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 Murphy said the 2000 census data may be somewhat outdated but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.