Teachers reject binding arbitration

The board president says the strike authorization vote is ‘a threat.’

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

AUSTINTOWN — The Austintown teachers union has authorized its negotiating team to issue a 10-day strike notice if its members deem it necessary.

The union’s members met Wednesday to formally reject a proposal from the school board to enter into binding arbitration.

The arbitration would be on contract language related to how much planning time teachers have and how much input they have over scheduling it.

Michael Creatore, outgoing school board president, said the two sides are at a “dead end” on the issue, and binding arbitration is the only way to resolve it.

Also Wednesday, the Austintown Education Association’s membership gave its negotiating team the power to issue the strike notice “if they would ever need to call” it, said Tina Kubacki, the union’s vice president. State law requires teachers’ unions to give school districts 10 days’ notice before striking.

If the union goes on strike, Creatore said the district has a plan in place to keep the schools open. Creatore’s term on the school board ends Dec. 31.

He also called the union’s decision to allow its negotiating team to issue a strike notice “a threat” to the school district.

The board was to meet at 7 a.m. today in executive session to discuss its options, Creatore said.

Teachers say the planning time is valuable for preparing lessons and tutoring children who need extra help.

A major stumbling block is a second planning period at Austintown Fitch High School; the board wants the administration to determine the amount of planning time for the teachers.

“We want more teaching time; we want them in front of students more,” Creatore said. “It would be reprehensible to strike over a planning period.”

Teachers want the two sides to return to the bargaining table, Kubacki said. The last negotiations session was Nov. 17, she said.

“We’re at an impasse,” Creatore said. “There’s nothing to negotiate. If they’ve got a proposal for the planning period, we’ll hear it. They haven’t brought anything to the table.”

There’s no reason the two sides shouldn’t sit down and negotiate face to face, Kubacki said.

“We want to get back to educating,” she said. “But the board of education is not willing to negotiate.”

Binding arbitration would settle the matter, Creatore said. The board members are willing to live with a decision even if it doesn’t go in their favor, he said.

“It’s obvious [the union] feels they may not be successful,” he said.

Almost everyone at Wednesday’s union meeting voted to reject the school board’s offer for binding arbitration, Kubacki said.

Teachers began “work-to-rule” days earlier this month, working only from their start times until they are supposed to be done for the day. They said they would prove that extra time they spend on activities before and after school would be missed. That meant the cancellation of evening holiday choir concerts at some schools.

There are 326 members of the Austintown teachers union.

Teachers are willing to accept a 1 percent raise the first year of the new contract and no raise in the second, and an 8.5 percent health-care premium pickup. Their salaries range from $29,000 to more than $66,000.

skolnick@vindy.com