HERMITAGE SCHOOLS Striking teachers must pay for insurance, board says

No progress was made in the first negotiating session held since the strike began.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Striking teachers in the Hermitage School District will be getting a bill for health insurance coverage provided by the district during their strike.
Duane Piccirilli, school board president, said the board notified the teachers union, the Hermitage Education Association, that its members will have to pay for the insurance protection they are enjoying while they are on strike.
It's not right for the taxpayers to pick up that tab, Piccirilli said Tuesday after a fruitless one-hour negotiating session between the board and teacher representatives.
The teachers walked off their jobs last week after efforts to reach a settlement on a new contract were unsuccessful. The strike will end Friday, and classes will resume Monday.
The state has directed that the strike end so that Hermitage can complete 180 days of classroom instruction by June 15. The teachers will abide by that ruling, said Marcus Schlegel, a spokesman for the statewide union Pennsylvania State Education Association, of which HEA is a member.
Piccirilli said the insurance bill will be presented to the teachers at the time the contract is settled and it will include Saturday and Sunday as well as the seven working days of the strike. The amount will be prorated based on the annual cost of the insurance, he said.
Disappointed: Both sides expressed disappointment with Tuesday's meeting, the first held since the strike began.
Money is the stumbling block to a settlement. The board is offering an average wage increase of $1,600 a year in a three-year agreement while the teachers are seeking an average increase of $2,700.
The average teacher salary in the district is $47,033. The top of the scale is $63,200.
"They refused to come down at all," Piccirilli said. "We asked them for their best offer."
"We thought we were going there to talk and they really had nothing to say to us," said Paul Estock, chief negotiator for the teachers.
The teachers have said they are willing to come down from the $2,700 figure but it will require some movement from the board for that to happen, he said.
Piccirilli said the teachers have to realize that the school board has nowhere to go for additional revenue for pay raises except to the district's taxpayers and the $1,600 is the board's best offer.
Show of support: Teachers say they have a lot of community support, based on backing they are getting on their picket lines, but Piccirilli said board members have heard nothing but support from taxpayers urging the board to stand its ground.
Friday and Monday are supposed to be spring break days for Hermitage pupils, but they'll lose that day off Monday, said Superintendent Karen Ionta.
The state has directed the district to hold classes that day to help reach the 180-day mark by June 14, she said.
Estock said the teachers won't picket Friday because it was scheduled as a spring break day.
He said he thought the strike could have been avoided had the school board agreed to enter into state-directed fact-finding last week.
The teachers made the offer during a bargaining session March 19, saying they would delay the strike action if the board agreed.
The board refused, with Piccirilli saying the two sides were so far apart on the money issue that it didn't seem worthwhile to try fact-finding.