In Hermitage district, teachers go on strike
The teachers strike brought work on the $24 million renovation and expansion at Hickory High School to a halt.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Not all of Hermitage's 2,300 school pupils got the day off as the district's teachers went on strike this morning.
There are a small number, just over 40, who are enrolled as Hermitage pupils but actually attend classes elsewhere.
That includes 28 students who attend the Mercer County Career Center (vocational school), 10 special-needs pupils who attend classes in other area school districts and three attending off-campus programs.
Must attend classes: Their classes aren't canceled and they still have to go to school, said Superintendent Karen Ionta, adding that Hermitage will continue to provide transportation for them for the duration of the strike.
They will be picked up and dropped off at their regular bus stops on their regular schedules, she said.
The vocational students spend a half-day in Hermitage taking academic classes and a half-day at the career center in Mercer. They'll have to make up their academic time lost during the strike, just like the rest of the Hermitage students, Ionta said.
The district will also continue to provide transportation for 37 parochial pupils who normally ride Hermitage school buses, she said. They will follow their normal bus schedules.
State law requires a school district to bus parochial pupils living within its jurisdiction if it already provides transportation for its own pupils.
Walked off job: The district's 165 teachers walked off the job today after a Tuesday night bargaining session failed to settle a new contract and no new talks were scheduled. Their old pact expired July 1 but had been extended while negotiations continued.
Classes weren't the only thing halted by the strike.
Construction workers involved in the $24 million renovation and expansion of Hickory High School refused to cross the teacher picket lines this morning.
Duane Piccirilli, school board president, said the district set up a special construction entrance at the southern end of the high school in hopes that workers would still come in to work on the project.
However, teachers had pickets at that gate this morning who said a number of construction workers pulled up to the site but didn't stay. Some got equipment out of construction trailers and immediately left, pickets said.
Planned not to cross: Paul Estock, chief negotiator for the teachers, said the construction workers had told the teachers earlier that if there was a strike, they wouldn't cross a picket line.
Piccirilli said most of the high school project has been completed and work now is concentrated on the new auditorium.
Tuesday's bargaining session saw the school board make a wage offer of an average of $1,600 per teacher in each year of a proposed three-year pact.
It amounted to about 3.3 percent in the first year and slightly lower percentages in the second and third year, said Piccirilli.
That plan would have cost the district about $264,000 in additional expense each year, school officials said.
The teachers, represented by the Hermitage Education Association, had countered with a request for an average $2,700 increase per teacher which school officials said would have cost the district about $445,000 more annually.
Last-minute offer: The teachers made a last-minute offer at Tuesday's bargaining session to submit the dispute to nonbinding fact finding handled by the state, in which both sides would present their case and an independent third party would make a recommendation for settlement.
That would have postponed the strike and perhaps prevented it altogether, said Estock.
The school board rejected the idea, he said.
Piccirilli said the board felt the two sides were so far apart that it made no sense to try fact finding.
Further, fact-finding recommendations tend to come down midway between the two sides and the school board felt it had already made the best offer it could afford, he said.
Now that the teachers are on strike, the state will force the two sides into nonbinding arbitration, which functions essentially the same as fact finding.
The strike won't run more than seven days because the state has the power to force the teachers back into the classroom in time to ensure the district completes 180 days of instruction by June 15.
That only leaves time for a seven-day work stoppage.