SHARPSVILLE Teachers panel gets OK to strike

By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- Sharpsville Area School Board got a surprise from the teachers union -- a strike authorization vote.
The school board sets aside time at the end of its monthly meeting for a report from the Sharpsville Area Education Association, and when that point came at Tuesday's meeting, Mike Kalpich, SAEA president, announced that the union membership had "overwhelmingly" voted to give its negotiating committee the power to call a strike, if necessary, to resolve their contract dispute.
The announcement came as a surprise to school officials.
David DeForest, board vice president and head of the board negotiating committee, said he was unaware of the vote and was a bit surprised that it was announced at a public meeting.
"We'll continue to negotiate. We're aware of the issues," he said, adding that progress has been slow.
Kalpich, chief negotiator for the district's 82 teachers, said the two sides have been negotiating since January 2003 and that teachers have been working without a contract since July 1, 2003.
"Our hope is that a strike can be averted through negotiations," he said.
"We want the district to bargain," he said, noting that it is the board's turn to respond to the teachers' latest contract proposal.
Neither he nor DeForest would comment on what issues remain to be resolved.
However, Barb Henning, Pennsylvania State Education Association representative for Mercer County, said in October that talks in Sharpsville, Farrell and West Middlesex schools were "down to the hard issues" such as wages and health care.
Extensions of contracts
Teachers in all three districts had agreed to work under extensions of their old contracts, Henning said at the time.
None of them have reached a settlement on their 2003-04 contracts yet.
Sharpsville teachers launched a monthlong strike in September 1994 over a contract stalemate.
In other business, the board voted to move ahead with a renovation/expansion project at Sharpsville High School to be financed through an insurance settlement on the fire-damaged South Pymatuning Elementary, which will be razed. The insurance settlement is expected to be more than $1.8 million, but the addition of a new cafeteria and wrestling practice room and conversion of the old cafeteria into two classrooms at the high school has a price tag estimated at $2,061,216.
That's about $166,000 more than the district will have available, and some project cuts may have to be made.
The board voted not to spend any more than the insurance settlement will cover.
It will cost about $150,000 to raze the South Pymatuning building.
The board also ccepted the resignation of member Donna Murray, who has taken a tipstaff's position in Mercer County Common Pleas Court and can no longer serve on an elective public body. Anyone interested in her two years' remaining on the board has until Feb. 3 to apply through the superintendent's office. Interviews will be conducted Feb. 10, and an appointment is expected at the Feb. 17 meeting.