected occupancy code—would have adopted the
International Code Council provisions for the township. That code is updated
every three years, according to township solicitor Tom Oeste. He said the ICC
was updated in 2009 while the township code was last updated in 1993. He called
the current code “obsolete.”

Yet, neither Oeste nor the
supervisors could answer when asked what was in the ICC. That challenge came
from resident Robert Orenshaw.

Oeste said he couldn’t say
what’s in the code, but then said he and the supervisors knew what’s in it.

Another resident said that
sounded like Nancy Pelosi saying Congress had to pass the healthcare bill
before the people could know what was in it.

Oeste said the ordinance had
been duly advertised and Supervisors’ Chairman Wendell Fenton said that the
advertising period gave residents the chance review the ordinance to see what
was in it.

Code Enforcement Officer Rusty
Drumheller eventually said the code addresses issues such as occupancy limits,
standards for heating apartments, treating mold and pealing paint and also
covers abandoned vehicles left on private property.

Supervisor Aaron McIntyre said
the ICC is accepted throughout Pennsylvania, adding, “We want to keep Pennsbury
up to date in accord with these codes. It seems reasonable to me [to adopt].”

Tabling the code ordinance came
after the supervisors decided to hold off on voting on the proposal on
abandoned cars. That proposal would make it illegal for unlicensed and
unregistered cars to be allowed on public streets and on private property. It
also outlawed car parts left in sight.

Fenton said the state police
would not take care of unregistered or abandoned cars left on the street.

Orenshaw—a former police
officer in Delaware County— also challenged that. He said the state police do
enforce regulations against abandoned and unregistered cars on public roads.

He then asked under what
conditions a township employee would be authorized to go onto private property
to enforce the code and Fenton said that would happen if it was deemed an
eyesore or if there was a complaint.

Orenshaw then asked how many
complaints there had been, but supervisors did not site any.

Orenshaw has had an ongoing
dispute with the township regarding his own property, but other
residents—including former Supervisors’ Chairman MaryAnna Ralph—also objected
to the new ordinance.

Ralph said, “It seems like it’s
too much. It goes beyond keeping [unregistered] cars off the streets.”

Another resident also said it
sounded like “a violation of private property rights.”

Both measures were postponed
until at least next month. McIntyre urged residents to review the proposed code
changes before attending the next meeting.

Other business

• Supervisors were scheduled to
vote on a request for final approval of the village plan during the Feb. 14
meeting, but that was changed. Township Manager Kathy Howley said the
developer’s attorney requested an extension until April 30.

• The board’s next meeting is
scheduled for March 23.

Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board members voted
9-0 in favor of a preliminary $69,768,266 budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

The preliminary budget is based on approval
of a 0.99 percent school tax increase in the district’s Chester County
townships and a 4.61 percent hike in Chadds Ford, Delaware County. The Chadds
Ford school tax increase is a result of the Delaware County school tax
rebalancing.

School Superintendent Sharon Parker said the
preliminary budget is a work in progress. She believed the Chester County increase reflects the
challenging economic conditions, she said. However it is possible the school board may
have to consider a 1.4 percent school tax increase for the 2011–2012 tax year
if subsequent information dictates the higher amount of tax increase.

There will be further discussion of the
preliminary budget at the Feb. 22 board meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Hillendale
Elementary School.

Other
business

• Board member Jeffery Leiser
reviewed the proposed modifications to the school calendar to makeup for the
unscheduled school closings due to inclement weather.

The proposed changes would eliminate the
March 11 and May 17 student days off and add four extra days in June. The
proposed calendar modifications were posted to the school district’s Web site.

• Corinne Sweeney announced her intention to retire from the school board
effective Dec. 31. Sweeney commented it had been her pleasure to serve her U-CF
school district constituents for the last 18 years. However, she said it was
time for a new person to step forward and serve.

Sweeney has represented Region A—East
Marlborough and West Marlborough townships—since she was first elected to the board in 1993. She is
the associate dean of the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Veterinary
Center.